Page:On the Difficulty of Correct Description of Books - De Morgan (1902).djvu/31

 implication, as of delicate intellect, sneers at the manufacture of the stuff called useful knowledge, which is carried on at the Museum, yet all whose understandings deserve a sounder title will see how much better that indispensable manufacture must go on, with such a library at command of the workman. This workman, fifty years ago, could obtain nothing but what his publisher could lend him [18] in nine cases out of ten. To all of whom we have hitherto been speaking, a correct description of books is most essential: and by half of them, at least, old books, such as we have been examining, are frequently consulted. On the other hand, the library is frequented by many who only acquire the books of most easy description, and by many who come but for books of amusement. These classes might be suited by a very easy catalogue, as to most of the books which they want; probably such entries as 'Encyclopaedia Britannica' and 'Guy Mannering' would serve their usual purposes. But these classes have not been useless. It may be suspected that the respect with which the House of Commons has treated the Museum library is due to the system under which most voters may obtain admission; and also that, if a library of research had been set apart for men of research, its interests would have been joked, yawned, or sneered out of the House by the unlearned majority. Nevertheless, so soon as literature can run alone, there are many and obvious reasons why a separation should take place between the libraries of the reader and the investigator.

The mistakes into which professed bibliographers once fell have been illustrated in this article, but not their application; for which, at length, we had not room. We had, however, no doubt that, before our conclusion arrived, we should casually meet with something new and striking on this point, which might serve as an instance; and we are not disappointed. The 'Bibliotheca Philosophica Struviana ' Gottingen,