Thomas Carlyle denounced the putters forth of indexless books, and his sincerity is proved by the publication in 1874 of a separate index to the people's edition of his Works. In his introduction to Cromwell's Letters and Speeches he is very severe on some of the old folios he was forced to use:
"The Rushworths, Whitelocks, Nalsons, Thurloes; enormous folios, these and many other have been printed and some of them again printed but never yet edited,—edited as you edit wagon-loads of broken bricks, and dry mortar simply by tumbling up the wagon! Not one of those monstrous old volumes has so much as an index. It is the general rule of editing on this matter. If your editor correct the press, it is an honourable distinction."
A very eminent name may be added to the list of indexers, for, when a boy of fifteen, Macaulay made the index to a volume of the Christian Observer (of which periodical his father was editor), and this he introduced to the notice of Hannah More in these words:
"To add to the list, my dear Madam, you will soon see a work of mine in print. Do not be frightened; it is only the Index to the thirteenth volume of the Christian Observer, which I have had the honour of composing. Index-making, though the lowest, is not the most useless round in the ladder of literature; and I pride myself upon being able to say that there are many readers of the Christian Observer who could do without Walter Scott's works, but not without those of, my dear Madam, your affectionate friend, Thomas B. Macaulay."
Although proud of his work, Macaulay places index-making in a very low position. In later life he used a contemptuous expression when he was describing the appearance of those who followed the lowest grade in the literary profession. The late Mr. H. Campkin, a veteran indexer, quotes this description in the preface to one of his valuable indexes—that to the twenty-five volumes of the Sussex Archæological Collections:
"The compilation of Indexes will always and naturally so, be regarded as a humble art; 'index-makers in ragged coats of frieze' are classed by Lord Macaulay as the very lowest of the frequenters of the coffee houses of the Dryden and Swift era. Yet ''tis my vocation, Hal,' and [F1: `'tis?] into very pleasant companionship it has sometimes brought me, and if in this probably the last of my twenty-five years' labours in this direction, I have succeeded in furnishing a fairly practicable key to a valuable set of volumes, my frieze coat, how tattered soever signifieth not, will continue to hang upon my shoulders not uncomfortably."
Though he did not rate highly the calling of the indexer, Macaulay knew that that lowly mortal has a considerable power in his hand if he chooses to use it, for he can state in a few words what the author may have hidden in verbiage, and he can so arrange his materials as to turn an author's own words against himself. Hence Macaulay wrote to his publishers, "Let no d—— Tory make the index to my History." When the index was in progress he appears to have seen the draught, which was fuller than he thought necessary. He therefore wrote to Messrs. Longmans:
"I am very unwilling to seem captious about such a work as an Index. By all means let Mr. —— go on. But offer him with all delicacy and courtesy, from me this suggestion. I would advise him to have very few heads, except proper names. A few there must be, such as Convocation, Nonjurors, Bank of England, National Debt. These are heads to which readers who wish for information on these subject will naturally turn. But I think that Mr. —— will on consideration perceive that such heads as Priestcraft, Priesthood, Party spirit, Insurrection, War, Bible, Crown, Controversies, Dissent, are quite useless. Nobody will ever look for them; and if every passage in which party-spirit, dissent, the art of war, and the power of the Crown are mentioned, is to be noticed in the Index, the size of the volumes will be doubled. The best rule is to keep close to proper names, and never to deviate from that rule without some special occasion." [14]
[ [14] Trevelyan's Life and Letters of Macaulay, chap. xi.
These remarks exhibit Macaulay's eminently common-sense view of the value of an index, but it is evident that he did not realise the possibility of a good and full index such as might have been produced. The History of England, with all its wealth of picturesque illustration, deserves a full index compiled by some one capable of exhibiting the spirit of that great work in a brilliant analysis.
Sir George Trevelyan's delightful Life of his uncle was originally published without an index, and Mr. Perceval Clark made an admirable one, both full and interesting, which was issued by the Index Society in 1881. Mr. Clark writes in his preface: