human
I have formed, so far as I know, but one dogmatic conviction, and it is this: that the best catalogue which the art of man can invent is a catalogue in two inter-dependent yet independent parts; the first and greater part an alphabetical catalogue of authors, the second and lesser part a subject-index. I know well that I shall be told that I am out of date, that such an opinion is as the voice of one crying in the wilderness--that the dictionary catalogue has won its battle--but even so, perhaps the more so, do I feel it the part of a serious and immovable conviction to declare my belief that--for student and librarian alike--this twofold catalogue, author and subject each in its own division, is the best catalogue a library can have, and that the dictionary catalogue is the very worst. But whatever may be our individual opinion on this head, it is only necessary to enter into a very simple calculation to see that if the dictionary system could have governed the rules of the British Museum Catalogue it would by now have consisted of not less than twelve million entries; and assuredly it would have been neither completed nor printed to-day.