CHAPTER VII - HOW TO SET ABOUT AN INDEX
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2012
Summary
“And thus by God's assistance we have finished our Table. Miraculous almost was the execution done by David on the Amalekites who saved neither man nor woman alive to bring tidings to Gath. I cannot promise such exactness in our Index, that no name hath escaped our enquiry: some few, perchance, hardly slipping by, may tell tales against us. This I profess, I have not, in the language of some modern quartermaster, wilfully burnt towns, and purposely omitted them; and hope that such as have escaped our discovering, will only upon examination appear either not generally agreed on, by authors, for proper names, or else by proportion falling without the bounds of Palestine, Soli Deo gloria.”
—Thomas Fuller.RULES are needed for index making in order to obtain uniformity, but the mode of working must to a large extent be left to the indexer. Most of us have our own favourite ways of doing things, and it is therefore absurd to dictate to others how to set to work. If we employ any one to do a certain work, we are entitled to expect it to be well done; but we ought to allow the worker to adopt his own mode of work. Some men will insist not only on the work being well done, but also upon their way of doing it. This takes the spirit out of the worker, and is therefore most unwise.
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- How to Make an Index , pp. 172 - 205Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1902