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In London and Westminster all this day paying of money and buying of things for my house. In coming back I called at Paul's Churchyard and bought Alsted's Encyclopaedia, which cost me 38s. Home and to bed, my wife being much troubled with her old pain. There came some pills and plaister this morning from Dr. Williams for my wife.
Alsted's Encyclopædia is of course written in Latin, and he prefixes to it by way of motto the celebrated lines in which Lucretius declares that nothing is sweeter than to dwell apart in the serene temples of the wise.
The book has, however, the merit of conciseness, and is a singular monument of literary industry, for it was entirely compiled by Chambers himself. On the whole, however, it is meagre, and more like a dictionary than an encyclopædia, such as Alsted's for instance. The bookseller obtained the requisite privilege from the government, but he obtained it for himself, and not for the projectors.
This was followed within sixty years by several other works of the same kind. The movement reached its height in a book which remained the best in its order for a century. A hundred years later the illustrious Leibnitz pronounced it a worthy task to perfect and amend Alsted's book.
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