Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - General Index.djvu/7

 PKEPACE.

NINE complete Series rest upon the shelves of those prudent or fortunate enough to possess an entire set of NOTES AND QUERIES, and the Editor finds himself called upon once more to write the Preface to one of those Q-eneral Indexes which do most of all things to facilitate access to the treasures of the work. It is pleasant to think that after fifty-four years the line of continuity remains unbroken, and that contributors to the First Series are still actively co-operating in the development of the Tenth. The extent to which the mass of new investigators and students is leavened by the old will become fully apparent to those who study the new Index with the attention it merits. For the jl first time the names, pseudonyms, or initials of correspondents appear in the Index. A K necessary result of this is to double the bulk of the volume and the cost of production, but an immediate and, as time will prove, incalculable advantage will attend the augmented ease of reference. Few of us can recall with certainty in how many discussions we have participated, or how many fresh subjects we have opened out in the course of six years. Reference to the present Index will bring to light, I venture to think, many a contribution which the writer himself would otherwise have forgotten.

Apart, moreover, from the convenience to the writer of seeing at a glance with what subjects he has dealt, the gain when, by his own action or that of others, it is sought to collect for republication the " chips from his workshop " is self-evident. Successive Indexes to NOTES AND QUERIES are among the costliest and most carefully guarded of books, and it is morally certain that this, the most ambitious of all, which is issued in a strictly limited edition, will share the exemplary and elsewhere unprecedented advance in price which previous volumes have witnessed. The name of a writer and his choice and treatment of a theme are thus placed virtually beyond the possibility of loss.

Of the great national works in the preparation for which NOTES AND QUERIES has taken part, two of the utmost importance are practically complete. The * Dictionary of National Biography* now rests on all scholarly shelves, and its surviving editor is enjoy- ing the rewards and honours due to his labours. The ' English Dialect Dictionary ' is all but complete, and waits the full recognition, our share in which has been ungrudgingly and enthusiastically accorded. Preparations for Dr. Murray's great English Dictionary will occupy a considerable portion of the new Series, but it, too, is approaching completion. Meanwhile fresh labours only, if at all, less priceless are in hand, and in these NOTES AND QUERIES will occupy the same conspicuous and honourable place that it holds in regard to the great questions of history and genealogy, as well as that of primitive culture, with the very origin of which it is closely associated.

The curiosity of humanity concerning its own past and interest in its own progress are not likely to be exhausted. So long as these last, the present Editor, whose long association with his contributors is his chief glory and delight, and his successors will rely with confidence on the cultivated and affectionate support which has main- tained the publication in its proud pre-eminence.

JOSEPH KNIGHT.

11, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.G., June, 1904.