Ireland, they have given an account of even the smallest market-town. and with respect to Scotland, of every parish---an advantage of very obvious importance. 9. On this subject, it cannot be improper to mention the Atlas which accompanies this work. The public will find it very complete, and, we trust, accurately executed, as well with respect to the general charts and great divisions of the world, as to the maps of particular countries and kingdoms; with no other error, that we are aware of, than that of the denomination of some of the districts attached to or dependent on France; an error utterly unavoidable, inasmuch as the denomination and division of those countries and districts have so recently been subject to the ever-varying caprice of the French government, and been really repeatedly altered in the space of a single year. A comparison with any or every similar work will, the Proprietors are persuaded, be highly advantageous to the ENCYCLOPEDIA PERtHensis. The form is commodious, easy in the use, and ready for every purpose of occasional reference and inquiry; while the price, compared with that of every similar work, and with the present rates of all the materials of printing, is indeed very low. There is nothing of importance in the Encyclopædia Britannica which is not (though in a more concentrated, yet in an equally useful form) in the ENCYCLOPEDIA PERTHENSIS; while the plan of that work is extended and improved, not only by the admission of Johnson's Dictionary in the general course of the alphabet, but by various other improvements of equal importance, which the slightest comparison will at once exhibit. Every fact and every improvement have been carefully incorporated, if not under one article, or in a general treatise, at least under some one or other of the connected terms which occur in the subsequent parts of the work. Thus, for example, the various con vulsions vulsions and terrestrial arrangements which have resulted from the revolution of France, were purposely referred from the word FRANCE to the word REVOLUTION, that the sketch of events might be as complete and recent as possible. The article REVOLUTION further refers to the article WAR, under which the chain of events is brought down to the la test period, and almost to the completion of the work. From this example the reader will be easily able to discover the same plan of procedure in other instances, as entering essentially into the nature and conduct of the Book. While the work was going on, various important discoveries were made in the sciences, and many new opinions, as well as striking events, attracted the attention of the world; an account of which appeared absolutely necessary to render complete a dictionary of General Knowledge. In pursuance of this object, the Proprietors determined to add a Supplement to their work; and accordingly, at a very considerable expence, they have procured as many articles, scientific, historical, and biographical, as to make up a half volume of nearly 400 pages. Among the subjects introduced into the Supplement, we have to mention the ANATOMICAL NOMENCLATURE invented by Dr Barclay; a full and detailed account of SIR H. DAVY'S DISCOVERIES, and of the new views which are entertained on the leading doctrines of CHEMISTRY; a sketch of the PHYSIOGNOMICAL SYSTEM OF GALL AND SPURZHEIM; GEOGNOSY, with the present state of opinion in that interesting and popular subject; the LANCASTERIAN METHOD of conducting schools; together with the constitution and plan of education of the principal UNIVERSITIES of Europe. In addition to these important articles, there are inserted the LIVES of all the eminent or remarkable characters who have died during the last five or six years and as many of these were chief actors in the great political events which have so lately distracted Europe, or sharers in the brilliant discoveries discoveries which have illustrated the recent history of science, their biography is particularly copious. It remains only to state, that, 1. The ENCYCLOPEDIA PERTHENSIS extends to 28 volumes, each volume containing generally (sometimes, from the accidental run of the articles, a few more, and sometimes a few less) 720 large octavo pages of letter-press, closely printed; 2. It contains 350 plates, accurately engraved; 3. It is, besides, provided with an Atlas containing 22 different maps, engraved so as to bind separately in octavo ;---the whole forming, at a comparatively low rate, as commodious a work for general reading and occasional reference, in every department of useful knowledge, as was ever offered to the Public. Edinburgh, July 1815. ENCYCLOPEDIA ENCYCLOPÆDIA PERTHENSIS. A, A. the first letter, as well as the first vowel, in the alphabets of all the modern, and most of the ancient languages, excepting that of Ethiopia, in which it is the 13th. It is entitled to the first place in the alphabet, on account of the fimplicity of its found, little more being neceffary to pronounce it, than to open the mouth and emit the air. Hence it is the found most naturally uttered by the dumb. A is used, I. as a LETTER; II. as a WORD; III. as an ABBREVIATION; and IV. as a NUMERAL. I. The LETTER A, in the English language, has three different founds, the broad, the open, and the flender; to which may be added a fourth, the diphthong found. ft, The firft is common to all languages, and refembles that of the German A, being pronounced like au in caufe. It occurs in various monofyllables, and is fometimes long, as in all, call, wall, &c. fometimes fhort, as in malt, falt, and the like. It is probable that the Saxons ufed only the broad found of the letter, which is generally retained in the North of England, and almost univerfally throughout Scotland; as in tauk for talk, avauk for walk, or wake, &c. ad, The open found resembles that of the Ita lian A in Adagio, and is expreffed in father, rather, &c. 3d, The two laft founds are peculiar to the English language. The fender refembles that of the Greek E, and is the fame with that of the English e, in elephant, record, &c. It occurs in many words, fuch as face, place, waffe, &c. 4th. The diphthong found occurs likewife in a great number, and is expreffed like the French diphthong ai in pais; as in amiable, any, many, glaze, graze, fraze, &c. and the whole tribe of nouns ending in ation, fuch as toleration, &c. ii. In burlefque poetry, A is fometimes added to words, as line-a for line, by Dryden, &c. and in common language it is fometimes prefixed, as arife, acvake, for rie, wake, &c. without altering the fenfe in either cafe. iii. In our calendar, A is ufed as the firft of the feven Dominical letters, as it was anciently ufed by the Romans, before the Christian æra, as the first of their eight Litera Mundinales; in imitation whereof the Dominical letters were afterwards introduced. iv. In Mufic, A is ufed in the tenor to denominate the firft of the feven finiple founds; in the treble, it is the note, which lies VOL. 1. PART I. between the 2d and 3d line, and in the bass, upon the top, or 5th line.-v. Among logicians, it denotes an univerfal affirmative propolition; according to the verfe, Afferat A, negat E, verum generaliter amba. Thus, in the first figure, a fyllogifm, confifting of three univerfal affirmative propofitions, is faid to be in Bar-ba-ra; the a thrice repeated denoting fo many of the propofitions to be univerfal. See BARBARA. II. As a wORD, A is ufed as an article, a noun, a prepofition, and an interje&ion. i. It is moft commonly used as an article, and as fuch is prefixed to nouns in the fingular number, which it generally exprefles; as a man, a houfe, &c. fignifying that there is only one man, one house, &c. although it is often ufed indefinitely without regard to number, as we fay, a man may come, i. e. any man. It is never ufed, however, before any word beginning with a, e, i, or o, or with b, where the guttural found of that letter is not expreffed; the articles an or the being prefixed to all fuch words in its ftead; as an advocate, the enemy, an ideot, the owner, an honour, the hoft, &c. But it is uniformly ufed before all nouns beginning with a confonant, or with the vowely; and it is as frequently used as an, before words beginning with u, where this vowel has the diphthong found eu. ii. As a noun, it is only ufed by grammarians refpecting itself, as great A, little a, the bread A, the fender A, &c.ii. As a prepofition, it is variously used; 1. Before a participle, where it ought to be joined by a hyphen, as, I am a-writing, you go a-hunting, or afifhing, &c. In these last inftances it fupplies the place of the prepofition to, of the infinitive mood; fignifying, you go to hunt, or go to fish. 2. In this fenfe alfo, it is fometimes prefixed to a verb, as in the well known title of the play, "Much a-do (i. e. Much to do) about Nothing." 3. Before local firnames, of foreign extraction, as Carolus a Linne, Cornelius a Lapide, Thomas a Kempis, &c. 4. Between words exprefling relative proportions, it fupplies the place of each, per, or by the; thus, ten guineas a man, twelve hours a day, fifteen fillings a week, a thousand Pounds a year, mean fo many guineas, hours, fhillings and pounds, each man, each day, per week, and by the year. A 5. Com |