Page:Willich, A. F. M. - The Domestic Encyclopædia (Vol. 1, 1802).djvu/11



AS the nature and practical tendency of the have, in some measure, been anticipated, partly in the prefixed Title-page, and partly in the foregoing Dedication, a few remarks on the origin and composition of this Work, will suffice to convince the indulgent Reader, that it has not been undertaken with a view merely to increase the number of voluminous works already extant, and of a similar complexion.

It has been generally supposed, that the rapid succession of Cyclopædias, and Encyclopædias, which have appeared within the last twenty years, and which often are more distinguished by their alluring title-pages than by their intrinsic merit, affords so many proofs of the progress of Science and Literature, as well as of the increasing spirit of inquiry. This conjecture, however, is extremely doubtful, if not totally unfounded.

When it is considered, that the Editors of these bulky Compilations have directed their chief attention to the quantity of materials, rather than to a critical selection of facts; that, with a few exceptions, such works have been conducted by persons better qualified to superintend a printing-office, or a bookseller's shop, than to arrange or explain the immense circle of the Sciences; and that the auri sacra fames has almost uniformly been the principal object of these Speculators, it will then be readily allowed, that their productions afford only negative advantages to the social world.

Farther, the plurality of Readers have conceived an opinion, that, by the possession of an Encyclopædia, or what is Rh