Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/212

Rh 202 ENCYCLOPAEDIA list is given at the end. The first dissertation, on the &quot; progress of metaphysical, ethical, and political philosophy,&quot; was by Stewart, who completed his plan only in respect to metaphysics. He had thought it would be easy to adapt the intellectual map or general survey of human knowledge, sketched by Bacon and improved by D Alembert, to the advanced state of the sciences, while its unrivalled authority would have softened criticism. But on closer examination he found the logical views on which this systematic arrangement was based essentially erroneous ; and, doubt ing whether the time had come for a successful repetition of this bold experiment, he forbore to substitute a new scheme of his own. Sir James Mackintosh characterized this discourse as &quot;the most splendid of Mr Stewart s works, a composition which no other living writer of English prose has equalled&quot; (Edinburgh Review, xxvii. 191, Septem ber 1816). The second dissertation, &quot;On the progress of mathematics and physics,&quot; was by Playfair, who died 19th July 1819, when he had only finished the period of Newton and Leibnitz. The third, by Professor Brande, &quot;On the progress of chemistry from the early middle ages to 1800,&quot; was the only one completed. These historical dissertations were admirable and delightful compositions, and important and interesting additions to the Encyclopaedia; but it is difficult to see why they should form a separate department distinct from the general alphabet. The preface, dated March 1824, begins with an account of the more important previous encyclopaidias, relates the history of this to the sixth edition, de scribes the preparation for the supplement and gives an &quot;outline of the contents,&quot; and mentions under each great division of knowledge the principal articles and their authors names, often with remarks on the characters of both. Among the distinguished contributors were Leslie, Flayfair, Ivory, Sir John Barrow, Tredgold, JeiFrey, John Bird Sumuer, Blanco White, Hamilton Smith, and Hazlitt. Sir Walter Scott, to gratify his generous friend Constable, laid aside Wavcrlcy, which he was completing for publication, and in April and May 1814 wrote &quot;Chivalry.&quot; He also wrote &quot;Drama &quot;in November 1818, and &quot;Romance &quot;in the summer of 1823. As it seemed to the editor that encyclopaedias had previously attended little to political philosophy, he wrote &quot; Balance of Power,&quot; and procured from James Mill &quot;Banks for Savings,&quot; &quot;Education,&quot; &quot;Law of Nations,&quot; &quot;Liberty of the Press,&quot; and other articles, which, reprinted cier.;&amp;gt;ly, had a wide circulation. M Culloch wrote &quot;Corn Laws,&quot; &quot;Interest,&quot; &quot;Money,&quot; &quot;Political Economy,&quot; &c. Mr Ricardo wrote &quot;Commerce&quot; and &quot;Funding System,&quot; and Professor Mai thus, in his article &quot; Population,&quot; gave a compre hensive summary of the facts and reasonings on which his theory rested. In the article &quot;Egypt&quot; Dr Thomas Young &quot;first gave to the public an extended view of the results of his successful interpretation of the hieroglyphic characters on the stone of Rosetta,&quot; with a vocabulary of 221 words in English, Coptic, Hieroglyphic, and Enchorial, engraved on four plates. There were about 160 biographies, chielly of persons who had died within the preceding 30 years. Constable &quot; wished short biographi cal notices of the first founders of this great work, but they were, in the opinion of my editor, too insignificant -to entitle them to the rank which such separate notice, it was supposed, would have given them as literary men, although his own consequence in the world had its origin in their exertions&quot; (Memoirs, ii 326). It is to be regretted that this wish was not carried out, as was done in the latter volumes of Zedler. Arago wrote &quot; Double. Refraction &quot; and &quot; Polari zation of Light,&quot; a note to which mentions his name as author. Playfair wrote &quot;^Epinus,&quot; and &quot;Physical Astronomy.&quot; Biot wrote &quot;Electricity&quot; and &quot;Pendulum.&quot; He &quot;gave his assistance with alacrity, &quot; though his articles had to be translated. Signatures, on the plan of the Encyclopedic, were annexed to each article, the list forming a triple alphabet, A to XXX, with the full names of the 72 contributors arranged apparently in the order of their first occur rence. At the end of vol. vi. are Addenda and Corrigenda, including &quot; Interpolation,&quot; by Leslie, and &quot;Polarization of Light,&quot; by Arago. The sixth edition, &quot;revised, corrected, and improved,&quot; appeared in half volume parts, price 16s. in boards, vol. xx. part ii. com pleting the work in May 1 823. Constable, thinking it not wise to reprint so large a book year after year without correction, in 1S20 selected Mr Charles Maclaren (born 7th October 1782) as editor. &quot; His attention was chiefly directed to the historical and geographical articles. He was to keep the press going, and have the whole com pleted in three years.&quot; He wrote &quot; America,&quot; &quot; Greece,&quot; &quot;Troy,&quot; &c. Many of the large articles, as &quot;Agriculture,&quot; &quot;Chemistry,&quot; &quot;Conchology,&quot; were new or nearly so; and references were given to the supplement. A new edition in 25 vols. was contem plated, not to be announced till a certain time after the supplement was finished; but Constable s house stopped payment 19th January 1826, and his copyrights were sold by auction. Those of the Encyclopaedia were bought by contract, 16th July 1828, for 6150, by Thomas Allan, proprietor of the Caledonian Mercury, Adam Black, Abram Thomson, bookbinder, and Alexander Wight, banker, who, with the trustee of Constable s estate, had previously begun the seventh edition. Not many years later Mr Black purchased all the shares and became sole proprietor. The seventh edition, 21 vols. 4[0 (with an index of 187 pages, compiled by Robert Cox), containing 17, 101 pages and 506 plates, edited by Mac vey Napier, assisted by James Browne, LL. D., was begun in 1827, and published from March 1830 to January 1812. It was reset throughout and stereotyped. Mathematical diagrams were printed in the text from woodcuts. The first half of the preface was nearly that of the supplement. The list of signatures, contain ing 167 names, consists of four alphabets with additions, and difl ers altogether from that in the supplement : many names are omitted, the order is changed, and 103 are added. A list follows of over 300 articles, without signatures, by 87 writers. The dissertations 1st, Stewart s, 289 pages; 2d, &quot;Ethics&quot; (136 pages), by Sir James Mackintosh, whose death prevented the addition of &quot; Political Philosophy ;&quot; 3d, Playfair s, 139 pages ; 4th, its continuation by Sir John Leslie, 100 pages and their index of 30 pages, fill vol. i. As they did not include Greek philosophy, &quot;Aristotle,&quot; &quot;Plato,&quot; and &quot; Socrates&quot; were supplied by Dr Harnpden, afterwards bishop of Hereford. Among the numerous contributors of eminence, mention may be made of Sir David Brewster, Prof. Phillips, Prof. Spalding, John Hill Burton, Thomas De Quincey, Patrick Eraser Tytler, Capt. Basil Hall, Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, Antonio Panizzi, John Scott Russell, and Robert Stephenson. Zoology was divided into 11 chief articles, &quot;Mammalia,&quot; &quot;Ornithologv,&quot; &quot;Rep- tilia,&quot; &quot; Ichthyology,&quot; &quot;Mollusca,&quot; &quot;Crustacea,&quot; &quot; Arachnides,&quot; &quot;Entomology,&quot; &quot;Helminthology,&quot; &quot; Zoophytes,&quot; and &quot;Animal cule,&quot; all by James Wilson. The biographical articles, in this as in all the editions of the JEncyclopadia, do not embrace the names of persons living at the time of publication. The eighth edition, 1853-60, 4to, 21 vols. (and index of 239 pages, 1861), containing 17,957 pages and 402 plates, with many woodcuts, was edited by Dr Thomas Stewart Traill, professor of medical jurisprudence in Edinburgh University. The dissertations were reprinted, with one on the &quot;Rise, Progress, and Corruptions of Christianity&quot; (97 pnges), by Archbishop Whately, and a con tinuation of Leslie s to 1850, by Professor James David Eorbcs, 198 pages, the work of nearly three years, called by himself his &quot;magnum opus&quot; (Life, pp. 361, 366). Lord Macaulay, Charles Kingsley, Isaac Taylor, Ilepworth Dixon, Robert Chambers, Rev. Charles Merivale, Rev. F. W. Farrar, Sir John Richardson, Dr Scoresby, Dr Hooker, Henry Austin Layard, Edw. B. Eastwick, John Crawfurd, Augustus Petermann, Baron Buusen, Sir John Herschel, Dr Lankester, Professors Owen, Rankine, William Thomson, Aytoun, Blackie, Daniel Wilson, and Jukes, were some of the many eminent new contributors found among the 344 authors, of whom an alphabetical list is given, with a key to the signatures. In the preface a list of 279 articles by 189 writers, classed under 15 heads, is given, instead of the enumeration of the chief articles and their writers, with critical remarks and explana tions, inserted in previous prefaces. It is very much clearer and more useful, though its tabular form excluded all particulars except in notes. This edition was not wholly reset like the seventh, but many long articles were retained almost or entirely intact. The publication of the ninth edition (the present work) was commenced in January 1875. A new and enlarged edition of the Encyclopedic arranged as a system of separate dictionaries, and entitled Encyclo pedic M^ethodique ou par ordre de matteres, was undertaken by Charles Joseph Panckoucke, a publisher of Paris (born at Lille 26th November 173G, died 19th December 1798). His privilege was dated 20th June 1780. The articles be longing to different subjects would readily form distinct dictionaries, although, having been constructed for an alphabetical plan, they seemed unsuited for any system wholly methodical. Two copies of the book and its sup plement were cut up into articles, which were sorted into subjects. The division adopted was, 1, mathematics; 2, physics : 3, medicine ; 4, anatomy and physiology ; 5, surgery; G, chemistry, metallurgy, and pharmacy; 7, agri culture; 8, natural history of animals, in six parts; 9, botany; 10, minerals; 11, physical geography ; 12, ancient and modern geography ; 13, antiquities ; 14, history; 15, theology; 16, philosophy; 17, metaphysics, logic, and morality; 18, grammar and literature; 19, law; 20, finance ; 21, political economy ; 22, commerce ; 23, marine ; 24 art militaire ; 25, beaux arts; 26 arts et metiers, all forming distinct dictionaries entrusted to different editors. The first object of each editor was to exclude all articles belonging to- other subjects, and to take care that those of a doubtful nature should not be omitted by all. In some words (such as air, which belonged equally to chemistry,