362 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



great as that needed for making the rule. Hence 

 when different people work independently at a 

 classified catalogue, they are sure to get into a 

 muddle. 



Suppose, for example, you have to classify a 

 book on the constitution of Massachusetts. I put 

 such books under the heading &quot; LAW Mass. 

 Const.,&quot; but another person would prefer &quot; LAW 



Const. Mass.,&quot; a third would rank them un 

 der &quot; LAW U.S. Const. Mass.,&quot; a fourth 

 under &quot; LAW U.S. (Separate States) Mass. 



Const.,&quot; a fifth under &quot;LAW Const. U. S. 



Mass.,&quot; and so on, through all the permutations 

 and combinations of which these terms are sus 

 ceptible. Yet each of these arrangements would 

 bring the title into a different part of the cata 

 logue, so that it would be quite impossible to dis 

 cover, by simple inspection, what the library con 

 tained on the subject of constitutional law in 

 Massachusetts ; and to this extent the catalogue 

 would become useless. Many such defects are 

 now to be found in our subject-catalogue, greatly 

 to the impairment of its usefulness ; and they 

 prove conclusively that the work of classifying 

 must always be left to a single superintendent 

 who knows well the idiosyncrasies of the cata* 

 logue. This work consumes no little time. The 



