Is It Not Much More Direct To Omit Such Works Altogether?
As the object in view in the present catalogue is to render it useful to
the generality of readers, and not valuable to the bibliographer, those
works are omitted which have no other recommendation but their extreme
scarcity.
For such works are of course accessible only to very few, and
when obtained, convey little interest or information.
A select catalogue then appears to be the most useful, and of course must
occupy less room. But to this objections start up, which it will be proper
to consider.
In the first place, What is the criterion of good works of voyages and
travels? The antiquarian will not allow merit to such as pass over, or do
not enter, _con amore_, and at great length, into the details of the
antiquities of a country: the natural historian is decidedly of opinion,
that no man ought to travel who is not minutely and accurately acquainted
with every branch of his favourite science, and complains that scarcely a
single work of travels is worthy of purchase or perusal, because natural
history is altogether omitted in them, or treated in a popular and
superficial manner. Even those who regard man as the object to which
travellers ought especially to direct their attention, differ in opinion
regarding the points of view in which he ought to be studied in foreign
countries. To many the travels of Johnson and Moore seem of the highest
merit and interest, because these authors place before their readers an
animated, philosophical, and vivid picture of the human character; whereas
other readers consider such works as trifling, and contend that those
travels alone, which enter into the statistics of a country, convey
substantial information, and are worthy of perusal.
Whoever draws up a catalogue, therefore, must, in some measure, consult the
judgment, taste, and peculiar studies of all these classes of readers, and
endeavour to select the best works of travels in all these branches.
But there is a second objection to a select catalogue to be considered. The
information and research of the person who draws it up may be inadequate to
the task, or his judgment may be erroneous. This observation, however,
applies to a complete catalogue - indeed the first part of it, - the
information and research requisite, in a greater degree to a complete than
to a select catalogue; and with respect to the judgment required, it will
be equally required in a complete catalogue, if the bad and indifferent
works are distinguished from the good ones; and if they are not, such a
catalogue, we have already shewn, can only lead astray into unnecessary or
prejudicial reading.
Whoever draws up a catalogue, or gives to the public a work on any
particular subject, is bound to make it as good as he can; but, after all,
he must not expect that there will be no difference of opinion about his
labours. Some will think (to confine ourselves to the catalogue) that he
has admitted books that ought not to have found a place in it; whereas
others will impeach his diligence, his information, or his judgment,
because he has omitted books which they think ought to have entered into
it.
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