The combined dictionary and encyclopedia which we take pleasure in offering to the public, is a work, which, when the labor and care involved in its preparation are considered, has been equaled by few works in the history of literature.

Nearly seventeen years of labor were consumed by the experienced editor and his corps of able assistants in its preparation. Nor is this period in any sense extreme when we consider the character of the work, original alike in its conception and its handling, and occupying as it does new ground in the republic of letters. The labor involved in the preparation of an ordinary dictionary – such a one, for instance , as Webster or Worcester- is exceedingly great, but this labor is increased to an extent which few persons appreciate in the case of a work like the present, which is not alone a dictionary, but adds to it the characteristics of an encyclopedia; giving not only the meaning of words, but their entire history, and a compact array of the most valuable information concerning them.

The unique undertaking was originally intended to limited to 4656 pages; but it became evident to the editor as the work progressed, that if it was to be completed in the exhaustive manner in which it had been commenced a considerable addition to this space would be necessary, and in the end nearly 800 pages were added, bringing the full work up to the grand total of 5447 pages – a library in a book. This addition was necessary to the completion of the work without unjust condensation of its concluding portions. Many who have occasion to refer to existing dictionaries must have noticed in the last few letters, say from S to Z, have been compressed in order to bring the whole work within the limits originally laid out for it. Such a treatment causes a serious detriment to the value of any book so handled, and the publishers, in the present instance, decided that the fullest justice should be given to every word, however it might lengthen the total work. As a consequence, the public have now given them in the superb work in question the most exhaustive dictionary of the English language offered to the reading world. It was designed and has been carried out on a plan adopted by no other dictionary, the intention being to give the the history of each word, step by step, showing the successive graduations of its meanings, as they rose out of each other, and illustrating each meaning by quotations from the written or printed page. In addition to this completeness of dictionary treatment, each word has been handled in the encyclopedic sense, and a vast amount of compact information in art, science, history and other branches of knowledge given, the whole rendering the work of inestimable value alike to the reader and student. In this conception, involving as it did years of labor and research, the editor has eminently succeeded, and the publishers have no hesitation in offering the result of this labor to the public as one without rival in plan and unsurpassed in execution.