The Encyclopædia Britannica.

205

So far the policy of the Lincoln government has been directed exclusively to the preservation of the Union on a constitutional basis, and the question of slavery has been carefully excluded from the war programme; but who can say that non-intervention with the Southern institution will continue to be adhered to by the Northern people? Already the temper of the Free States is assuming a new phase; and though, at the commencement of the war, they were loud in their denial of an abolition crusade, their protestations have been growing more and more feeble, and we should not be surprised to see the conflict become, what it was never intended to be, a struggle between slavery and freedom. Let us hope that such may not be the case, for great as is our detestation of slavery, our heart's desire and prayer is, that the cause of all the nation's troubles may be got rid of, as is practicable, by peaceful means, and that the people of the South may be spared the horrible occurrences which would take place on the outbreak of a servile war.

ART. III.-The Encyclopædia Britannica. Eighth edition. Edited by Thomas Stewart Traill, M.D., Professor of Medical Jurisprudence in the University of Edinburgh. Twenty-one volumes 4to, and Index. Edinburgh Adam and Charles Black.

1852-61.

The The edition just finished, we are told, is the HE publication of The Encyclopædia Britannica' is of nalargest literary enterprise ever undertaken by one single house in Great Britain. Whether we consider the talent employed in the preparation of its matter, the knowledge contained within its compass, or the capital invested in the undertaking, it is worthy of general regard. Three hundred and forty writers, whose names are given, numbering in their ranks the most eminent in all departments, besides others of whom there is no record, have united their learning to make this gigantic storehouse of knowledge. Almost all subjects-theological, historical, philosophical, political, scientific, mechanical, artistic, and literary-are discussed within its pages. The index alone fills a quarto volume of two hundred and thirty pages of small print, arranged in four columns on each page; while on the two editions issued during the last thirty years, twenty of which have been consumed in the publication, 184,4217. have been expended by the spirited proprietors. It is illustrated by nearly five thousand engravings on wood, and four hundred on steel. The possession of such a work is a library, for its matter is equal to one hundred ordinary octavo volumes. No library of English literature is complete without this Encyclopædia.

Two expressions have been used to denote such a compendium

of

of knowledge as is contained in the work before us-' Cyclopædia' and Encyclopædia.' The latter is to be preferred as being etymologically more correct and definite. Turning to the term in its proper place, we are informed that 'Cyclopædia may mean "the instruction of a circle," as Cyropædia is "the instruction of Cyrus ;" whereas in Encyclopædia, the preposition determines the meaning to be "instruction in a circle."

The General Preface affords some information respecting this class of works, and from it chiefly, as well as from independent sources by way of supplement, we compile the following article.

It is only since the inductive philosophy held sway that collective digests of knowledge have been prepared. Pliny alone of all the ancients attempted an Encyclopædia in his Natural History ;' but his books bear no comparison with the class of publications usually designated by the term now. In the tenth century of the Christian era, an Arabian philosopher, Alfarabius,' the great ornament of the school of Bagdad,' compiled a work with the same title, a copy of which in manuscript exists in the library of the Escurial in Spain. But we have to come down to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, before we find any work worthily bearing the comprehensive term of Encyclopædia :

The most noted and valuable of the early Encyclopædias was that of John Henry Alstedius, a Professor of Philosophy and Divinity at Weissembourg in Transylvania, and who is said to have been the author of about sixty other works, though he died at the age of fifty in 1638. His Encyclopædia, by which alone his name is remembered, appeared in 1630, in two folio volumes. A smaller and less comprehensive work of the same kind, which he published ten years before, served as the groundwork of this more extensive undertaking; in which he professedly aimed at the formation of a complete Encyclopædia. It consists of thirty-five books, of which the first four contain an explanation of the nature of the various subjects contained in the rest. Then follow successively, six on philology; ten on speculative, and four on practical philosophy; three on theology, jurisprudence, and medicine; three on the mechanical arts; and five on history, chronology, and miscellaneous topics. This work was held in high estimation till the close of the century in which it appeared.'

This work of Alsted had not the dictionary form, and was not arranged in alphabetical order. Another century had to elapse before these improvements were introduced. The first attempt at the dictionary form was made by Dr. Harris in his Lexicon Technicum,' which was issued in two folio volumes in the years 1706 and 1710 respectively. It was limited to the sciences, mathematical and physical; but was replete with accurate information. It was reprinted five times in the course of thirty years. The alphabetical plan was introduced by Ephraim Chambers, a native of Kendal in Westmoreland. He was educated for business, and apprenticed to a globe-maker in London. During his stay with Mr. Senex, for such was his master's name, and who was a skilful mechanician, young Chambers acquired that taste for learning which marked his future career. Even then he conceived

the

Cyclopædia of Chambers and its rivals.

207 the design of the work which was to make him famous, and he actually wrote several of the articles behind the counter. Globemaking had to give way to the construction of a universe of knowledge, and Mr. Chambers quitted his employer that he might devote himself entirely to his Cyclopædia. Many years were consumed in his work, which was entirely written by himself. It It was published by subscription in 1728, and dedicated to George II., who had lately ascended the throne. Chambers was not a man of profound knowledge, but was possessed of much general information. His work procured him the honour of a Fellowship of the Royal Society. A second edition was called for in ten years, followed by a third in the succeeding year. The author did not long enjoy his fame, for he died in 1740; but he obtained a burial in Westminster Abbey, where the modest inscription which marks his resting-place, and which was written by himself, may recal to the reader the memory of the first alphabetical encyclopædist of England. Its popularity drew forth similar works. This work, after five editions had been printed, was remodelled and enlarged, so as to keep its ground until the beginning of the present century. The Rev. Dr. Abraham Rees, an able divine, and mathematical tutor at Coward's College, Hoxton, was engaged by the proprietors to superintend and enlarge the new issue, which appeared in 1785. In 1802 the first volume of another edition came forth, embellished with illustrations in the highest style of art. The work extended to forty-five volumes in quarto. Chambers' Cyclopædia was translated into Italian and French. The French translation, however, was never published, but it suggested the famous Encyclopédie' which extended to seventeen volumes in folio, and eleven volumes of plates and descriptions. It was edited by D'Alembert and Diderot, and appeared during the years 1751-65. A supplement in four volumes, with one of plates, appeared in 1776-77. The whole work consisted of thirty-three volumes.

6

6

In this country the success of Chambers brought out several rivals. In 1751 appeared Barrow's New and Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences,' and in 1754, a 'New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences,' by a Society of Gentlemen,' in four octavo volumes; and in 1766, The Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences,' compiled by the Rev. Henry Croker, Dr. Thomas Williams, and Mr. Samuel Clerk. Goldsmith prepared a prospectus of a Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences,' in which he was to be assisted by eminent men of his day, but his death prevented the accomplishment of his purpose. All of these were incomplete, several classes of subjects being omitted, and others treated without sufficient care or accuracy.

French philosophers projected and carried out a work of the same kind towards the close of the eighteenth century. It was

called

6

called the Encyclopédie Méthodique.' Lacretelle wrote the portion on logic, metaphysics, and ethics, in four volumes, published in the years 1788-91. He was a counsellor of Parliament, and one of the editors of the Grand Repertory of Jurisprudence and of the 'Mercure de France.' In 1787, he was a member of the Committee to reform the penal code. At the Revolution he was a moderate man, and, during the ascendency of Robespierre, retired to private life, and devoted himself exclusively to literature. Marsais, Marmontel, and Beauzec contributed the articles on grammar and literature, in three quarto volumes, published in 1789. Marmontel was associated with D'Alembert and Diderot in their famous Encyclopédie.' Bergier, a canon of Notre Dame, supplied the dictionary of theology, which has long been considered one of the most complete. He was an author of a work against materialism, and exhibited in all his works a logical arrangement and precision which well qualified him for being the strenuous opposer of the modern philosophers of France. Yet this did not prevent them from engaging him to write the dictionary of theology for the Encyclopédie Méthodique:' but there was some guile in this, as it served as a cloak for the infidelity insinuated in other parts of the work.' His portion was published in six quarto volumes in 1788. The whole formed fourteen volumes.*

6

The Encyclopædia Britannica' was planned by Mr. William Smellie, a printer in Edinburgh, but also a man of science, and an eminent naturalist, and was published in 1771 in four quarto volumes. Instead of attempting to elucidate the sciences by a number of separate articles corresponding to their technical titles or sections, introduced in the order prescribed by the alphabet, and with no continuity of explanation other than could be obtained through references from one head to another, it treated each science completely, in a systematic form, under its proper denomination: the technical terms and subordinate heads being also explained alphabetically, when anything more than a reference to the general treatise was required.' At first it was little more than a dictionary of arts and sciences; but a second edition, begun in 1776, and containing ten volumes, embraced biography and history. The third edition, published in 1797, in eighteen volumes, was greatly enriched by separate treatises on grammar and metaphysics by the Right Rev. Dr. Gleig, one of the bishops of the Scotch Episcopal Church, and father of the present Chaplain-General to the Forces; on philology, mythology, and mysteries by Dr. Doig; and on physical science by Professor Robison. Two supplementary volumes were added, in which Professor Robison supplied the

The contents of this great work may be seen in Brunet's 'Manuel du Libraire.' Paris, 1842.

་

Preface to Encyclopædia Britannica,' p. xii.

contributions

Brewster's Edinburgh Encyclopædia.

209

contributions wanting to complete that series which he had commenced when the principal work was far advanced.' The work then rose very high in public esteem, and it has kept its position ever since, by being skilfully adapted to the advanced state of knowledge in its successive editions. The name of Professor Robison was sufficient to give it fame. He was, as M. Arago called him, 'the most illustrious contributor' to the Encyclopædia. While yet a student at the university of Glasgow, he exercised a great influence on the application of natural philosophy to the mechanical arts. It was he who first directed the attention of James Watt-with whom he was linked in a mutually admiring friendship-to the steam-engine, on which the fame of Watt and the glory of the nineteenth century are founded. Robison, after several adventures in the navy and in Russia, in which country he filled a post of professor of mathematics at Cronstadt, became professor of natural philosophy in the university of Edinburgh. For this office he was admirably fitted. James Watt, who knew him well, said this of him: 'He was a man of the clearest head and the most science of anybody I have known.' He possessed a great amount of scientific knowledge, and had an unusual skill in generalizing his information for the purpose of instructing others. His contributions to the Encyclopædia Britannica' amounted to forty-six articles on subjects of natural philosophy. But his great strength lay in the articles in which just mechanical principles were applied successfully, and often with marked originality, to practice, as in arch, roof, carpentry, and strength of materials; resistance, rivers, waterworks; seamanship, steam, and steam-engine; machinery, telescope, and watchwork.'

The fourth edition of the Encyclopædia was published in 1810 in twenty volumes, under the care of Dr. James Miller, who gave it a character from the articles on his own favourite studieschemistry and natural history-then rising into new importance. The valuable papers of Professor Robison, in the supplemental volumes of the previous edition were, however, omitted. But the mathematical papers of Professor Wallace gave a permanent value to the work. The fifth and sixth editions were little more than reprints of the fourth.

During this pause a spirited attempt was made to meet the demands of the age by a rising philosopher, who still lives to enjoy his honours, and to pursue his favourite studies. In 1808, Dr. (now Sir David) Brewster began the Edinburgh Encyclopædia,' which extended to eighteen quarto volumes, and was completed in 1830. Sir David had peculiar fitness for conducting a work of such high pretension. He was then in his twenty-seventh year. He was one of a galaxy of illustrious men who have long cultivated science and philosophy. In 1799 he was induced by Mr. (now

Lord)