Volume 1

Cyclopaedia: or, an universal dictionary of arts and sciences / With the supplement, and modern improvements ... by Abraham Rees.

  • Chambers, Ephraim, approximately 1680-1740
Date:
1781 [i.e. 1786?]-1789
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cyclopaedia: or, an universal dictionary of arts and sciences / With the supplement, and modern improvements ... by Abraham Rees. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    * * P R ji E F A C E. meafure, fwallowed up in the whole. The imagination, ftretched and amplified to take in fo large a ftructure, can have but a very general, undiftinguilhing perception of any of the component parts. Whereas the parts are not lei's matter of knowledge when taken feparately, than when put together. Nay, and as our ideas are all individuals; and as every thing that exifts is one ; it may feem more na¬ tural to confider knowledge in its parts, i. e. as divided into feparate articles, denoted by fo many dif¬ ferent terms, than to confider the whole afiemblage in its utmoft compoficion ; which is a thing merely artificial, and the work of imagination. A N D yet the latter way mud be allowed to have many and real advantages over the former ; which, in truth, is only of ufe and fignificance, as it partakes of it. Whence it ffiould follow, that the molt •advantageous way is, to make ufe of both : to confider every point, both as a part, to help the ima- nation to the whole; and as a whole, to help the underftanding to each part.—Which is the view in the prefent Work.— So far, we mean, as the many and great difficulties we had to labour under would allow us to purfue it. I N this view we have endeavoured to give the fubflance of what has been hitherto difcovered in the feveral branches of knowledge, both natural and artificial: that is, in the knowledge of nature, firth, as ffie appears to our fenfes, either fpontaneoufiy, as in natural hiftory; or with the affiftance of art, as in anatomy, chemijlry, medicine, agriculture, &c. Secondly, to our imagination, as in grammary rhetoric, poetry, &c. Thirdly, to our reafon ; as in pljyftcs, metaphyjics, logics, and mathematics: with the feveral iubordinate arts arifing from each ; as agriculture, painting, fculpture, trade, manufactures, policy, law, See. and numerous remote particulars, not immediately reducible to any of thefe heads; as heraldry, philology, antiquities, ctifloms, &c. THE plan of the work, then, I hope, may be allowed to be good, whatever exceptions be taken to the execution of it. It would look extravagant to fay, that half the men of letters of an age might be employed in it to advantage ; and yet it will appear, that a wmrk accomplilhed as it ought to be, on the footing of this, would anfwer moil: of the purpofes of a library, except parade; and contribute more to the propagating of ufeful knowledge through the body of a people, than half the books ex¬ tant. After this, let the reader judge how far I may deferve cenfure for engaging in it, even under fome difadvantages; and whether to have failed in fuch a defign may not be fome degree of praife. B U T it will be here necefiary to carry on the divifion of knowledge, juft laid down, a little far¬ ther ; and make a more precife partition of the body thereof, in the formal way of an analyfis: the rather, as an analyfis, by ffiewing the origin and derivation of the feveral parts, and the relation in which they ftand to their common ftock, and to each other, will affift, both in reinftating the fcattered articles in the book, and in connecting them together. f Meteorology r. Hydrology *. 'Senfible; confuting in the perception of phenomena, or external ob- je&s—.called Physiology, or Natural History; and which, according to the different kinds of fuch objefts, divides into — QJ .c o Q w ►4 £ O £ Mineralogy 3. Phytology 4. ^Zoology 5. Natural, and Scien¬ tific at ; which is/ either - \ Or, Rational-, confiding in the perception of the intrin- lic chara&ers or habi¬ tudes of feniible objeds —either their —■ Or, Artificial and Tech¬ nical (confiding in the application of natural notices to farther purpo-( fes), which is ei-' Powers, and Properties—called Physics, and Natural Philosophy s., Ahfirads•—calledMETaphysics7,whichfubdividesintoi Ontology. J ( 1 NEUMATOLO GY* Quantities—Galled Pure Ma-t Arithmetic 8 —-whence j \NALYT1 c,l them a tics — which di- \ r ^ vides, according to the fub-j Geometry11—whence) RIG0N0METR'sr- jed of the quantity, into l Statics 11 — < onics. J -IS’ (_bPHERICS. Relations to our happinefs—called f Ethics11, or Natural j Politics14. Religion, or the dodrine of Religion—whence ( Law is. OFFicEs,whichfubdividcsinto [Theology ‘5, or Revelation. ^Internal; employed in difqovering their agreement and difagreement; or their relations in refped of truth- called Logics *?. {Latent powers and.properties of bodies—( Alchemy. called Chemistry 18—whence (Natural Magic, Sec. /Optics ‘9, Catoptrics, Dioptrics, {Perspective29. — whence ( Painting21. Phonic s—whence Music12. Quantities of bo- Hydrostatics 23, Hydraulics. dies — called Pneumatics24. Or, Mixed Ma- f Architecture 26. thematics;/Mechanics 25—whence < Sculpture2?. which, accord-1^ [Trades28, and Manufactures. ^dWjemployed External; which is, \either ing to the dif- — — & — —_ “** in difcover-/ ferent fubjeds, ing and ap-\ refolves into plying the Or, whence j Astronomy 32—whence The Military Art3o. Fortification 31 Chronology 3j. _ Dialling 3+. .Geography 3s, Hydro-j Navigation 55. \ graphy—whence ( Commerce 37. StruQure and ceconomy of organical bodies, called Anatomy 3*. ; TAnimals-called \ Medicine 3? nations thereof! (Pharmacy40. to the prefer-Jy..,, _ ,, , 5 Agriculture4'. vationandim-/ S ‘ ( Gardening42. provement —] either of — [Brutes- -called t Farrying U, ( Manege—whence C Hu NT INC. < Falconry. ( Fishing, Sec. f Words, or articulate figns of ideas —called Grammar 44. Symbolical, employed in J Armories—called Heraldry 4s. framing and applying J Tropes and Figures— called Rhetoric 4<s. 's LFables—called Poetry47. THIS is a view of knowledge, as it were in ft amine; exhibiting only the grand conftituent parts thereof: it would be needlefs to purfue it into all its members and ramifications; which is the proper bufinefs 1 METEOROLOGY, or the hiftory of AIR, and the ATMOSPHERE t including, I. That of its con¬ tents, £ther, Fire, Vapour, Exhalation, &c. 2. Meteors formed therein; as Cloud, Rain, Show¬ er, Drop, Snow, Hail, Dew, Damp, See. Rain¬ bow, Parhelion, Halo, Thunder, Water-spoot, See. Winds, Monsoon, Hurricane, and the like. a HYDRO-