I N D For statistics of the denomination and the reasons which have induced it to assume the name Congregationalist, see CONGREGATIONALISM. Authorities. Fletcher, History of Independency, 4 vols. 1847-9; Heywood and Wright, Cambridge University Transactions, 2 vols., 1854 ; Vaughan, Memorials oftho Stuart Dtjnasty, 2 vols. , 1831 ; Roger Williams, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, ed. Underbill, 1848; Hanbury, Historical Memorials relating to the Independents, 3 vols., 1839-44; Carlyle, Cromwell s Letters and Speeches, 1845; Under bill, Tracts on Liberty of Conscience and Persecution, 1846 ; Masson, Life of Milton, 6 vols., 1859-80; Vaughan, T/ie Protectorate of Cromwell, 2 vols, 1839; Stoughton, Church and State Two Hun dred Years Ago, 1862; Underbill, Broadmead Records, 1847; Gould, Documents relating to Act of Uniformity, 1862; Calamy, Nonconformists Memorial, 3 vols., 1802; Toulmin, Protestant Dissenters in England, 1814 ; Stoughton, Religion in England under Quee.n Anne and the Georges, 2 vols., 1878; Bennet, History of Dissenters during the last Thirty Years, 1839; Barclay, Inner Life of the Religious Societies of the Commonwealth, 1877 ; Vaughan, English Nonconformity, 1862 ; Price, History of Protestant Noncon formity in Englmd, 2 vols., 1836-38; Bogue and Bennet, History of Dissenters, 4 vols., 1808-12; Wilson, History and Antiquities of Dissenting Churches, kc., 4 vols., 1808-14; Stoughton, Ecclesias tical History of England, 5 vols., 1867-74; Dexter, The Congrega tionalism of the Last Three, Hundred Years, 1880; Neal, History of the Puritans, 5 vols. ; Waddington, Congregational History, 5 vols., 1869-80. (A. M. F.) INDEX is a word that may be understood either specially as a table of references to a book or, more gene rally, as an indicator of the position of required information on any given subject. According to classical usage, the Latin word index denoted a discoverer, discloser, or informer ; a catalogue or list ; an inscription ; the title of a book ; and the fore or index-finger. Cicero also used the word to express the table of contents to a book, and explained his meaning by the Greek form syllabus. Shakespeare uses the word with the general meaning of a table of contents or preface thus Nestor says (Troilus and Cressida, i. 3) " And in such indexes, although small pricks To their subsequent volumes, there is seen The baby figure of the giant mass." Table was the usual English word, and index was not thoroughly naturalized until the beginning of the 17th century, and even then it was usual to explain it as " index or table." By the present English usage, according to which the word table is reserved for the summary of the contents as they occur in a book, and the word index for the arranged analysis of the contents, we obtain an advan tage not enjoyed in other languages , for the French table is used for both kinds, as is indice in Italian and Spanish. There is a group of words each of which has its distinct meaning but finds its respective place under the general heading of index work; these are calendar, catalogue, digest, inventory, register, summary, syllabus, and table. 1 The value of indexes was recognized in the earliest times, and many old books have full and admirably constructed ones. A good index has sometimes kept a dull book alive by reason of the "ralue or amusing character of its contents. Mr Carlyle refers to Prynne s Histrio-Mastix as "a book still extant, but never more to be read by mortal;" but the index must have given amusement to many from the curious character of its entries, and Attorney- General Noy particularly alluded to it in his speech at Prynne s trial. Indexes have sometimes been used as vehicles of satire, and the witty Dr William King was the first to use them as a weapon of attack. His earliest essay in this field was the index added to the second edition of the Hon. Charles Boyle s attack upon Bentley s Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris, 1698. 1 Another old word occasionally used in the sense of an index is "pye." The late Sir T. Duffus Hardy, in some observations on the derivation of the word " Pye-Book " (which most probably conies from the Latin pica), remarks that the earliest use he had noted of pye in this sense is dated 1547 " a Pye of all the names of such Balives as been to accompte pro anno regni regis Edwardi Sexti primo. " D 729 To serve its purpose well, an index must be compiled with care, the references being placed under the heading that the reader is most likely to seek. An index should be one and indivisible, and not broken up into several alpha bets ; thus every work, whether in one or more volumes, ought to have its complete index. This important rule has been often neglected in English books, and is almost universally rejected in foreign ones, to the great incon venience of readers. The mode of arrangement calls for special attention ; this may be either chronological, alpha betical, or according to classes, but great confusion will be caused by uniting the three systems. The alphabetical arrangement is so simple, convenient, and easily under stood that it has naturally superseded the other forms, save in some exceptional cases. Much of the value of an index depends upon the mode in which it is printed, and every endeavour should be made to set it out with clear ness. In old indexes the indexed word was not brought to the front, but was left in its place in the sentence, so that the alphabetical order was not made perceptible to the eye. There are few points in which the printer is more likely to go wrong than in the use of marks of repetition, and many otherwise good indexes are full of the most perplexing cases of misapplication in this respect. The oft-quoted instance Mill on Liberty on the Floss actually occurred in a catalogue. There appears now to be a revived interest in indexes, and as books daily increase the need of some satisfactory digest of information becomes more keenly felt. In 1877 the Index Society was formed with the object of making and printing indexes of books unprovided with them, of compiling and printing indexes of particular subjects, and of gradually preparing a universal index for reference. In order to obtain uni formity in the compilation of indexes a series of rules for indexing have been drawn up by the society. Several publications have already been issued to the subscribers. The following is a list of some of the most important indexes, both of words and of subjects. The chief indexes of words are dictionaries, but these are a special class by themselves. Next come concord ances : the first one to the Bible was compiled by Hugo of St (. her in 1247, the first English concordance to the New Testament was published in 1536, and to the whole Bible in 1550, compiled by John Marbeck. Other Biblical concordances are those of R. F. Hervey, 1579 ; C. Cotton, 1622 (frequently reprinted) ; J. Downame, 1632 ; R. Wickens, 1655; S. Newman, 1650, 3d ed. 1682; A. Cruden, 1737 (this superseded all works of the same character) ; and R, Young, 1880. The following concordances may also be mentioned : to the Psalter, 1834 ; to the Prayer Book, 1851 ; to the Ilid, by G. L. Prendergast, 1875 , to Shakespeare, by S. Ayscough (1790), by F. Twiss (1805), by Mrs Cowden Clarke (1845), by J. 0. Halliwell (Handbook Index, 1866), and by A. Schmidt (1874), and to Shakespeare s Poems, by Mrs H. H. Furness, 1874 ; to Milton s Paradise Lost (1741), and to his Poetical Works, by H. J. Todd (1809), byG. L. Prendergast (1857), and by C. D. Cleveland (1867); to Pope s Works, by PI Abbott, 1875 ; to Tennyson s Works, by D. B. Brightwell, 1869, and another published by Strahan, 1870 ; to In Memoriam (1862); to Kcble s Christian Year, 1871; and to Watts s Psalms, by D. Guy, 1774. A large number of historical works have been supplied with indexes in separate volumes. Among the more important indexes of prose writers are those of the works of Samuel Richardson (1755), Joanna Southcott (n. d., and 1815), John Strype (1828), and T. Carlyle (1874); The Wellington Despatches (1839) ; Wesley s Journals (1872). A large number of series of publications of societies and of periodicals have been supplied with general indexes. The Indexes to the Statutes and to the Journals of the Houses of Parliament are perhaps the most elaborate works of the kind ever published. In 1778 a sum of 12,900 was voted for indexes to the Journals of the House of Commons. Few parliamentary papers are issued without a satisfactory index being added. M.st of the indexes mentioned above refer to particular books, but in 1848 Mr W. F. Poole published in New York an index to sub jects treated in reviews and other periodicals ; a second edition was published in 1853 as An Index to Periodical Literature. A greatly enlarged edition is now in preparation with the co-operation of English and American librarians. A larger work of a similar char acter for scientific literature, but arranged under authors names
XII. 92
