Note 27 — WHAT IS AN INDEX?

“The Rushworths, Whitlockes, Nalsons, Thurloes; enormous folios, these and many others 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 available Index. It is the general rule of editing on this matter. If your editor correct the press, it is an honourable distinction.”—Carlyle’s Introduction to Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches.