resolve all these insoluble problems; he will
classify the book in hand according to his best judgment at the moment it
comes before him. He can no more afford to spend time over intricate
questions of the preponderance of this, that, or the other subject in a
book, than a man about to walk to a certain place can afford to debate
whether he shall put his right foot forward or his left. The one thing
needful is to go forward.

Referring to the chapter on bibliography for other details, I may here
say that the French claim to have reached a highly practical system of
classification in that set forth in J. C. Brunet's _Manuel du Libraire_.
This is now generally used in the arrangement of collections of books in
France, with some modifications, and the book trade find it so well
adapted to their wants, that classified sale and auction catalogues are
mostly arranged on that system. It has only five grand divisions:
Theology, Law, Arts and Sciences, Belles-lettres, and History. Each of
these classes has numerous sub-divisions. For example, geography and
voyages and travels form a division of history, between the philosophy of
history and chronology, etc.

The classification in use in the _Bibliotheque nationale_ of France
places Theology first, followed by Law, History, Philosophy and
Belles-lettres. The grand division of Philosophy includes all which is
classified under Arts and Sciences in the system of Brunet.

In the Library of the British Museum the classification starts with
Theology, followed by 2. Jurisprudence; 3. Natural History (including
Botany, Geology, Zooelogy, and Medicine); 4. Art (including Archaeology,
Fine Arts, Architecture, Music, and Useful Arts); 5. Philosophy
(including Politics, Economics, Sociology, Education, Ethics,
Metaphysics, Mathematics, Military and Naval Science, and Chemistry); 6.
History (including Heraldry and Genealogy); 7. Geography (including
Ethnology); 8. Biography (including Epistles); 9. Belles-lettres
(including Poetry, Drama, Rhetoric, Criticism, Bibliography, Collected
Works, Encyclopaedias, Speeches, Proverbs, Anecdotes, Satirical and
facetious works, Essays, Folklore and Fiction); 10. Philology.

Sub-divisions by countries are introduced in nearly all the classes.

In the Library of Congress the classification was originally based upon
Lord Bacon's scheme for the division of knowledge into three great
classes, according to the faculty of the mind employed in each. 1.
Hist