Note 54 — JOSEPH-MARIE QUÉRARD.

We believe the old notion that a bibliographer must know everything it is possible to know has long since exploded. It was a very popular thing for the early writers in any science to give a list of the qualifications a man required to follow it. They generally were so numerous that to have attempted to study the science according to their plan would have been madness. Peignot in his Manuel du Bibliophile, Dijon, 1823, p. lii., says that a bibliographer should have a knowledge of all sciences. This may be requisite for any one who is attempting universal bibliography—not for a special bibliograph; if he has a good education combined with the above qualities, though even in a less degree than Quérard, he may justly hope for utility and success.