112 Encyclopaedias, SCc. [Chap. XXIV. 



it from being one of the most pernicious works 

 that ever issued from the press. 



After the appearance of the French Encijclope- 

 diCy baron Bieliield, of Germany, published a 

 work which he called The Elements cf Universal 

 Erudition. This compilation, however, is com- 

 paratively little known, and is certainly inferior 

 to many made both before and since. About the 

 3^ear 1760, a bookseller of the name of Owen 

 published a kind of Encyclopaedia in four very 

 large octavo volumes. This work, though less 

 full on many subjects than some that had gone 

 before it, yet contained much useful informa- 

 tion, the mode of exhibiting which has been ge- 

 neralh^ applauded. In 1764 appeared The Com- 

 plete Dictionary of Arts oftd Sciences, in three vo- 

 lumes folio, by the rev. Henry Temple Croker, 

 and others. This work gained no' reputation. 



About the year 1773 was published, in Edin- 

 burgh, the Encyclop(£dia Britannica, in three vo- 

 lumes quarto, of which the principal editor was 

 Mr. Colin Mac Farquhar, assisted by a number 

 of the learned men around him. A second edi- 

 tion of the same work was completed in 1783, 

 enlarged to ten volumes quarto, executed chiefly 

 by the same persons who had compiled the for- 

 mer edition. A third impression, still under the 

 same title, was undertaken in 1789, with the aid 

 of a number of new literary labourers, and com- 

 pleted in 1797, in eighteen quarto volumes. This 

 work deserves to be highly commended on va- 

 rious accounts. The friendly aspect which it 

 bears in general toward relip;ion and good mo- 

 rals, is entitled to much approbation : and though. 



