List

“ ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PERSONS
Who sent me Collections of Dialectical Words and Phrases in response to my letter of February, 1892, published in the newspapers.
The names and addresses are given exactly as I received them. The collections of those marked with an asterisk (*) were very important. ”

“ Everyone who reads these lines knows well of a score, or of a dozen of his fellow-creatures to whom he might be of use if he would but give himself the trouble. We cannot furnish each of our friends with a list of her or his outpatients, but each of us has such a list printed in very efficient type upon his heart of hearts. ”

“ The space devoted to the superfluous list of magazines, anthologies, and collections indexed could be better utilized for fuller citations in the author and title indexes. Anyone consulting the title index must move to the author index and then to the list of contents to gather sufficient information to locate a story. ”

“ The least attractive list, composed largely, it may be, of works on theology, mineralogy, theosophy, or jurisprudence, may contain the precise book you are searching for. The most attractive lists must naturally be perused carefully. ”

“ New lists continually displaced the old ones. Every strange or partly familiar word encountered in his reading was immediately jotted down, and later, when a sufficient number had been accumulated, were typed and pinned to the wall or looking-glass. ”

“ Why can't somebody give us a list of things that everybody thinks and nobody says, and another list of things that everybody says and nobody thinks? ”

“ What kind of list is the first group of words below? Do all the words under figure 1 belong in that list? Would it be a better list without the word velvet? Write velvet on the first line of your paper.
In each group of words, there is one that does not belong there. Find the misplaced word in each group, writing one under the other. You have now made a new list of words of one class by taking one word out of each group. Pick out a good heading for this new list and write it as the top.
[Pg 97]
THE TRAINING OF A BOY KING
We think little of kings and princes nowadays. ”

“ But there are two sorts of 'listing.' There is the listing which is the yielding to the mob of ignoble passions and clamant desires of the animal nature within us, and there is the 'listing' which is obeying the impulses of a higher will, that has been blended with ours. ”

“ There was a formula—a sort of list of things to say and do—which I recognized as something black and forbidden; something which I had read of before in furtive paragraphs of mixed abhorrence and fascination penned by those strange ancient delvers into the universe’s guarded secrets whose decaying texts I loved to absorb. ”

“ It matters little that no two lists will be identical. If we run the lists up to a hundred of the greatest individuals in the literature of western civilization, we need but select the names that are common to all the lists. ”

“ The reader, who is thinking as he [Pg 11] reads, will group together words that express one idea, or symbolize one picture, presenting these ideas and pictures to himself and to the listener one by one, and separating by a pause, of greater or less length, those not closely connected. ”

“ Bare lists of words are found suggestive to an imaginative and excited mind; ”

“ With this explanation, therefore, of the famous categories, I shall close my slight sketch of the system. Has the reader ever considered the meaning of the term Category—a term so ancient and so venerable from its connexion with the most domineering philosophy that has yet appeared amongst men? The doctrine of the Categories (or, in its Roman appellation, of the Predicaments) is one of the few wrecks from the Peripatetic philosophy which still survives as a doctrine taught by public authority in the most ancient academic institutions of Europe. ”

“ Let me urge here the advantage of a complete collection, or one as nearly complete as the industry of the collectors would allow, of all the notices in our literature, which mark, and would serve as dates for, the first incoming of new words into the language. These notices are of the most various kinds. Sometimes they are protests and remonstrances, as that just quoted, against a new word’s introduction; sometimes they are gratulations at the same; while many hold themselves neuter as to approval or disapproval, and merely state, or allow us to gather, the fact of a word’s recent appearance. ”

“ There are thousands of possible matters of investigation, some of which are from time to time discussed, but before the catalogue can profitably follow its “specific” rule in regard to them they must attain a certain individuality as objects of inquiry, and be given some sort of name, otherwise we must assign them class-entry.
And it is not always easy to decide what is a distinct subject. Many catalogues have a heading Preaching. Is Extempore preaching a sufficiently distinct matter to have a heading of its own? ”

“ In fact, reading catalogues is like reading books—even with attentive reading one is liable to skip a title, or, at least, overlook its real significance, just as one may not always grasp the true meanings of an author upon first perusal. ”

“ But we shall have to follow here the guidance of the categories,—only, as in the present case a thing, "I," as thinking being, is at first given, we shall—not indeed change the order of the categories as it stands in the table,—but begin at the category of substance, by which at the a thing a thing is represented and proceeds backwards through the series. ”

“ These records [of things seen and felt by men] are often set forth in terms which may be used only by those of rarely special gift and training,—the terms of architecture and sculpture, of painting and music; but oftener and more freely they are phrased in the terms which all men learn somehow to use,—the terms of language.
We may perhaps turn aside from our discussion of the dash to consider a point in the above sentence which illustrates our general principle of grouping, especially as exhibited in Sentences 10 to 10-3. ”

“ What does matter, for the completion of my log-book, are a few more sentences easily written in but a few words, and yet to me important because they blend in a splendid summary of all that makes life worthy and dear. ”

“ If every term of a collection can be hooked on to a number, and all the finite numbers are used once, and only once, in the process, then our collection must have just as many terms as there are finite numbers. ”

“ A proper number of such details adds interest and clearness to the images; too many but serve to render the whole obscure. If properly selected and effectively presented, minor details add much to the beauty or usefulness of a description, but if strung together in short sentences, the effect may be both tiresome and confusing. A mere catalogue of facts is not a good description. They must be arranged so that those which are the more important shall have the greater prominence, while those of less importance shall be properly subordinated. ”

“ The long, dark, cruel winter was only just over, spring had come in a breath, but to Maria Vasilievna driving along the road in a cart there was nothing either new or attractive in the warmth, or the listless, misty woods flushed with the first heat of spring, or in the flocks of crows flying far away across the wide, flooded meadows, or in the marvellous, unfathomable sky into which one felt one could sail away with such infinite pleasure. ”

“ If the topic for which you are looking does not appear in the index, try looking for the same thing under another name; or under some related topic. Having found the material in one book, use more than one if your time permits. When you feel that you have secured the material which will make a complete answer to the question, write the answer on one of your cards for keeping notes. ”

“ The pronounceable combinations of letters are probably some trillions in number. Now, as a sentence is a selection of words, the possible sentences must be inconceivably more numerous than the words of which it may be composed. A book is a combination of sentences, and a library is a combination of books. ”

“ To ask if a category is true or not, must sound strange to the ordinary mind: for a category apparently becomes true only when it is applied to a given object, and apart from this application it would seem meaningless to inquire into its truth. ”

“ Under that principle, "where general words follow specific words in a statutory enumeration, the general words are construed to embrace only objects similar in nature to those objects enumerated by the preceding specific words." ”

“ Body of the Story.—In writing the body of the story, the first thing to strive for is proper coherence with the lead. This caution is worth particular heed when the lead contains a single-sentence quotation, an indirect question, or a paragraph of direct statement from somewhere in the body of the speech. Few things are more incongruous in a story than a clever epigrammatic lead and a succession of quoted statements following, none of which exhibits a definite bearing on the lead. ”

“ The table before you, good reader, is only a part of the object of your cognition. You yourself are the other part. The true and total object of your mind is the table, or whatever else it may be,—and yourself. ”

“ A carved book-rest should hold the dictionary in place close to the working-chair, and a revolving case within arm’s reach should bring to it desired works of reference and such especially treasured volumes from which ideas may be collected—another name for inspiration. ”

“ If I may venture to recommend one study in particular, for its invigorating influence, I would name the practice of frequent composition. She who writes daily, whether it be in her journal, or essays on indifferent subjects, or even good letters, will, in addition to many other benefits of this practice, strengthen in herself greatly the habit of connected and profitable thought. ”

“ To lay out courses of reading for that numerous class who are desirous of “improving their minds,” and are willing to spend considerable effort and time but know neither where to begin or how to go on.
5. To state what is the practice of the catalogue in the entry of the publications of Congress, Parliament, Academies, Societies, etc., the notes to be made under those words.
F. REFERENCES. 202. In references use the word See when there is no entry under the heading from which the reference is made; See also when there is one. ”

“ To facilitate reference, not only has the very full Table of Contents been set in its usual place, but its items have also been applied throughout the book, in the form of rubrics to the several sections. ”

“ They are comparable to a catalogue, or to the card-index of a library which are an easy indicator to the millions of books, leaving us totally ignorant as to their contents and value. Hence, the higher we ascend, the farther we penetrate into the region of the fictitious and the vacant. ”

“ And from inquiring what is the best order, have naturally fallen into the belief that there is an order which truly represents the facts—have persevered in seeking such an order; quite overlooking the previous question whether it is likely that Nature has consulted the convenience of book-making. ”

“ I read all the catalogues, became skilled in bibliography, lived in the bookshops; spent all my time collating and going over my precious volumes. In the evenings, instead of talking to my wife about the Ives' coming ball, or a problem in bridge, or the newest shades of silk, I pored over the catalogues which came to me from all parts of the world. ”

“ Two Kinds of Leads.—The story, technically, is [Pg 69] [A] made up of two parts—the lead and the body. The lead is easily the more important. If a reporter can handle successfully this part of the story, he will have little trouble in writing the whole. The lead is the first sentence or the first group of sentences in the story and is of two kinds, the summarizing lead and what may be called the informal lead. The summarizing lead gives in interesting, concise language the gist of the story. ”

“ Our collection forms a periodical work, in the conduct of which it would be obviously improper to tie ourselves too rigidly, in these introductory discourses, to any absolute rules of minute arrangement, which might prevent us from availing ourselves of such valuable sources of information as may occur in the course of our researches. ”

“ I have formed, so far as I know, but one dogmatic conviction, and it is this: that the best catalogue which the art of man can invent is a catalogue in two inter-dependent yet independent parts; the first and greater part an [pg 131] alphabetical catalogue of authors, the second and lesser part a subject-index. ”

“ In this latter respect as furnishing the key to the outer world in so far as the objects of the latter are a matter of direct enumeration,—capable of being counted,—it is the first great step in the conquest of nature. ”

“ Skill in division is valuable not only as a method of exposition but it is linked closely with an effective method of proving to be explained in the next chapter—the method of residues. Can you recall any extracts given in this book in which some form of division is used? Is this form of material likely to be more important in preparation or in the finished speech? Explain your opinion—in other words, present a specimen of exposition.
Definition. One of the simplest ways of explaining is to define a term. Dictionary definitions are familiar to everyone. ”

“ The general principle of right arrangement in sentences, which we have traced in its application to the leading divisions of them, equally determines the proper order of their minor divisions. In every sentence of any complexity the complement to the subject contains several clauses, and that to the predicate several others ”

“ It has been necessary, in selecting letters, to omit many fully as interesting as those which have been included; barely to touch on subjects of research, or of political and religious discussion, which are worthy of being pursued further, and to omit some subjects entirely. Very probably another more experienced hand would have made a better selection, but my aim has been to give, through characteristic letters and contemporary opinions, an accurate portrait of the man, and a succinct history of his life and labors. ”