* * * * *

TO SOME AUTHORS.

"How did I like that book?" I gained,
From reading it, joy unrestrained;
'Twas perfect--had it but contained
An Index!

Brilliant, yet also erudite,
Profound, in facts, in diction light,
Why failed its writer to indite
An Index?

'Twas history, on its social side,
With stories, good to quote, supplied,
Yet how quote anything, denied
An Index?

A book that "He who reads might run"--
MACAULAY, BOSWELL, GREEN, in one!
Its Printer, too--what made _him_ shun
An Index?

I missed a date, harked back. "A fad!"
You'll say? Perhaps. It made _me_ mad.
My hunt was vain, because, it had
No Index.

O Authors of instructive chat,