Table of Contents Table of Contents
Previous Page  10 / 844 Next Page
Information
Show Menu
Previous Page 10 / 844 Next Page
Page Background

p

R

E

F

A

e

U

TILITY

ought to be the principal intcntioD of every publicatioD.

Wherever this intention does not plainly appear, n either the books

nor their authors have the finallefl: claim lo the approbation of maukind.

To diffllíe the knowl "dge of Sci('ncc, is the profe{fed ddigll of the fol–

lowing work. ''''hat m ethod s, it may be a{ked, have the compilers em–

ployc:d to accomplifh this d efign ? Not to lUtJJtion original articles, they

have had n:collríe

lO

the bdl books upon almofl: every íiLbj .-él:, txtraéted

the ufeful parts, and rej eétcd whatever appeared tritting or

leí.~

interefl:–

ing. lnfl:ead of diGnel11beling the Sciences, by

attempting.to

treat them

intelligibIy Und(T a multitude of t echnicaI terms, they have di.gefl:ed the

principIes of every fcience in the form of íyfl:ems or difl:inét treatifes, and

explained the terms as tht'Y oceur in the order of the alphabet, with re–

ferences to the fci ences to which they belong.

As this plan cliffers ·fi·om that of all the Diétionaries of Arts and Scien–

ces lútherto publifhed, the compilers tlúnk it nece{fary to mention what

they imagine givt's it a fuperiority over the common method. A few

words wilI an[wer this purpofe . ''''hoever has had occaGon to confult

Chambers, Owcn ,

&c.

or <:!ven the voluminous French

EllcycJopedie,

will

have ducovered the foJly of attempting to communicate Ícic:nce under the

various t echnicaI terms arranged in an alphabeticaI order. Such un at–

tempt is repugnant to the very idea of fcience, which is a conlleéted fe–

ries of conclufions deduced fi'om felf-evident or previoully diícovaed prin–

cipIes.

It

is well

if

a man b e capabl e of comprehcnding the p rincipl t s

and relations of the ditferent parts of fcience, w h en laid before him in

on e uruntcrrupted chain. But wlll'r e is the

m.an

who can learn th :: prin–

cipies of a ny Ícience from a Diétionary compiled upon the plan hitherto

adopted ?

\Ve

wilI, howrver, vel1ture to afl :rm, that any 111al1 of ordi–

nary parts, tnay,

if

he chuC s, lea rn the principIes of AgTiculture,

0['

A–

fl:rol1omy, of Botany, of Chellúfl:ry,

(J'c. &c.

from the::

EN

C

y

C L O P IE D 1 .\

BRIT ANN I CA .

I N

the execution of tllis exten(jve and

nlllltjfa¡'iou~

und"rt'lki¡' g, lhe

Compilers laboured unde¡' lIIany dif:ldv antagcs, pHrtly arifit:g

froúl

the

nature of the 'work, and partly owing to the following circLLlnflancc.

T HR