VI 
PREFACE. 
From the great Encyclopedias, each of which may be 
said to constitute an entire library, to those smaller 
compositions intended for mere reference: — from the 
hurried compilations of book-makers to those elaborate 
and luminous works in which men of the highest repu- 
tation have recorded their comprehensive views, and 
their most striking discoveries, it is not difficult to ob- 
serve and deduce 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 deter- 
mine its worth and authority with every description of 
readers. 
We are already in possession of the large Cyclopedia 
of Dr. Rees, 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 enterprize 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 Pi oprietors, the Editor, and the principal gentlemen 
engaged in the different departments, it was concluded 
that a new Dictionary, appropriated exclusively to the 
