CLASSIFICATION. 403 



abandon the attempt to carry out an arrangement accord- 

 ing to the natural classification of the sciences, and form 

 comprehensive practical groups, we shall be continually 

 perplexed by the occurrence of intermediate cases, and 

 opinions will differ ad infinitum as to the details. If, 

 to avoid the difficulty about Westminster Abbey, we form 

 a class of books devoted to the History of Buildings, the 

 question will then arise whether Stonehenge is a building, 

 and if so, whether, cromlechs, mounds, or even monoliths 

 are so. At the other end of the scale we shall be uncer- 

 tain whether to include under the class History of Build- 

 ings, lighthouses, monuments, bridges, &c. In regard to 

 purely literary works, rigorous classification is still less 

 possible. The very same work may partake of the nature 

 of poetry, biography, history, philosophy, or if we form a 

 comprehensive class of Belles-Lettres, nobody can say 

 exactly what does or does not come under the term. 



My own experience entirely bears out the opinion of 

 the late Professor De Morgan, that classification according 

 to the name of the author is the only one practicable in a 

 large library, and this method has been admirably carried 

 out in the great Catalogue of the British Museum. The 

 name of the author is the most precise circumstance con- 

 cerning a book, which usually dwells in the memory. It 

 is more nearly a characteristic of the book than anything 

 else. In an alphabetical arrangement we have an exhaus- 

 tive classification, including a place for every possible 

 name. The following remarks^ of De Morgan seem there- 

 fore to be entirely correct. * From much, almost daily use, 

 of catalogues for many years, I am perfectly satisfied that 

 a classed catalogue is more difficult to use than to make. 

 It is one man's theory of the. subdivision of knowledge, 

 and the chances are against its suiting any other man. 

 Even if all doubtful works were entered under several 



d * Philosophical Magazine/ 3rd Series (1845), vol. xxvi. p. 522. 



D d 2 



