[L] Life by Sir J. E. Smith.
THE END.
Printed by Oliver & Boyd,
Tweeddale Court, High Street, Edinburgh.
Edinburgh, June 1834.
PLAN
OF THE
EDINBURGH CABINET LIBRARY;
CONTAINING
A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF THE WORKS ALREADY PUBLISHED,
WITH
NOTICES OF THOSE WHICH ARE IN PREPARATION.
The Edinburgh Cabinet Library having now reached its Sixteenth Volume, the Proprietors are desirous of offering a few observations, with a view to elucidate the general character and plan of the Publication more fully than could be done in the original Prospectus.
The primary object of this undertaking was to construct, from the varied and costly materials that have been accumulating for ages, a popular Work, appearing in successive volumes, and comprising all that is really valuable in those branches of knowledge which most happily combine amusement with instruction. A scheme so comprehensive necessarily embraced a wide range of subjects; all of which, however, though treated by separate writers, were designed to form component parts of one uniform system. To record the prominent changes and revolutions in the history of nations;—to follow the progress of inland and maritime discovery, embodying the researches of those fearless adventurers who have traversed stormy oceans, or penetrated into the interior of barbarous kingdoms;—to mark the steps by which the sciences and arts that refine and improve human nature have arrived at their present stage of advancement;—in short, to exhibit, under all their variety of circumstances and forms, Man and the objects by which he is surrounded,—are among the leading features in the design of the Cabinet Library.
Its reception hitherto has exceeded the most sanguine anticipations of the Proprietors; and they need only refer to the favourable notices in almost every journal in the British empire, for evidence that it is now established in the estimation of the public as a Work of acknowledged merit. It has also been reviewed with much commendation in numerous foreign periodicals; on the Continent, translations of it continue to be executed from time to time; and in America, the volumes, as they appear, are regularly stereotyped. The method adopted from the beginning, of not restricting the publication to monthly issues, has proved of material advantage,—by allowing the different authors ample time to finish their respective contributions in the most satisfactory manner; while, by employing on the more important subjects a combination of talent, and sometimes devoting to them two or three volumes, means are secured for rendering each work as perfect as possible. It needs but a cursory glance at what is already done to be convinced, that although the field of enterprise is wide and diversified, the various subjects are so methodically treated, and so closely allied in their nature, as to amalgamate into one regular and connected whole, which, when completed, will form a full and comprehensive Cabinet of truly valuable information for all classes of the community. The entire plan may be briefly detailed under four subdivisions:—