356 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



of libraries as aids to high culture and profound 

 investigation would be fatally impaired. To the 

 student s unaided faculties a great library is 

 simply a trackless wilderness ; the catalogue of 

 such a library is itself a kind of wilderness, albeit 

 much more readily penetrated and explored ; but 

 unless a book be entered with extreme accuracy 

 and fulness on the catalogue, it is practically lost 

 to the investigator who needs it, and might al 

 most as well not be in the library at all. 



In the task of entering a book properly on the 

 alphabetical catalogue, the needful researches are 

 for the most part made by the assistants ; but the 

 questionable points are so numerous, and so unlike 

 each other, that none of them can be considered 

 as finally settled until approved at headquarters. 

 After the proper entry has been decided on, the 

 work of transcribing the title is comparatively 

 simple in most cases. The general rule is to copy 

 the whole of the title with strict accuracy, in its 

 own language and without translation, including 

 even abbreviations and mistakes or oddities in 

 spelling. Mottoes and other really superfluous 

 matters on the title-page are usually omitted, the 

 omission being scrupulously indicated by points. 

 As regards the use of capital letters, title-pages 

 do not afford any consistent guidance, being usu- 



