human
A Word upon Indexes, in his _Indicator_. He writes:
gpt
Index-making has been held to be the driest as well as lowest species of writing. We shall not dispute the humbleness of it; but since we have had to make an index ourselves,[6] we have discovered that the task need not be so very dry. Calling to mind indexes in general, we found them presenting us a variety of pleasant memories and contrasts. We thought of those to the Spectator, which we used to look at so often at school, for the sake of choosing a paper to abridge. We thought of the index to the Pantheon of Fabulous Histories of the Heathen Gods, which we used to look at oftener. We remember how we imagined we should feel some day, if ever our name should appear in the list of Hs; as thus, Home, Howard, Hume, Huniades, ----. The poets would have been better, but then the names, though perhaps less unfitting, were not so flattering; as for instance Halifax, Hammond, Harte, Hughes, ----. We did not like to come after Hughes.
human
We have just been looking at the indexes to the Tatler and Spectator, and never were more forcibly struck with the feeling we formerly expressed about a man's being better pleased with other writers than with himself. Our index seemed the poorest and most second-hand in the world after theirs: but let any one read theirs, and then call an index a dry thing if he can. As there 'is a soul of goodness in things evil' so there is a soul of humour in things dry, and in things dry by profession. Lawyers know this, as well as index-makers, or they would die of sheer thirst and aridity. But as grapes, ready to burst with wine, issue out of the most stony places, like jolly fellows bringing burgundy out of a cellar; so an Index, like the _Tatler's_, often gives us a taste of the quintessence of his humour. The very title gives good promise of what is to be found in the book:
gpt
A faithful Index of the dull as well as the ingenious passages in the Tatlers.
human
Bachelor's scheme to govern a wife.
gpt
Knaves prove fools.
human
Actors censured for adding words of their own in their parts.
gpt
Dead men, who.
human
Dead persons heard, judged and censured. ---- Allegations laid against them, their pleas.
gpt
Love letters before and after marriage, found in a grave.
human
Mathematical sieve to sift impertinences in writing and discourse.
gpt
News, Old People die in France.
human
Flattery of women, its ill consequences.
gpt
Maids of Honour, their allowance of Beef for their Breakfast in Queen Elizabeth's time.
human
Silence, significant on many occasions. ---- Instances of it.
gpt
Blockheads apt to admire one another.
human
Female Library proposed for the Improvement of the Sex.
gpt
Night, longer formerly in this Island than at present.
human
Notwithstanding the learning and care of the compilers of the first Indexes to these volumes, some slight inaccuracies have passed, and where observed they are altered. Few readers who desire to know Mr. Bickerstaff's Opinion of the Comedy called the Country Wife, or the character of Mrs. Bickerstaff as an actress, would consult the Index under the word _Acts_.
gpt
Acts the Country-Wife: (Mrs. Bignel).