DIRECTIONS FOR PLACING THE MAPS AND PLATES OF VOLUME FIRST. PAGE. I. March of the Israelites through the Wilderness, Frontispiece. ADVERTISEMENT. WHEN Proposals were first issued for publishing this work, it was contemplated to have taken as copy one printed in Europe several years after Mr. Brown's death: but on comparing it with the volumes of the author's own correcting, published in Edinburgh a short period before his decease, we found that it had been considerably mutilated, many of the articles much altered, others entirely different, and even the opinions of its author frequently contested. This we considered to be ungenerous and unfair-while the reader is lead to believe that he is examining the productions and opinions of one man, it cannot be called less than a deception to impose on him those of another. To do both the author and the reader justice, therefore, we conceived it to be more correct to follow implicitly the original work as corrected by Mr. Brown himself, with the exception of two or three articles in the forepart of the first volume, which are marked as additional, and a few corrections which we have made as tending to render the sentence a little more plain, without in the least affecting the sense of the subject-matter, or giving it a different view than that which the author intended. IN the body of the work, alphabetically placed, we have inserted a brief account of a number of sects of the Religious from the earliest periods of Christianity. This we have done as matter of Church History, and as the articles happened to fall under our view in the progress of the work; not having had the most foreign idea to please the one, while we might unguardedly offend the other, but that it might be useful to all whose reading leads them to this kind of curious research. These articles are all taken from the Encyclopedia Britannica, and the American edition of the Encyclopedia, or Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, and are marked thus "Ency." at the end of each article. THE NOTES, at the foot of the pages, being of a Theological, Literary, and Historical nature, we hope will be found useful, and as adding to the great mass of information with which the whole work is replete. Many of these are also taken from the Encyclopedia, those that are, are marked with "Ency." at the end of each note. Others, learned and illustrative, were furnished us by the Rev. JOHN ANDERSON, of Service and King's creek, Pennsylvania, a friend and pupil of the author's, and to whom we return our thanks for his kind attention and useful labour. THE Maps and Plates, which are executed in the first style of elegance by our best American artists, and at a very considerable expense, we hope will be found a valuable acquisition to the work: These were never before published in the United States. UPON the whole, we have spared no pains nor cost, to make the Pittsburgh Edition of Brown's Dictionary of the Holy Bible, worthy the approbation of its numerous and respectable Patrons, to whom we with peculiar pleasure return our most grateful and cordial thanks; to the Reverend Clergy of all denominations in particular; whose zeal and indefatigable industry have been the occasion of the publication of these inestimable and truly celebrated volumes-volumes equally calculated to amuse the most learned, while they instruct and edify the more simple and ignorant. While they afford an inexhaustible fund of ancient History and Geography to one; another is turning over the leaves of Natural History and Botany; another the pages of Astronomy and Philosophy; another Chemistry and Anatomy; another Mineralogy; and the sixth diving into the depths of true Scripture knowledge, and sipping the sweets of the inspired Oracles of God, " By which men live," says our learned and pious author, "and in them is the life of our soul." How far our additions to this work may meet the approbation of an enlightened public, remains yet to be decided: Since, however, our motives have been guided by the purest principles of honesty, we hope they will at least receive a candid, and impartial examination, and a judgment fraught with mildness and indulgence. We have aimed to be useful, and if in attempting to do good, we have failed in some points, and committed errors, we shall esteem it a duty highly incumbent on those detecting them, to point them out to us on the same liberal principles by which we have been governed, in order that they may be corrected in a future edition, if it should so happen that another impression be required.-It is by the correcting of each other's faults, that we become the better acquainted with the principles of TRUTH. THAT the volumes which we now issue to the public, may be ever found helpful in promoting our peace and good understanding here, and the happiness of our souls hereafter, is the ardent prayer of the Pittsburgh, Feb. 10, 1807. EDITOR. |