The following Extracts, from Reviews of the American Edition, will show in what estimation the 

 toork is field in that country. A few Letters from eminent individuals are also given. It 

 tnay be proper to apprise t1v> reader that the title bestowed on the American edition is 

 " ENCYCLOPAEDIA AMERICANA." 



ONE of the best Encyclopedias ever published. 

 dtiienaeuni. 



This Work deserves to be recommended to the great 

 body of our people, as a library of ; self; cheap, compre- 

 hensive, exceedingly well executed, and of the highest au- 

 thority. There can be little doubt that it fully deserves the 

 reputation 'it enjoys. A work, which has passed through 

 so many editions at 'home, and has been translated into 

 so many languages abroad, must be it cannot be other- 

 wise of great value, not only in the country in which it 

 first Tippeared, but in every other, where it has been al- 

 lowed to re-appear. Men do not enter into such expen- 

 sive undertakings without deliberation. They are unlike 

 all others ; and they cannot continue, year after year, un- 

 less they have something else to depend upon, than 

 merely popular favour. Perhaps two hundred thousand 

 orpies of the criginal work have been distributed through 

 Europe, in different languages, since its publication, in 

 1812 ; while probably not more than twenty-five thousand 

 copies of the Library of Useful Knowledge have been 

 disposed off". This fact, alone is sufficient to convince us, 

 that this age has produced nothing better fitted to the 

 wants of society at large to the necessities rather for 

 its circulation could not have been so extended, unless it 

 had been regarded almost as a necessary of life. North 

 American Review. 



The high reputation of the contributors to this work, 

 will not fail to insure it a favourable reception, and its 

 own merits will do the rest Silliman's Journal. 



The appearance of the first volume of this valuable work 

 In this country, is an event not less creditable to its enter- 

 prising publishers, than it is likely to prove lastingly 

 beneficial to the public. When completed, according to 

 the model presented by the first volume, it will deserve 

 to be regarded as the spirit of all the best Encyclopaedias; 

 since it comprises whatever is really desirable and neces- 

 sary in them, and, in addition, a large proportion of arti- 

 cles entirely original, or expressly written for its pages. 

 This is the condition of all the articles of -American Bio- 

 graphy, by Mr Walsh ; those on Zoology, by Dr God- 

 inan ; and those on Mineralogy and Chemistry, by a 

 gentleman of Boston, distinguished for his successful 

 devotion to those studies. The work abounds with inter- 

 esting and useful matter, presented in a condensed and 

 perspicuous style ; nor is it one of its least commendations 

 that it is to be comprised in twelve octavo volumes, which 

 may be placed on an office table, or occupy a shelf in the 

 parlour, ever ready for immediate reference, instead of 

 requiring almost a room to itself, like its ponderous pre- 

 decessors, the Britannica, Edinburgensis, &c. 



The vast circulation this work has had in Europe, 

 where it has already been reprinted in four or five lan- 

 guages, not to speak of the numerous German editions, 

 of which seven have been published, speak loudly in fa- 

 vour of its intrinsic merit, without which such a celebrity 

 could never have been attained. To every man engaged 

 in public business, who needs a correct and ample book 

 of reference on various topics of science and letters, the 

 Encyclopaedia Americana will be almost invaluable. To 

 individual! obliged to go to situations where books are nei- 

 ther numerous nor easily procured, the rich contents of 

 these twelve volumes will prove a mine which will amply 

 repay its purchaser, and be with difficulty exhausted, and 

 we recommend it to their patronage in the full conviction 

 ot its worth. Indeed it is difficult to say to what class of 

 readers such a book would not prove useful, nay, almost 

 indispensable, since it combines a great amount "of valua- 

 ble, matter in small compass, and at moderate expense, 

 and is in every respect well suited to augment the reader's 

 Ntock of ideas, and powers of conversation, without severely 

 taxing time, or fatiguing attention. These, at least, are 

 our conclusions, after a close and candid examination of 

 the first volume. Am. Daily Advertiser. 



A compendious library, and invaluable book of refer- 

 ence N. Y. American. 



This cannot but prove valuable addition to the litera- 

 ture of the age, Amer. At/v. 



The work will be a valuable possession to every family 

 or individual that cait, utiord to purchase it, and we take I 



pleasure, therefore, in extending the knowledge of its 

 merits. National Intett. 



We have seen and carefully examined the first volume 

 of the Encyclopaedia Americana, just published by Carey, 

 Lea, and Carey, and think our readers may be congra- 

 tulated upon the opportunity of making such a valuable 

 accession to their libraries. Aurora. 



The Encyclopaedia Americana is a prodigious improve 

 ment upon all that has gone before it ; a tiling for our 

 country, as well as the country that gave it birth, to be 

 proud of; an inexhaustible treasury of useful, pleasant, 

 and familiar learning on every possible subject, so arrang- 

 ed as to be speedily and safely referred to on emergency, 

 as well as on deliberate inquiry ; and better still, adapted 

 to the understanding, and put within the reach of the mul- 

 titude. * * The Encyclopedia Americana is a work 

 without which no library worthy of the name can here- 

 after be made up. Yankee. 



The variety of topics is of course vast, and they are 

 treated in a manner which is at once so full of informa- 

 tion and so interesting, that the work, instead of being 

 merely referred to, might be regularly perused with as 

 much pleasure as profit. Baltimore American. 



We view it as a publication worthy of the age and of 

 the country, and cannot but beu'eve the discrimination of 

 our countrymen will sustain the publishers, and well re- 

 ward them for this contribution to American literature. 

 Baltimore Patriot. 



The great number of Biographical Dictionaries and 

 extensive Encyclopaedias already in the libraries of opu- 

 lent individuals or well-endowed literary institutions, 

 might by some be urged as an argument against the ne- 

 cessity of suc-h a work as the Encyclopaedia Americana; 

 but it appeals to us, that, for the very purposes for which 

 Biographical Dictionaries were compiled and Encyclope- 

 dias written, this work is pre-eminently fitted : viz. as 

 a book of frequent and ready reference. It is a fact, that 

 most of the Encyclopaedias are such heavy tomes, that 

 they lie upon the shelves, monuments of physical and 

 literary gravity, like the Stone Henges of England, to be 

 gazed at for their size, and to excite admiration, less as to 

 their usefulness than how they came there. 



In forming the Encyclopaedia Americana, care has been 

 taken to insert all that would be likely to arrest the atten- 

 tion in connection with general reading. Where the 

 whole of a science would be necessary, the reader, instead 

 of finding a superficial sketch, is referred at once to the 

 proper treatise ; but that species of information which is 

 so often the subject of inquiry,. and which becomes neces- 

 sary to the proper understanding of -a great portion ot 

 general residing, is gathered into the Encyclopaedia 

 Americana, and enriches every page that we have exam- 

 ined. The parts of the work that relate to American 

 geography, biography, history, natural and physical, bo- 

 tany, &c. have been written in this country, by gentlemen 

 of acknowledged talent and* literary taste. We cannot 

 doubt that the succeeding volumes will equal the first, and 

 we hence warmly recommend the work to the. patronage 

 of the public, as being by far the best work of the kind 

 ever offered for sale in this country U. 8. Gazelle. 



The work appears to abound in that sort of information 

 most necessary for frequent reference. Daily Chronicle, 

 We entertain no fear that our ingenuousness or judg- 

 ment will be called in question for our praising, in warm 

 terms, the plan, and, as far as may be judged by the. one 

 volume, the execution, both literary, scientific, and me- 

 chanicaljOf the Encyclopaedia Americana. * * * The vo- 

 lume before us includes the whole of the letter A, and B, 

 as far as the word battle. We have been at the pains to 

 compare it with Rees' Cyclopaedia to the same extent, and 

 feel no hesitation in saying that, while it embraces all the 

 most important subjects to be found in that very voluminous 

 and expensive Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences, the\ 

 are treated with perfect perspicuity, and if not so much, 

 certainly with sufficient minuteness. Without reference 

 to the fact, that scarcely acopy of Rees' Cyclopaedia is to be 

 obtained, we cannot but consider the mere circumstance, 

 that what in the one extends .through so many quartos, 

 and costs such a large sum, is in the other to be comprised 



