IV PREFACE. 



have recorded their comprehensive views, and their most 

 striking discoveries, it is not difficult to observe and de- 

 duce the distinct and separate utilities of each, and the 

 duties to be expected from the editors and proprietors of 

 such undertakings. Among the most obvious of these, it 

 is indispensable that a new work should be called for, by 

 circumstances which point out advantages of size, plan, 

 and materials, not before adopted, and that the means to 

 be employed, in the actual performance, should be such 

 as must determine its worth and authority with every de- 

 scription of readers. 



We are already in possession of the large Cyclopedia 

 of Dr. lti<;r;s, which has advanced to its twelfth volume, 

 by a progress that insures its regular completion, and in 

 a style of execution which is truly honourable to the skill 

 and diligence of those who have undertaken it ; to 

 the activity and enterprise of the proprietors, and to a 

 nation which has ever taken the lead in science and the 

 arts. On the smaller dictionaries it is needless to en- 

 large. After various deliberate consultations between 

 the Proprietors, the Editor, and the principal gentle- 

 men engaged in the different departments, it was conclud- 

 ed, that a new Dictionary, appropriated exclusively to 

 the Jlrts and Sciences, and containing a dense, accurate 

 and ample exhibition of our whole knowledge respecting 

 them, might with the greatest advantage be comprehend- 

 ed in the limits of six large octavo volumes. It was 

 accordingly decided, that the undertaking should be en- 

 tered upon with vigour and activity, at the same time 

 that the utmost attention should be paid to the means by 

 which alone it was possible to insure the value of the in- 



