第一册(18)

 閱 John Veitch, Memoir of Sir William Hamilton 畢。亦舊經眼者。Hamilton 雖博覽強識，而才思實鈍，且頗有近日美國作博士論文者習氣：講求目錄學 (bibliography in its nobler sense)，一也 (pp. 94-5)；一題入手，必通覽前人成說 (this totalising of the literature of a subject — p. 379)，硜硜然不敢缺一，然後立論，二也 (pp. 378-9)；讀書每不貫澈首尾，而先求之書末之索引、書前之序目，絕似 Edward Copleston 所引為嘲謔之技倆 (Advice to a Young Reviewer, p. 7: “In works of science & recondite learning, tables of contents & indexes are blessed helps, but, more than all, the Preface” etc.)，而美其名曰剔抉書之臟腑 (tearing out the entrails of a book)，三也 (p. 45) (Thomas Fuller, Worthies, “Alan of Llyn”: “The lazy kind of learning which is only indical”; Dunciad, Bk. I. 279: “the index learning”; Swift: “A Letter of Advice to a Young Poet”: “The modern device of consulting indexes, which is to read books hebraically, & begin where others usually end... cut off the portmanteau from behind, without staying to dive into the pockets of the owner”; J. de Maîstre, Les Soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg, VIeentretien: “Sur la fois d’un index”)。然有數事，實導近世學人先路，而功不見錄者：研求經院哲學(Schoolmen)，一也 (p. 108)；窺見 Wordsworth 詩中義理與 Kant 哲學相通，二也 (88-9)；欲為Ramus 作傳 (a good subject for a biography)，攷求其行事學說，三也  (pp. 317-8)。