ax hoary later." At the end
of this passage inscribe a circle or an ellipse, a square or a lozenge,
just as you choose to do; and in the inscribed space write with red ink
(better still with carmine) the figure 1. Then index the passage under
letter B. "Beard younger than hair of head. 1." If you wish to be very
careful in your common-placing, you may double index the passage by
turning to letter H, and indicating the passage as "Head, hair of, older
than beard." And so you may continue to transcribe consecutively all the
passages which strike you in the course of your reading: never omitting
to number the passage and to index it as soon as numbered. That is the
system adopted by the Distressed Compiler, and he has made constant use
of it for nearly forty years.'--G. A. SALA.

_Reference Books._

I have been very often asked for a book which will 'tell one
everything.' There is no such book, and there never could be such a
book. Omniscience may be a foible of men, but it is not so of books.
Knowledge, as Johnson said, is of two kinds, you may know a thing
yourself, and you may know where to find it.[24] Now the amount which
you may actually know yourself must, at its best, be limited, but what
you may know of the sources of information may, with proper training,
become almost boundless. And here come the value and use of reference
books--the working of one book in connexion with another--and applying
your own intelligence to both. By this means we get as near to that
omniscient volume which tells everything as ever we shall get, and
although the single volume or work which tells everything does not
exist, there is a vast number of reference books in existence, a
knowledge and proper use of which is essential to every intelligent
person. Necessary as I believe reference books to be, they can easily be
made to be contributory to idleness, and too mechanical a use should not
be made of them. Very admirable reference books come to us from America,
where great industry is shown, and funds for publishing them never seem
to be short. The French, too, are excellent at reference books, but the
inferior way in which they are printed makes them tiresome to refer to.
Larousse's _Grand Dictionnaire_ is a miracle.

A good atlas is essential as a reference book, and maps of the locality
where we live. A good map of old London is very useful in studying
_Pepys' Diary_ for instance. A good verbal dictionary is essential.
Some