New-York tribune., 1902-06-28
THE INDEX.
WISE COUNSEL FROM A MASTER OF THE
SUBJECT.

HOW TO MAKE 5o AN n 1pEx n & By 5gn5as snFE Eai
Stock.
The time has gone by when literary men were
wont to sneer at indexes as easy roads to ac-
curing smattering of knowledge; and many
and deep have been the curses directed against
books without them. So. too. the indexer who
was once the butt of abuse, is now held In
certain honor-if he is good one. Mr. wheat
lev is an old and experienced fndexer, and he
writes about indexes and indexers in way
to show that the subject is far from dry. In
fact it is full of entertainment. Even in the
cider days there were great men who were not
above making their own indexes. Thus at the
urgent solicitation of Johnson. Richardson com
posed more than one to his works. At the
end Of "Clarissa Harlowe" he added a sort Of
table Of all the passages best worth remember
ing-"and he the judge himself. 1t nat
urally extended to a considerable length
Later he compiled a similar and more general
index to his three novels. Hume, too, made his
own index; and Macaulay, when he was boy.
made an index to his fathers Christian OBJ
server" though it must be said that in later
| years he classed Index makers in humble coats
Of frieze" as the lowest frequenters Of the cof-
fee houses Of the Dryden and Swift era. Isaac
Disraen generated" the inventor of indexes
that unknown laborer in literature who nrst
laid open the nerves and arteries of a book"
Some Of the older indexes full of quaint
touches and curious subjective traits. Mr..
Wheatley quotes number Of entries from John
Florios translation of Montaigne's essays. such
as Action Better than Speech Beasts are
Physicians Logitians Musitians. Artists, Stu
dents, Politikes Docible. Capable of Military
Order of Affections of Justice, of Friendship.
Of Husbandry, Of Thankefulnesse and Of Com
passion" And in the cross references there are
such as these: Common People ride the Vu-
gar" "Emperickes ride Physicians" etc. 1t
was formerly not uncommon to use the index
as a weapon of controversy, or of satire. Thus,
when William Prynne wrote his "Eistrio Mas
tix' in 1888 il was the opinion of reader
of that onslaught upon the stage that in ''the
Table of his Booke and his brief additions there
to" he had written what would cost him his
cares or heavily punnisht and deepely fined"
There were such entries as "Heaven-no stage
plays there" "Kings-infamous for them TO act
or frequent Playes favour Players" Play
poets. examples of Gods judgements the
chiefest Of them"
Gay composed an amusing index for his pct-
ure of eighteenth century London. Trivia" car
rying out the satirical intent of his verse,
in which there such references these;
Asses their Arrogance; Cellar, the mis-
fortune of falling into one; London. its hap
piness before the invention of Coaches and
Chairs" And, of course, most will remember
the inimitable index of this sort that Lowell
appended to his "BIglow Papers"-by far the
best Of its kind. with its Babel. probably the
first Congress-" Birch, value OF in instiliing
certain of the dead languages" Bible, not
composed for the use of colored PERSONS"
and many other gems DR.. William King,
of oxford. is reputed to be the inventor of the
satirical index. He first employed it in a book
virulentiy attacking Bentley. the great classi-
cal scholar when il reacted smartly upon him
self: but this did not prevent him from advent
uring on the same ground again, in lampoon-
| ing the philosophical Transactions of the
| then newly established Royal Society. He
would ingeniously. turn the authors own words
| thus: Mountains, higher than hills" and Hay
| good for horses" The method he used
| against William Bromley's book Of travels
| whereby that worthy was prevented from be-