-  Tlie   Guimet  Museum   contains  a  Library  numbering  already  about
24,000  volumes.     See  also  page  410,


CHAP,  xi]  SPECIAL   LIBRARIES  401

interested ;  this  fact  will  become  evident  to  any  one  who
will  make  an  examination  of  the  contents  of  the  limited
number  of  Special  Libraries  which  have  already  been
collected.  The  History  of  Eeligion,  indeed,  has  already
been  very  satisfactorily  handled.^  It  was  natural,  and  even
essential,  that  this  department  should  be  studied  and
mastered  first;  for  the  results  thus  secured  constitute  the
materials  which  have  subsequently  to  be  compared  and
analysed  by  the  Expert.  It  is  only  after  this  prior  dis-
cipline has  been  carried  forward  to  a  certain  point  that
the  processes  of  Comparative  Eeligion  can  begin.-  The
Philosophy  of  Eeligion,  likewise,  though  developed  some-
what prematurely,  is  represented  by  a  very  large  assort-
ment of  volumes.  The  publications  of  Germany  alone,
illustrative  of  this  special  sphere  of  work,  would  fill  many
shelves  in  a  Library.  These  books  seem  perhaps  to  be
increasing  more  rapidly  than  is  actually  the  case ;  for  many
of  them,  even  when  distinctly  superior  to  the  rest,  are
gradually  outgrown  and  drop  out  of  sight,  and  their  places
have  to  be  refilled  by  others.  The  explanation  of  these
failures  lies  in  the  facts  (a)  that  the  results  accumulated
by  students  of  Comparative  Eeligion  are  still  largely  un-
recorded, and  (h)  that  the  great  bulk  of  such  material  has
still  to  be  collected.  Hence  the  time  for  making  general-
isations has  scarcely  yet  arrived.  Comparative  Eeligion,
however,  though  last  to  employ  this  aid,  has  now  likewise
summoned  the  printing  press  to  its  assistance ;  and  that
indispensable  agency  will  doubtless  lend  to  it,  as  to  so
many  other  aspiring  movements,  a  prompt  and  abiding
impulse.  A  quite  admirable  instance  in  point  is  to  be
found  in  Mr.  Macculloch's  recent  book.^  At  the  same  time,
to  show  how  extremely  little  has  yet  been  accomplished,
it  is  only  necessary  to  examine  the  catalogues  of  the  Library
of  the  British  Museum,  the  Bihliotheque  Nationale  in  Paris,

^  Cp.  Chapter  XII.     See  also  Appendix.     Note  I.,  pages  483  f.
