Chapter 2

THE SEARCH FOR DOCUMENTS

Documents: their nature, use, necessity 17

Utility of _Heuristic_, or the art of discovering documents 18

The difficulties of Heuristic--Ancient times--H. H. Bancroft--State of things at the Renaissance 19

Growth of libraries--Collectors--Effects of revolutionary confiscation in promoting the concentration and the accessibility of documents 20

Possible future progress--Need for the cataloguing and indexing of documents 27

Students and bibliographical knowledge--Effect of present conditions in deterring men from historical work 32

The remedies--Official cataloguing of libraries--Activity of learned societies--of governments 34

Different kinds of bibliographical works needed by students 37

Different degrees of difficulty of Heuristic in different parts of History--to be kept in view when choosing a subject of research 38