[1] "Independence Day" is a holiday in all the states and territories
of the United States.
[2] As read before the army meanwhile, it was headed "In Congress,
July 4, 1776. A Declaration by the representatives of the United
States of America in General Congress assembled."
[3] _Two Treatises of Government_, No. ii. § 54, as to age,
abilities, virtue, &c.
INDEPENDENTS, in religion, a name used in the 17th century for those
holding to the autonomy of each several church or congregation, hence
otherwise known as Congregationalists. Down to the end of the 18th
century the former title prevailed in England, though not in America;
while since then "Congregationalist" has obtained generally in both.
(See CONGREGATIONALISM.)
INDEX, a word that may be understood either specially as a table of
references to a book or, more generally, 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 for the purpose of detailed reference,
we obtain an advantage 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
value or amusing character of its contents. Carlyle referred 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).
To serve its purpose well, an index to a book 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 alphabets; thus every work, whether in one or
more volumes, ought to have its complete index. The mode of arrangement
calls for special attention; this may be either chronological,
alphabetical or according to classes, but great confusion will be caused
by uniting the three systems. The alphabetical arrangement is so simple,
convenient and easily understood 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 clearness. 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. But in modern times there has been a
great advance in the art of indexing, especially since the foundation in
1877 in England of the Index Society; and the growth of great libraries
has given a stimulus to this method of making it easy for readers and
researchers to find a ready reference to the facts or discussions they
require. Not only has it become almost a _sine qua non_ that any good
book must have its own index, but the art of indexing has been applied
to those books which are really collections of books (such as the
_Encyclopaedia Britannica_), to a great newspaper like the London
_Times_, and to the cataloguing of great libraries themselves. The work
in these more elaborate cases has been enormously facilitated by the
modern devices by means of which separate cards are used, arranged in
drawers and cases, American enterprise in this direction having led the
way. And the value of the work done in this respect by the Congressional
Library at Washington, the British Museum and the London Library
(notably by its Subject Index published in 1909) cannot well be
exaggerated. (See also BIBLIOGRAPHY).
There are numerous books on Indexing, but the best for any one who
wants to get a general idea is H. B. Wheatley's _How to make an Index_
(1902).