with as much propriety as of most men, Nemo parum diu vixit, qui virtutis perfecta perfecto functus est munere.”

P. xii.

His successor was Dr. Gleig of Stirling, who had antecedently assisted him, but with whom he had no confidential correspondence respecting the plan. The former editions were however before him; and we should suppose little difficulty could have arisen in consequence of this source; and indeed little has arisen. We consider it however as an imperfect apology, when we perceive the editor remarking, that, where the system is defective in its principal article, the omissions are supplied in some subordinate ones. As we have formerly observed, every subject is a branch, and on it those thence derived should depend, without becoming either more important than their principal, or assuming its office. It is indeed better that an irregularity should be allowed, than that necessary information should be omitted; but the excuse is the subterfuge of haste, inaccuracy, or inattention. It is equally an error perhaps, from the same source, when subjects are not found under those heads where they would be chiefly looked for. It is no excuse that they occur under others, unless this be pointed out. Several omissions are however allowed; and these we suppose have rendered a supplement necessary.

any

The original work was comprised in ten volumes; and we showed, in our remarks on the first edition, that the compilers had not only injudiciously contracted their limits, but not employed their space to the best advantage. The two last volumes were consequently very inadequate to the subjects to be treated of. In the third edition they thought themselves secure in promising that it should not extend beyond eighteen volumes, and that increase in the bulk should not be attended with additional expense to the subscribers. But they still calculated erroneously; and though they disposed of their materials with more skill, and employed less space in trifling explanations, much was still omitted, and many subjects too hastily passed over. We mean not to deny that the editors exerted themselves with perseverance, and extended their volumes with unexampled liberality;-but they had involved themselves in a rash engagement; and to retreat with decency was a comparative victory. The plan of the Encyclopædia Britannica is now well known; and that the additions of biography and geography are valuable ones in the opinion of the public, may be supposed, from this part of the plan being imitated in Dr. Rees's new edition of Chambers's Dictionary. The account of the contributors to the third edition before us will conclude all that we need observe on this subject.

For whatever instruction may be conveyed in the articles Anatomy and Surgery the public is indebted to Andrew Bell, F.S.S.A.

one of the proprietors, and the ingenious Mr. Fyfe. From the former of these gentlemen the world will soon receive one of the most splendid anatomical works which it has yet seen; and as the latter has long officiated under Dr. Monro as dissector in the anatomical school of the university of Edinburgh, it is needless for us to say how well he must be acquainted with the subjects on which we employed him to write. Aerology, Aerostation, Chemistry, Electricity, Gunnery, Hydrostatics, Mechanics, Meteorology, with most of the separate articles in the various branches of natural history, we have reason to believe were compiled by Mr. James Tytler, chemist; a man who, though his conduct has been marked by almost perpetual imprudence, possesses no common share of science and genius. The article Blind was furnished by Dr. Blacklock and Dr. Moyes, both blind themselves, and both men of superior attainments; the former in elegant literature, and the latter in the physical sciences. We believe that the article Education was composed by Mr. Robert Heron, author of a history of Scotland now publishing, who likewise furnished the greater part of what we have published under the titles Religion and Society. The lives of Johnson and Mary queen of Scots, with the articles Instinct, Love, Metaphysics, Miracle, the history of ethics under Moral Philosophy, Oath, Passion, Plastic Nature, Polytheism, Prayer, Slavery, and Supper of the Lord, were contributed by Dr. Gleig, editor of the last six volumes; Grammar and Theology by Dr. Gleig and the reverend James Bruce, A.B. late of Emmanuel college, Cambridge; and Motion by Dr. Gleig and Mr. Tytler. The system of Medicine, which was published in the former edition, was revised and improved for the present by Andrew Duncan, M. D. fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and professor of the Institutes of Physic in the univer sity. The notes to the article Music were contributed by Dr. Blacklock, and the history of the art by William Maxwell Morison, Esq. advocate, who likewise favoured us with what we have published on the science of Physiognomy. The articles Mysteries, Mythology, and Philology, we owe to the erudition of David Doig, LL.D. F.S.S.A. master of the grammar-school of Stirling, and author of two very ingenious letters on the Savage State, addressed to the late lord Kames. Navigation, Parallax, Pendulum, Projection of the Sphere, Ship-building, and Naval Tactics, were furnished by Andrew Mackay, LL.D. F. R.S.E. of Aberdeen, and known to the public as author of a treatise on the Theory and Prac tice of finding the Longitude at Sea or Land. John Robison, M.A. secretary to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and professor of natural philosophy in the university, did the editor the honour of contributing to the Encyclopædia Britannica the valuable articles Physics, Pneumatics, Precession of the Equinoxes, Projectiles, Pumps, Resistance of Fluids, River, Roof, Rope-making, Rotation, Seamanship, Signals, Sound, Specific Gravity, Statics, Steam and Steam-Engine, Strength of Materials, Telescope, Tide, Articulating Trumpet, Variation of the Compass, and Water-Works. Philosophy is the joint production of professor Robison and Dr. Gleig. Physiology was furnished by John Barclay, M.D. of Edinburgh, whose merits, if the editor be not partial to his friend, it

will raise high in the estimation of men of science. The essays on Predestination and Providence were contributed by Robert Forsyth, Esq. advocate; the account of the French Revolution by Mr. Forsyth and Dr. Gleig; and Oxygen and Phlogiston by John Rotheram, M.D. professor of natural philosophy in the university of St. Andrew's.

The other contributors to the first part of the work we cannot enumerate; but we know that much useful information was occasionally communicated by Dr. Latham of Dartford in Kent, the celebrated ornithologist; by Dr. William Wright, physician-general to the forces in the West-Indies under the command of sir Ralph Abercrombie; by the reverend J. Hawkins, vicar of Halsted in Essex; by the late Mr. Adams, mathematical instrument-maker to his majesty; and by Mr. William Jones, optician, in Holborn, London. There is, however, no man to whom the proprietors of the Encyclopædia Britannica feel themselves under greater obligations than to Dr. Black, for the very handsome offer which he made to the person who was at first intrusted with the chemical department of the work. And while they express thus publicly their gratitude to him, may not the editor declare how much he is indebted to his two assistants, the reverend James Walker, M. A. of St. John's college, Cambridge, and Mr. James Thomson of Crieff, preacher in the church of Scotland? Of these gentlemen, who successively had the care of the work when he was necessarily absent, he could always say, Quibus in rebus ipsi intereffe non possumus, in his, opera nostra vicaria fides anticorum supponitur.'

P. XV.

Whatever may have been the omissions in the third edition of the Encyclopædia, from the want of mutual confidence and the necessary co-operation between the first and the second editor, they may be well supplied in a supplement. Supplements are in general a sort of wounded snakes, which drag their slow lengths along; but in a work of this kind they are necessary appendages, whether we consider the successive editors, or the rapidly succeeding improvements of an age peculiarly active and successful in every scientific pursuit. It is also with great propriety conducted by the editor who succeeded Mr. Macfarquhar, who could be best aware of the omissions or errors, and consequently could best supply or correct them. The authors of many of the articles in the Supplement are noticed in the advertisement which precedes it. Professor Robison's labours in the Encyclopædia began with Projectiles, and, consequently, the greater number, and the more important articles, from the former gentleman, occur previous to that part of the alphabet. Thus we find that we are indebted to him for the articles Arch, Astronomy, Carpentry, Centre, Dynamics, Electricity, Impulsion, Involution and Evolution of Curves, Machinery, Magnetism, Mechanics, Percussion, Piano-forte, Centre of Position, Temperament in Music, Thunder, Musical Trumpet, Tschirnhaus, and Watch-work.

To Dr. Thomas Thompson our author was indebted for a very extensive and elaborate article on chemistry, for an article on mineralogy, and another on dying substances. Dr. Wright has persevered in his botanical assistance; and Mr. Playfair has communicated one mathematical article, which we shall in course notice. The account of the French revolution is continued by the editor and professor Robison; but to this subject also we shall recur more at large.

The rest of the information in the advertisement is not of great importance. In biography, the editor soon found he had taken too extensive a range, and was obliged to confine himself to those who were eminent in science or literature, or were patrons of either. Some references therefore, in the early articles, will not be found in their place. The progress also of science and revolutionary events is so rapid, that the reader is requested to hasten from the article of Galvanism to Torpedo, and from Revolution to the life of marshal Suworow.

We perceive with great satisfaction, that, through the whole of the Supplement, there is a constant reference to the Encyclopædia; that errors of the press, or more important ones, are carefully corrected; new and fuller information supplied; and that the accounts are more scientifically compressed. Indeed, so anxious is the editor of the Supplement to correct mistakes, that we have occasionally thought him a little hypercritical, and that faults, sometimes ostentatiously pointed out, might without danger have been passed over. The error however, if it exist, is on the right side. It is impossible to notice all the new articles; but we shall again turn over the pages, and give a general account of the more considerable improvements.

We met, very early, with a neat little addition to the article of action,' which perhaps we should not have regarded in this place, but to have marked its contradiction to some important parts of the work itself. The author contends very properly, that an agent cannot act where it is not; but the error seems to be in not admitting the influence of any known or supposed medium. We think it highly probable, if not certain, that even in the apparent. impulse of bodies they are not in contact, so that they cannot act immediately on each other. It would be singular if the æther of Newton were not sufficient to explain the greater number of phænomena, since from these its supposed properties are derived: it is a creature of imagination, formed to give a plausible explanation of appearances, and aiming at no A greater fault is, however, the inconsistency of this article. It contends that the influence of the sun or moon cannot produce tides, because there is no immediate action; while in the Encyclopædia itself this phenomenon is decidedly attributed to attraction. It rests also, in its reasoning, on the vis inertiæ of matter; while one of the most striking, the most

more.

judicious and philosophical, articles in the Supplement, avoids this principle, which, like many other parts of the mechanical system, requires at least a little modification. Whatever may be the merit of the present article-as it is so contradictory to the general doctrines of the work-it should not have found a place in the Supplement, without some remarks from the editor. We find some very useful and necessary additions to the Encyclopædia in the earlier pages of the Supplement, particularly under the word alum,' where there is a very comprehensive abridgement of M. Vauquelin's experiments. The article of

arch,' contributed by professor Robison, is also a most masterly one we have seen nothing, on this or on a similar subject, so clear, scientific, and comprehensive. Could we stay to analyse any article, or indeed were it in our power, from the possession of plates, we would not pass this over so cursorily. We believe the doctrine of arches derived from the properties of the wedge was published since the appearance of this Supplement; but it is here unnecessary.

The additions to the article architecture' contain only abstracts from a paper on the origin of Gothic architecture, published in the last volume of the Edinburgh Transactions.

The new article of astronomy' is a valuable and comprehensive supplement to the former, and contains some necessary additions. We find however in this some hints in opposition to the æther of Newton; but we must allege-and we fear no contradiction-that all the phænomena require the intervention of some subtile fluid between bodies. A very little refinement, which will bear the test of examination, may soon reduce all the appearances supposed to result from actual contact to the action of this fluid. It is enough however if the imaginary intermede fulfil all the offices required.

Various biographical sketches follow, which we cannot always enumerate. With respect to the lives of the famous or infamous Bahrdt, and of the fallen degraded Bailly, we may again enlarge, when we speak of the article of illuminés-a sect which may have been diverted to unworthy purposes, but which many, who are inimical to its principles, do not believe to have been originally designed for such. In the life of Behem, the author or editor appears to be convinced of his having discovered the American continent previous to the voyage of Columbus, and adduces strong arguments in favour of this opinion. The assertion requires a longer discussion than we are enabled at present to give it; yet we own that we are unwilling, according to the present evidence, to deprive Columbus of the honour. The other lives under this second letter of the alphabet are numerous, and contain more valuable information. Of Dr. Berkenhout we have some important information, not generally known; and we think that he deserved an ampier