ADVERTISEMENT.

The established character of Bayle for erudition, acute ness, and philosophical impartiality, while it supersedes the necessity of all remark on that elaborate storehouse's Fact, Opinion, and illustrative Discussion, the HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL DICTIONARY, it is presumed will sufficiently sanction a judicious selection of its most curious and instructive contents. Happily for the interest of mental freedom and the unfettered exercise of reason, Bayle arose at a period when the Aristotelian, or scholastic philosophy, in the behalf of which priestcraft and bigotry rallied to the last moment, lay prostrate, but not absolutely defunct, and in consequence, when, to a free and investigative spirit, it was necessary to join an accurate notion of the premises and field of knowledge of the doctrines assailed. In the great work of Bayle, therefore, much sound information, subtle disquisition, and curious and instructive fact, is encumbered with a quantity of matter which, however valuable in advertence to gone by studies and associations, Time has for the most part thrown away. This remark leads at once to the grounds of the present undertaking, the object of which is to present to the general reader, in a comparatively small and purchasable form, that portion of the Historical and Critical Dictionary of Bayle, the value of which, in the way of information, is unequivocal, in learning instructive or curious, and in critical and intellectual philosophy universal and permanent.

To some, to whom the Historical and Critical Dictionary is but cursorily known, the attraction of a selection from it may be doubted, at a period distinguished by an engrossing attachment to the results of practical science and positive and applicable information. It is thought, however, by those to whom the completion of the present work has been intrusted, that the foregoing tendency is united to a great avidity for general knowledge, and especially for a keen exercise of the reasoning faculties in reference to speculative points of all kinds. The acute and discriminating mind of Bayle deals with many which w ill be eternally important, at least while extensive superstructures, in a social point of view, are founded upon them. All his comparative and ingenious disquisition on themes

of this leading nature is of course retained, and a healthy exercise of the understanding upon the grander divisions of human opinion secured. In the selection of biographical, traditional, and mythological matter, with a due attention to the curious and the amusing, an endeavour has been made to include whatever is more or less connected with events of lasting importance, or linked, theoretically or otherwise, to existing associations. It is therefore hoped that every order of readers will find something to interest them; while it may prove more especially welcome to the rising and increasing body, who are determined to think upon all subjects for themselves.

With regard to the plan of the work, it is unnecessary to observe to those who are acquainted with the original, that the text is comparatively brief, and that the annotation is the more valuable portion of the able Author’s labours. With a view to compactness, the text and note will be combined in the Selection, although the Editor will supply nothing but the necessary connexion; a method that has already been advantageously adopted in a French work of a kindred nature, entitledAnalyse Raisonnée de Bayle, by the Abbé de Marsy. This latter production, indeed, in some degree led to the present undertaking, and will be partly rendered serviceable to it, although, selected for the French public half a century ago, it can be made only slightly available.

It is only necessary to add, that while the alphabetical form will be preserved, it cannot from the nature of the plan be that of Bayle himself, but of the subjects selected from him, which are frequently introduced quite incidentally under the heads in which they appear in the Dictionary, and consequently cannot be retained in a situation in which the connexion would not appear. To prevent all difficulty, however, each article will accurately refer to those in the original from which it is taken.

A Summary of the Life of Bayle has been deemed necessary, in order to convey a general notion of the learned career of this distinguished writer and philosopher, as well as to give an adequate idea of the era, and the circumstances under which his celebrated labours were performed.