Omniscience may be a foible of men, but it is…

Omniscience may be a foible of men, but it is not so of books. Knowledge, as Johnson said, is of two 1: you may know a thing yourself, and you may know where to find it. Now, the amount which you may actually know yourself must, at its best, be limited, but what you may know of the 2 of information may, with proper training, become almost boundless. And here come the 3 and use of reference books—the working of one book in connection with another—and applying your own 4 to both. By this means, we get as near to that omniscient volume which tells everything as ever we shall get, and although the single volume or work which tells everything does not exist, there is a vast number of reference books in existence, knowledge and proper use of which is essential to every intelligent person. Necessary, as I believe reference books to be, they can easily be made to be 5 to idleness, and too mechanical a use should not be made of them.