Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/79

* ENCYCLOPEDIA. 63 tiona during the author's life. It is more com- prehensive than Harris's Lexicon (though it omits history, biography, and various other sub- jects), and is of a more scholarly character. The systematic use of cross-references, in order to enable the reader to obtain a connected view of general subjects, is especially noteworthy. A supplement, in two volumes, published in 1753, was based largely upon materials collected by Chambers during the last years of his life. Ee may be regarded as the father of English encyclopaedic lexicography, and he also exerted a wide influence upon Continental literature in this department. The translation of his work issued at Venice .(1748-49), in nine volumes, was the first completed Italian encyclopaedia, while a French translation by John -Mills and Gottfried Sellius was the foundation of the famous En- cyclopedic on dictionnaire raisonni des sciences, des arts et des metiers, commonly called, par eminence, 'the Encyclopedia.' The task of re- vising Mills's translation was intrusted by the publishers to Diderot, in whose hands it devel- oped into the production of this original and far more ambitious work. With him were associated a large number of the most distinguished schol- ars of the age. including D'Alemberl (who under- took to edit the mathematical articles and wrote the justly celebrated Preface), Rousseau, Dau- benton, Mallet, La Chapelle, d'Argenville, Louis, and Blondel. The greater part of the labor, how- ever, fell upon Diderot himself, who was espe- tially charged with the articles relating to the arts and trades, as well as those in history and ancient philosophy, and, in addition, undertook the general revision and coordination of the ma- terials contributed by the others. To him ac- cordingly the credit for the result principally be- longs. In form the book is essentially an en- cyclopaedic dictionary, containing both the com- mon words of the language ( substantives, verbs, adjectives, etc.) and proper names, accompanied by lexical descriptions and definitions, and also, in most cases, by more or less extended encyclo- paedic comments. It was designed "as an en- cyclopaedia, to exhibit as far as is possible the order and system of human knowledge, and as a dictionnaire raisonnc of the sciences, arts, and trades, to contain the fundamental principles and the most essential details of every science and' every art, whether liberal or mechanical" (Preface). In addition, it was made the vehicle of definite philosophical views, generally radical and in part materialistic, which brought upon it the condemnation of the orthodox and upon its editor much persecution. (See Diderot.) This characteristic has given it an important place in the history of modern thought. In this his- tory those who were connected with it. or ac- cepted its views, an- called distinctively 'the En- cyclopaedists.' It was published 1751-72. in twen- ty-eight volumes, including eleven of plates. Five supplementary volumes, with over 200 plates, appeared 177(5-77, and an analytical table of contents in two volumes. 17S0. increasing the total number to thirty-five. Many editions fol- lowed, and it was variously modified and supple mented. In 17S1 Charles Joseph Panckoucke (1736-98) published tin' [dan of an Encyclopedic mcthodique et par ordrc des matidres, which consisted in breaking up the material of Diderot's work into a series of independent dictionaries of particular ENCYCLOPEDIA. subjects, to be compiled by special editors. This scheme, very much enlarged in scope, was cur ried out (after Panckoucke's death by his soil- in law, Henri Agasse, and Madame Agasse) in a series of L67 volumes, with 51 parts, containing over tiOOO plates, completed in IS.'{2. in I lie volumes, seven form a dictionary of zoology, 13 one of medicine, etc. The seed sown by Cham hers was also fruitful in England. His work was icedited by Abraham Rees 1 I74IS 1825) in 177s. and again, with the incorporation of much new mailer. 1781-86, and was finally enlarged by him into the valuable New Encyclopcedia; or, < mi., nal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, including biography, geography, history, etc., in forty-five volumes (including six of plates, published ISO.' 20). As was remarked above, the tendency toward the dictionary type has been accompanied by a tendency toward the opposite (monographic) type. An illustration of the latter is the / versal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (2 vols., London, 174."i) of Dennis de Coetlogon, com- prising 101 special treatises, arranged alpha- betically by their subjects. A more important example is the Encyclopedia Britannica, Brat published in numbers in 1708 and completed (in three volumes) in 1771. It was planned by Wil- liam Smellie (1740-95), a printer, who wrote the principal articles, and an engraver, Andrew Bell. It contained, like Coetlogon's work, dis- tinct treatises and long articles, but also com prised definitions of technical and other terms, in alphabetical order. These general character istics have been retained by each of the succes- sive editions. Of these, the second was published 1777-84, and the ninth (twenty-four volumes) 1875-88. A supplement in eleven volumes is in course of publication (1000 — ). The so-called Cabinet Gyclopcedia (133 vols.. 1829-49), edited by Dionysius Lardner, is merely an aggregate of essentially independent special works, his- torical, scientific, etc. An extreme application of the true monographic method is the Allge- inline EncyclopdSie der Wissenscliaften und Kiinste, in alphabetischer Folge, edited by J. S. Kiseh and .T. (!. Gruber, which contains articles several hundred, and even thousand, pages in length. It was begun in 1818, and in 1890 167 volumes had been issued. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, to which we are brought by this historical re- view, little change has taken place in the theory of encyclopaedia-making. The methods by that time established have been variously modified and combined, but not essentially altered. Prog- ress has been made chiefly in the adaptation of methods and materials to practical needs, in the subdivision of the work of compilation and of editorial supervision among specialists, and in the consequent increase of accuracy in detail. There has. however, been a notable growth of the encyclopaedic dictionary and of the special encyclopaedia. The consideration of the former belongs strictly in the history of lexicography (see Dictionary > : but several works of this kind fill in huge measure the place of the et clopaxlia. and may be ranked as such. In char- acter such a lexicon (which, as has been shown above, is no new invention) is an approxima- tion of the true dictionary, or word-book, t<> the encyclopaedia, just as the modern encyclopedia is an approximation of the ancient encyclopaedia