ABSTRACT
Bibliography in its idea is concerned with writings surviving in manuscript as much as with those which have been multiplied by print. The written book is as much a book as the printed book; the early printer, by his mechanical invention, merely gave the book-buyer more cheaply and abundantly a commodity like in all its aspects to that to which he was accstomed; and the principles of examining and recording both are the same in essentials. Bibliographical method falls into two reasonably distinct halves. The first is analytical or critical, the second systematic. General schemes for the classification of knowledge, and as a corollary, of books, both on library shelves and in catalogues, have been devised in plenty. The classification of the Library of Congress at Washington has been frequently hailed as the only really adequate one for use in considerable libraries.
