times several should be in use: thus, Halliwell's _Archaic
Dictionary_ and Nares' _Glossary_ are useful in studying Shakespeare.
Richardson's _Dictionary_ embodies all the good points of Johnson's
_Dictionary_, and is very excellent for quotations. Poetical
_Concordances_ and _Dictionaries of Quotations_, both prose and poetry,
are useful, though very rarely does one find the quotation required in
any professed book of quotations. A good _Biographical Dictionary_ is a
joy; such is Lippincott's, an American work. A good _Classical
Dictionary_ is also necessary, and may be supplemented by Smith's
_Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography_. It would be interesting to
see how far it would be possible to collect an ideal reference library,
and this, I think, has never been carefully done. It must be borne in
mind that reference books are not all books arranged alphabetically
(though the man who first wrote an alphabeted book should be Canonised).
Reference books consist of such works as Rawlinson's Historical Works,
Wilkinson's _History of the Ancient Egyptians_, and Fergusson's _History
of Architecture_. All such books are reference books, and many thousands
more. I think it will be found a good plan in the library to keep
reference books (viz., those which are likely to be in frequent use) in
a separate case--perhaps a revolving case--and in no library should this
section be neglected. Mr. Walter Wren, the well-known coach, once
lectured on 'What is Education?' and in his lecture he made the
following remarks:--

'I think the first thing that made me a teacher was my noticing, when a
boy, how men and women read books and papers, and knew no more about
them when they had read them than they did before. . . . . Lots of
people seem to know nothing, and to want to know nothing; at any rate,
they never show any wish to learn anything. I was once in a room where
not one person could say where Droitwich was; once, at a dinner of
fourteen, where only one besides myself knew in what county Salisbury
was. I have asked, I believe, over a hundred times where Stilton is, and
have been told twice--this when Stilton cheese was handed. I mention
this to show the peculiar conservative mental apathy of Englishmen.'

'A reader should be familiar with the best method by which the original
investigation of any topic may be carried on. When he has found it, he
appreciates, perhaps for the first time, for what purpose books are for,
and how to u