PREFACE. 
FROM tlie time of Chambers, Dictionaries of Arts and Sciences have been. increasing 
magnitude, without (it is to be feared) a proportionable increase of utility. The authors appear to 
have regarded it as a kind of sacrilege to retrench, while they have equally thought it their duty to 
add every thing that came within their reach. ‘Hence not only obsolete terms, but obsolete sciences, 
as magic, alchemy, and astrology, have beeit retained even in works of high character, and otherwise 
of distinguished merit. Hence, that which was new even in the living sciences, has been combined 
with what had been long since exploded : a practice calculated not only to confuse hut to mislead. 
It was upon this view of the subject it occurred to the editor of this work, that in framing a new 
Dictionary, selection was a more urgent duty than accumulation ; that perspicuity, not less than 
convenience, would be consulted by reducing the size ; and that whatever is practically useful in 
science and in art might be compressed within a smaller compass than had been commonly imagined. 
However deficient lie may have been in the execution, of his plan, he has the satisfaction to say, that 
in this idea he was not deceived or disappointed. 
A dictionary of this kind is intended for two purposes: first, as a book of reference, to lie on the 
table of a man of letters, for occasional consultation where recollection has failed, or where a subject 
occurs in reading or conversation which had not previously come within the course of Ins studies. 
The second is, to serve as an introductory or elementary work for students, or for those who may not 
have leisure to bestow on the great works of science, or to trav el through the many volumes which at 
this time almost every branch of knowledge includes. 
The first of these ends it is humbly presumed will be sufficiently answered by the present pub- 
lication. Most of the technical terms in science and the arts, are inserted with a proper definition 
or explanation, in the alphabetical order ; or should there be a casual omission, the word will still be 
found under the head of the science to which it belongs, and probably in the index to the treatises at 
the end of each volume.. To sonic sciences it was found necessary to attach a glossary. The technical 
phrases, however, in anatomy, surgery,. &c. are generally referred to those branches of science ex- 
pressly treating of them, that nothing may appear, on casually opening the book, to oftend the most 
modest or delicate reader. Terms also which now constitute a part of common colloquial language, 
and which, therefore^ every person must understand, have been omitted. 
With respect to the second object, no pains have been spared in preparing those articles which 
treat of the respective sciences. In a work of this nature it cannot be expected that the whole should 
be original, nor could it in that case answer so well the ends for which it is designed. An Encyclo- 
pedia ts in its nature a compilation ; and its best commendation is, that it amasses together the best 
