114 Encyclopcediasy k^c, [CilAP. XXIV. 



last work, executed by many of the persons who 

 "were engaged in the preceding, bears, like that, 

 an antireligious complexion ; and that, while it 

 displays much genius, learning, industry, and 

 perseverance, its general tendency is highly un-^ 

 favourable to the interests of virtue and piety. 



Some years before the close of the eighteenth 

 century, a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences was 

 undertaken by Varrentrapp and Wenner, learn- 

 ed and enterprising booksellers at Frankfort, in 

 Germany. This work, under the title oi AUgemeine 

 E ncy clop ct die d'er Kiinste und Wissenschaften, has 

 already reached to a considerable extent, but is 

 not yet completed*. It has been said, by persons 

 acquainted with the German language, to be, on 

 the whole, so far as it has gone, the best Encyclo- 

 paedia yet published. 



Several other compilations, intended to em- 

 brace the circle of arts and sciences, were made 

 in different parts of Europe, in the course of the 

 last century. Some of these were translations or 

 abridgements of those already mentioned, while 

 others had better claims to originality. But too 

 little is known of those which belong to either 

 class, to undertake any detailed account of their 

 characters, or even of their titles *. 



* The English Encyclopedia, begun a few years ago, and 

 intended to be comprised in eight or nine volumes 4-to, was 

 nearly concluded at the close of the century. The Em:yclo- 

 pcEdiu Perthensis, which has been for several years printing in 

 Perth, is also still unfinished ; as is an Encyclopwdia publishing 

 by Mr. John Low, . an enterprising bookseller in the city of 

 New York, in America, in which considerable progress is 

 xua.de, and which it is expected will form six quarto volumes. 



