The idea of it was broad and excellent.

"Our view," says Chambers, "was to consider the several matters, not only in themselves, but relatively, or as they respect each other; both to treat them as so many wholes, and as so many parts of some greater whole." The compiler lacked the grasp necessary to realise this laudable purpose.

The book has, however, the merit of conciseness, and is a singular monument of literary industry, for it was entirely compiled by Chambers himself.

It had a great success, and though its price was high (four guineas), it ran through five editions in eighteen years.

On the whole, however, it is meagre, and more like a dictionary than an encyclopaedia, such as Alsted's for instance.
Some fifteen years after the publication of Chambers's Cyclopaedia, an Englishman (Mills) and a German (Sellius) went to Le Breton with a project for its translation into French.