Page:The Chinese Repository - Volume 01.djvu/175

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The article on Canton is the only part of this "popular dictionary," which we wish now particularly to notice. Few, if any, works are so often referred to, or allowed to maintain such high authority, as encyclopedias. Written, as they usually are, by men of the greatest reputation for learning,—and embracing every variety of subjects, they have, indeed, a very just claim to the rank they hold. It becomes the more exceedingly desirable, therefore, that such works should be kept free from incorrect statements; which, when they have once found a place on their pages, are not, usually, soon corrected, and are often the means of great injury. These remarks are applicable to every species of writing, but specially to those of the popular kind, such as the conversations-lexicon, travels, journals, and voyages.