To
be sure, it is easy to add to any new discovery--_inventis aliquid
addere facile est_; and, therefore, the student, after well mastering
the rudiments of his subject, will have to make himself acquainted
with the more recent additions to the knowledge of it. And, in
general, the following rule may be laid down here as elsewhere: if a
thing is new, it is seldom good; because if it is good, it is only for
a short time new.
What the address is to a letter, the title should be to a book; in
other words, its main object should be to bring the book to those
amongst the public who will take an interest in its contents. It
should, therefore, be expressive; and since by its very nature it must
be short, it should be concise, laconic, pregnant, and if possible
give the contents in one word. A prolix title is bad; and so is one
that says nothing, or is obscure and ambiguous, or even, it may be,
false and misleading; this last may possibly involve the book in the
same fate as overtakes a wrongly addressed letter. The worst titles
of all are those which have been stolen, those, I mean, which have
already been borne by other books; for they are in the first place a
plagiarism, and secondly the most convincing proof of a total lack of
originality in the author.
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