This colossal work, which really consists of a collection of special cyclopaedias for each of the special sciences, was not completed until 1832, and comprises one hundred and sixty-six volumes of text, with a score more volumes of plates.

It has no unity of doctrine, no equal application of any set of philosophic principles, and no definite social aim.

The only encyclopaedia since 1772 with which I am acquainted, that is planned with a view to the presentation of a general body of doctrine, is the unfinished Encyclopedie Nuevelle of Pierre Leroux and Jean Reynaud.

This work was intended to apply the socialistic and spiritualistic ideas of its authors over the whole field of knowledge and speculation.

The result is that it furnishes only a series of dissertations, and is not an encyclopaedia in the ordinary sense.[155] The booksellers at first spoke of the Encyclopaedia as an affair of two million livres.