342 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



tical difference between these two kinds of book 

 is that the latter can generally be made to stand 

 on a shelf, while the former generally tumbles 

 down when unsupported. This physical fact 

 makes it necessary to keep pamphlets in files by 

 themselves until it is thought worth while to 

 bind them. But for the purposes of cataloguing 

 it makes no difference whether a book consists of 

 twenty pages between paper covers or of five 

 hundred pages bound in full calf. If you wish to 

 find M. Leon de Rosny s &quot; Aperc,u gdneral des 

 Langues semitiques,&quot; you do not care, and very 

 likely do not know, whether it is a &quot; pamphlet &quot; of 

 fifty pages or a &quot; volume &quot; of three hundred, and 

 you naturally grumble at a system which sends 

 you to a second alphabet in order to maintain a 

 purely arbitrary and useless distinction. In prac 

 tice this double catalogue was found to be so in 

 convenient that in 1850, after the pamphlet titles 

 had come to fill eight cumbrous volumes, it was 

 abandoned, and henceforth pamphlets, as well as 

 maps and engravings, were placed on the same 

 alphabet with bound volumes. 



Before long, however, it began to be felt neces 

 sary to reform this whole cumbrous system. To 

 ascertain whether a given work was contained in 

 the library, one had now to consult four different 



