ENCYCLOPÆDIAS AND SERIAL WORKS.

We have referred to the continuation of the Cyclopædia' of Ephraim Chambers by DR. ABRAHAM REES, a dissenting clergyman (1743-1825). This revival was so successful that the publishers of the work agreed with Dr Rees to undertake a new and magnificent work of a similar nature; and in 1802 the first volume of 'Rees's Cyclopædia' was issued, with illustrations in a style of engraving never surpassed in this country. This splendid work extended to forty-five volumes. In 1771 the Encyclopædia Britannica,' edited by Mr William Smellie, was published in three volumes. The second edition, commenced in 1776, was enlarged to ten volumes, and embraced biography and history. The third edition, completed in 1797, amounted to eighteen volumes, and was enriched with valuable treatises on Grammar and Metaphysics, by the Rev. Dr. Gleig; with profound articles on Mythology, Mysteries, and Philology, by Dr. Doig; and with an elaborate view of the philosophy of induction, and contributions in physical science, by Professor Robinson. Two supplementary volumes were afterwards added to this work. A fourth edition was issued under the superintendence of Dr. James Millar, and completed in 1810; it was enriched with some admirable scientific treatises from the pen of Professor Wallace. Two other editions, merely nominal, of this Encyclopædia' were published; and a Supplement to the work was projected by Mr. Archibald Constable, and placed under the charge of Professor Macvey Napier. To this Supplement Constable attracted the greatest names both in Britain and France; it contained contributions from Dugald Stewart. Playfair, Jameson, Leslie, Mackintosh, Dr Thomas Thomson, Sir Walter Scott, Jeffrey, Ricardo, Malthus, Mill, Professor Wallace, Dr. Thomas Young, M. Biot, M. Arago, &c. Dugald Stewart was to receive £1000 for his Dissertation on Metaphysical Philosophy and Professor Playfair £500 for a similar contribution on Natural Philosophy. The former actually received £1600; and the latter would have received an additional £500 had he lived to complete his treatise. Such large sums had never before been given in Scotland for literary labour. The Supplement was completed in six volumes. In the year 1826, when the Encyclopædia Britannica' fell into the hands of Messrs. Adam and Charles Black, a new edition of the whole was commenced, incorporating all the articles in the Supplement, with such modifications and additions as were necessary to adinst them to the later views and information applicable to their subjects. Mr. Napier was chosen editor, and an assistant in the work of revision and addition was found in Dr. James Browne, a man of varied and extensive learning. New and valuable prticles were contributed by Sir David Brewster, Mr. Galloway, Dr. Traill. Dr. Roget, Dr. John Thompson, Mr. Tytler, Professor Spaulding, Mr Moir, &c. This great national work-for such it may justly

be entitled-was completed in 1842, in twenty-one volumes. Another edition of this Encyclopædia,' the eighth, greatly improved, was published in 1859-60, edited by Professor Traill, and enriched by contributions from Lord Macaulay, Sir John Herschel, and other eminent authors. A ninth edition is now (1876) in progress, under the editorial charge of Mr. Thomas Spencer Baynes, Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the university of St Andrews.

Of a more portable and popular form is Chambers's Encyclopædia,' a cheap and comprehensive dictionary of universal knowledge for the people.' This work, issued by W. & R. Chambers, was commenced in 1859 and completed in 1868, in ten volumes large octavo. The editor, ANDREW FINDLATER, LL.D-a man of extensive learning and literary connections-was admirably adapted for such a task; and, with the aid of a body of friendly and able contributors in every department of literature and science. he succeeded in producing a work of rare excellence and utility, which has commanded a large sale both in this country and in America. A new edition was completed in 1875. A vitiated edition has been published in the United States. The Encyclopædia Metropolitana' was begun in 1815, and presented this difference from its rivals, that it departed from the alphabetical arrangement-certainly the most convenient-and arranged its articles in what the conductors considered their natural order. Coleridge was one of the contributors to this work; some of its philological articles are ingenious. The London Encyclopædia,' in twenty volumes royal 8vo, is a useful compendium, and includes the whole of 'Johnson's Dictionary,' with its citations. 'Lardner's Cyclopædia' is a collection of different works on natural philosophy, arts and manufactures, history, biography, &c., published in 131 small 8vo volumes, issued monthly. Popular cyclopædias, each in one large volume, have been published, condensing a large amount of information. Of these, Mr M'Culloch, the political economist, is author of one on Commerce, and another on Geography; Dr Ure on Arts and Manufactures; Mr Brande on Science, Literature, and Art; Mr Blaine on Rural Sports. There is also a series of cyclopædias on a larger scale, devoted to the various departments of medical science.

The plan of monthly publication for works of merit, and combining cheapness with elegance, was commenced by Mr. Constable in 1827. It had been planned by him two years before, when his active mind was full of splendid schemes; and he was confident that, if he lived for half-a-dozen years, he would make it as impossible that there should not be a good library in every decent house in Britain, as that the shepherd's ingle-nook should want the salt-poke.' 'Constable's Miscellany was not begun till after the failure of the great publisher's house, but it presented some attraction, and enjoyed for several years considerable though unequal success. The works were issued in monthly numbers at a shilling each, and volumes at three

shillings and sixpence. Basil Hall's Travels,' and Lockhart's 'Life of Burns,' were included in the Miscellany,' and had a great sale. The example of this Edinburgh scheme started up a London publisher, Mr. Murray, to attempt a similar series in the English metropolis. Hence began the Family Library,' which was continued for about twelve years, and ended in 1841 with the eightieth volume. Mr. Murray made his volumes five shillings each, adding occasionally engravings and wood-cuts, and publishing several works of standard merit-including Washington Irving's Sketch-book,' Southey's Life of Nelson,' &c. Mr. Irving also abridged for this Library his Life of Columbus; Mr. Lockhart abridged Scott's 'Life of Napoleon;' Scott himself contributed a History of Demonology;' Sir David Brewster a Life of Newton;' and other popular authors joined as fellow-labourers. Another series of monthly volumes was begun in 1833, under the title of Sacred Classics,' being reprints of celebrated authors whose labours have been devoted to the elucidation of the principl 8 of revealed religion.

Two clergymen-Mr. Cattermole and Mr. Stebbing-edited this library, and it was no bad index to their fitness for the office, that they opened it with Jeremy Taylor's Liberty of Prophesying,' one of the most able, high-spirited, and eloquent of theological or ethical treatises. The Edinburgh Cabinet Library' commenced in 1830, and included a number of valuable works, embodying the latest information and discoveries, chiefly on geographical and historical subjects. The convenience of the monthly mode of publication has recommended it to both publishers and readers: editions of the works of Scott, Miss Edgeworth, Byron, Crabbe, Moore, Southey, the fashionable novels, &c., have been thus issued and circulated in thousands. Old standard authors and grave historians, decked out in this gay monthly attire, have also enjoyed a new lease of popularity: Boswell's Johnson,' Shakspeare and the elder dramatists, Hume, Smollett, and Lingard, Tytler's Scotland,' Cowper, Robert Hall, and almost innumerable other British worthies,' have been so published. Those libraries, however-notwithstanding the intentions and sanguine predictions of Constable-were chiefly supported by the more opulent and respectable classes. To bring science and literature within the grasp of all, a Society was formed in 1825 for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, at the head of which were several statesmen and leading members of the Whig aristocracy-Lords Auckland, Althorp (afterwards Earl Spencer), John Russell, Nugent, Suffield, Mr. Henry Brougham (afterwards Lord Brougham), Sir James Mackintosh, Dr. Maltby (afterwards Bishop of Durham), Mr. Hallam, Captain Basil Hall, &c. Their object was to circulate a series of treatises on the exact sciences, and on various branches of useful knowledge in numbers at sixpence each. March, 1827, being A Discourse on the Pleasures of Science,' by Mr. Brougham.

The first was published in
Objects, Advantages, and
Many of the works issued

by this Society were excellent compendiums of knowledge; but the general fault of their scientific treatises was, that they were too technical and abstruse for the working-classes, and were, in point of fact, purchased and read chiefly by those in better stations of life. Another series of works of a higher cast, entitled The Library of Entertaining Knowledge,' in four-shilling volumes, also emanated from this Society, as well as a very valuable and extensive series of maps and charts, forming a complete atlas. A collection of Portraits, with biographical memoirs, and an improved description of Almanac, published yearly, formed part of the Lciety's operations. Their labours were on the whole beneficial; az.. though the demand for cheap literature was then rapic.y extending, the steady impulse and encouragement given to it by a Society possessing ample funds and large influence, must have to deɑ m teri hy to accelerate its progress. It was obvious, however, that the field was only partly occupied, and that large masses, both in teal and manufacturing districts, were unable either to purch se e understand many of the treatises of the Society for the Dia of Useful Knowledge. Under this impression, the publishers of the present work commenced, in February, 1832, their weekly periodical, Chambers's Journal,' consisting of original papers on subjects of ordinary life, science, and literature, and containing in ech number a quantity of matter equal to tht in a number of the Society's works, and sold at one-fourth the price. The result of this extraordinary cheapness-and we may honestly add the good quality of the material was a circulation soon exceeding fifty thousand weekly. The Penny Magazine,' a respectable periodical, and the Penny Cyclopædia,' were afterwards commenced by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, and attained each a very great circulation. There are now numerous other labourers in the same field of human usefulness; and it is scarcely possible to enter a cottage or workshop without meeting with some of these publications-cheering the leisure moments of the peasant or mechanic, and, by with drawing him from the operation of the grosser senses, elevating him in the scale of rational beings.

We cannot close this section without adverting to the Reviews and Magazines. The Edinburgh Review,' started in October 1802 under circumstances elsewhere detailed, was a work entirely new in our literature, not only as it brought talent of the first order to bear upon periodical criticism, but as it presented many original and brilliant disquisitions on subjects of public importance, apart from all consideration of the literary productions of the day. It met with instant success. Of the first number, 750 copies were printed. The demand exceeded this limited supply: 750 more were thrown off, and successive editions followed. In 1808, the circulation had risen to about 9000; and it is believed to have reached its maximum-from which it has declined-in 1813, when 12,000 or 13,000 copies were

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printed. The 'Review,' we need not say, still occupies an important position in the English world of letters. support of Whig politics, the Tory or ministerial party of the day As it was devoted to the soon felt a need for a similar organ of opinion on their side, and this led to the establishment of the Quarterly Review' in 1809. The 'Quarterly' has ever since kept abreast with its northern rival in point of ability, and is said to have outstripped it in circulation. The 'Westminster Review' was established in 1824, by Mr. Bentham and his friends, as a medium for the representation of Radical opinions. In talent, as in popularity, this work has been unequal.

The same improvement which the Edinburgh Review' originated in the critical class of periodicals was effected in the department of the magazines, or literary miscellanies, by the establishment, in 1817, of 'Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine,' which has been the exemplar of many other similar publications—' Fraser's,' 'Tait's' (now extinct), the New Monthly, Bentley's Miscellany' (extinct), the Dublin University Magazine,' 'Macmillan's Magazine, The Cornhill,' 'Temple Bar,' 'Contemporary Review,' 'Fortnightly Review,' &c. These magazines present each month a melange of original articles in light literature, mingled with papers of political disquisition. In all of them there is now literary matter of merit equal to what obtained great reputations in the last century.