Brewster's own discoveries, important though they were, were not his only, perhaps not even his chief, service to science. He began literary work in 1799 as a regular contributor to the _Edinburgh Magazine_, of which he acted as editor at the age of twenty. In 1807 he undertook the editorship of the newly projected _Edinburgh Encyclopaedia_, of which the first part appeared in 1808, and the last not until 1830. The work was strongest in the scientific department, and many of its most valuable articles were from the pen of the editor. At a later period he was one of the leading contributors to the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ (seventh and eighth editions), the articles on Electricity, Hydrodynamics, Magnetism, Microscope, Optics, Stereoscope, Voltaic Electricity, &c., being from his pen. In 1819 Brewster undertook further editorial work by establishing, in conjunction with Robert Jameson (1774-1854), the _Edinburgh Philosophical Journal_, which took the place of the _Edinburgh Magazine_. The first ten volumes (1819-1824) were published under the joint editorship of Brewster and Jameson, the remaining four volumes (1825-1826) being edited by Jameson alone. After parting company with Jameson, Brewster started the _Edinburgh Journal of Science_ in 1824, sixteen volumes of which appeared under his editorship during the years 1824-1832, with very many articles from his own pen. To the transactions of various learned societies he contributed from first to last between three and four hundred papers, and few of his contemporaries wrote so much for the various reviews. In the _North British Review_ alone seventy-five articles of his appeared. A list of his larger separate works will be found below. Special mention, however, must be made of the most important of them all--his biography of Sir Isaac Newton. In 1831 he published a short popular account of the philosopher's life in Murray's _Family Library_; but it was not until 1855 that he was able to issue the much fuller _Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton_, a work which embodied the results of more than twenty years' patient investigation of original manuscripts and all other available sources.