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Rh torical details were introduced, for the most part, under the names of kings and rulers; and thus presented no connected views of the history of states. The introduction of history, in any form, in such a work, is censured by M. De La Harpe as a great impropriety. “L’histoire n’est point,” says he, “une acquisition de l’esprit; ce n’est pas dans une Encyclopédie qu’on doit la chercher.” The reason here assigned for the exclusion of history is altogether arbitrary; and would exclude equally many other details to which M. De La Harpe makes no objection. It derives no countenance either from the practice of the first Encyclopedists, or from the opinions of the most enlightened of those who have adverted to their labours; for the Encyclopædia of Alstedius contains a general view of the history of the world; and Leibnitz, in pointing out the defects of his work, mentions the historical department as requiring great enlargements. M. De La Harpe ought, besides, to have recollected, that the basis of the modern Encyclopædia is that of an Universal Dictionary; requiring the incorporation of every branch of knowledge that the wishes of the Public may point out as necessary to its completeness. There can be no doubt, that the success of the Encyclopædia Britannica was materially promoted, by the extension of its plan to the departments in question; and that any work of the kind, which should now exclude them, would greatly circumscribe the sphere of its usefulness.

As the plan of this Encyclopædia was completed, in its general outline at least, in the second edition of the work, a few observations will suffice to indicate its subsequent improvements.

Till the appearance of the third edition, its method, and the comprehensiveness of its range, had constituted its chief recommendations; but, in this edition, which was completed in eighteen volumes in 1797, it rose, in several of its departments,