The Making of Arguments - J. H. Gardiner

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by no means all college students can, you can soon get a list of the books that are there available on the subject. On many subjects there are bibliographies, or lists of books, such as those published by the Library of Congress; these will be found in every large library. For articles in magazines and weekly journals, which on most current questions have fresh information, besides a great deal of valuable material on older questions, go to Poole's "Index to Periodical Literature," which is an index both by title and subject to the articles in important English and American magazines from 1802 to 1906, and to "The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature," which began in 1901 and includes more magazines, and which is brought up to date every month.

      For other material the works listed below will be serviceable; they are the best known of the reference books, and some of them will be found in all libraries and all of them in large libraries. The books on this list by no means exhaust the number of good books of their own kind; they are good examples, and others will ordinarily be found on the same shelves with them.

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      THE NEW ENGLISH DICTIONARY (MURRAY'S) Unfinished: to have ten volumes, of which nine have now been published. This gives the history of each word for the last seven hundred years, with copious quotations, dated, to show the changes in its use.

      THE CENTURY DICTIONARY, CYCLOPEDIA OF NAMES, AND ATLAS New edition, 1911, in twelve volumes. This has fuller information about the meanings of the words than is usually found in a dictionary.

      THE NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY (WEBSTER'S) New edition, 1910, enlarged, with copious and exact etymologies.

      ROGET'S THESAURUS OF ENGLISH WORDS AND PHRASES A standard book of synonyms.

      FERNALD, ENGLISH SYNONYMS, ANTONYMS, AND PREPOSITIONS With illustrations and expositions of the differences in meaning.

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      ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA Very full; highly authoritative; 11th edition, 1910.

      NEW INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA Briefer; reedited in 1904.

      LA GRANDE ENCYCLOPIDIE; BROCKHAUS, KONVERSATIONS-LEXIKON Both copious and authoritative.

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      CRUDEN'S CONCORDANCE An index to every word in the Bible.

      BARTLETT'S CONCORDANCE TO SHAKESPEARE An index to every word in Shakespeare.

      BARTLETT'S FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS An index to a very large number of the quotations most frequently met with.

      BREWER'S DICTIONARY OF PHRASE AND FABLE This explains a great quantity of common allusions in words and phrases.

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      CENTURY CYCLOPEDIA OF NAMES This includes not only names of real persons, but also those of many famous characters in fiction.

      LIPPINCOTT'S UNIVERSAL PRONOUNCING DICTIONARY OF BIOGRAPHY AND MYTHOLOGY

      DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY Revised edition. Confined to English biography, and to persons dead at the dale of publication of Supplement (1909). The articles are full, and of the highest authority. In the index and epitome is a convenient summary of dates and facts.

      APPLETON'S CYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY Six volumes, 1887–1901; with supplement (unfinished), bringing it down to date.

      WHO'S WHO An annual publication; English, but with some American names; living persons only.

      WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA; WER IST'S; QUI ÊTES-VOUS Corresponding works for America, Germany, and France.

      DEBRETT'S PEERAGE A repository of a great mass of facts concerning English families of historical distinction.

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      THE STATESMAN'S YEAR BOOK Arranged by countries; contains a great mass of facts; has a bibliography at the end of each country or state.

      THE WORLD ALMANAC; THE TRIBUNE ALMANAC Examples of annuals issued by large newspapers, which contain an enormous mass of facts, chiefly American.

      WHITAKER'S ALMANAC Much miscellaneous information about the British empire and other countries.

      THE ANNUAL REGISTER; THE NEW INTERNATIONAL YEARBOOK; THE AMERICAN YEARBOOK These three give information about the events of the preceding year.

      INDEX TO THE LONDON Times

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      LIPPINCOTT'S NEW GAZETTEER A geographical dictionary of the world.

      THE CENTURY ATLAS With classified references to places.

      THE HANDY REFERENCE ATLAS Small size (octavo); a most useful book for the desk or library table.

      PLOETZ'S EPITOME OF UNIVERSAL HISTORY A very compact epitome of history, with all the important dates.

      NOTES AND QUERIES A periodical devoted to notes and queries on a multitude of curious and out-of-the-way facts; yearly index volumes are issued.

      BIBLIOGRAPHIES ISSUED BY THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

      SONNENSCHEIN'S THE BEST BOOKS A guide to about fifty thousand of the best available books in a great variety of fields, classified by subject.

      Make yourself familiar with all of these books which are within your reach. Get into the habit, when you have a few minutes to spare, of taking them down from the shelves and turning over the pages to see what they contain. And whenever a question of fact comes up in general talk, make a mental note of it, or better, one in writing, and the next time you go to the library hunt it up in one of these reference books. You will be surprised to see, when once you have made the habit, how short a time it takes to settle disputes about most facts; and at the same time you will be extending your general knowledge.

      In learning the use of these and other books, do not forget the most important source of all, the librarian. The one guiding principle of modern librarianship is to make the books useful; and it gives every proper librarian active pleasure to show you how to use the books in his charge.

      In using books and magazines scrutinize the character of the source. Is it impartial or partisan? Is its treatment of the subject exhaustive and definite, or cursory and superficial? Does the author know the subject at first hand, or does he rely on other men? On such points the second book or article will be easier to estimate than the first, and the third than the second; for with each new source you have the earlier ones as a basis for comparison. In any case do not trust to a single authority: no matter how authoritative it is, sooner or later the narrow basis of your views will betray itself, for an argument which is merely a revamping of some one else's views is not likely to have much spontaneity.

      In many subjects, and especially those of new or local interest, you will not find the facts gathered and assimilated for you; you must go out and gather

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