ON THE -CLASSIFICATION OF BOOKS. 425 



chronological arrangement is adopted for rapid reference ; and, to take tlie utmost 

 advantage of it, the dates of books are arranged in column on the right side of 

 the page. This cohinm should properly be on the left side of the page, but 

 some allowance was considered due to tradition and the custom of the reader's 

 eye. In consulting a catalogue for a book, perhaps the most natural reference 

 first made is to the time of its appearance. Every catalogue might properly 

 make its statements in the following order: "In this year ( ) a work ap- 

 peared of this size ( "), and in this ( ) number of volumes, entitled thus ( ) ; 

 its author was M. , and he published in such a place; the work is in (vel- 

 lum, calf, paper, &c.,) and is to be found in the bookcase with this number on 

 its back ( )." 



This t7</-o«o/og-if<7Z arrangement is practical and handy; and the books of all 

 the principal divisions of the library are so arranged on the book-shelves — the 

 oldest at the left-hand end of the uppermost shelf, and the rest in order of their 

 dates. The reader, who has forgotten both title and author's name, can find, 

 with little search, his book, if he only knows the subject of itand about the 

 date of its appearance. Another most important advantage is obtained : there 

 is no need of renumbering the books of a library when thus arranged. By 

 writing the dates upon the spots of colored paper on the back, the end of num- 

 bering the books is gained without the annoyance of posting two sets of numbers, 

 one of which means nothing. Interpolation of new books is also easy and 

 natural. The inconvenience of having half a dozen books of the same date is 

 too slight to notice. 



The more serious inconvenience encountered in the case of serials, especially 

 in the case of interrupted series of proceedings, transactions, acts, memoirs, and 

 magazines, may be readily overcome by numbering all of a series of one date, 

 viz : the date of the first volume, or, better yet, by placing all the living serials 

 of a division at the end of a suit of cases of that division, Avhere they will not 

 interfere with the chronological arrangement of the books, and where, also, they 

 can be increased by periodical additions. 



Of course, in all this, it is understood that the size of books is disregarded, 

 except where a lower shelf or shelves are given to quartos and folios. This 

 may be a fatal objection to the whole plan, in the view of those who are more 

 disposed to please the eye in regarding than to assist the brain in handling a 

 library. But working scholars are soon cured of undue ajstheticism in externals, 

 and a little extra height allowed to each shelf S2mce admits even the smaller 

 folios into their chronological places. 



It will be noticed that the column of volumes and pamphlets Avhich stands 

 next to the titles on each page of the catalogue, omits any statement of a book 

 or pamphlet, except in that class and division in which the book or pamphlet 

 is actually to be found in the library; otherwise, in summing up the niimber 

 of books in the library, the same book would be counted as many times as its 

 title happened to need duplication in different parts of the catalogue, and the 

 search for it among the books of the library would also give that much addi- 

 tional trouble. 



