A Glance at Private Libraries (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3know not how else to dispose of them, forgetr ting that the only light that many books can shed is that evolved when they are used to kindle fires. America has produced a few authors worthy the name; but it has been in spite of the want of books in this country, and not through their abundance. Our great authors have found the material of their works in the vast libraries of Europe, or else they have imported it for themselves at a very heavy expense. The late President Adams undertook to collect the authorities referred to by Gibbon in his History of Eome, not half of which were then, probably, to be found on this side of the water. The lecturer upon any historical subject, except that pertaining to America, would be obliged to visit Europe to find ample materials, certainly if he was confined to the textit{public libraries of this country. Our nation is not to be reproached for its paucity of libraries. There were many things that necessarily preceded large public collections of books. The land was to be cleared and cultivated. After bread came the church, the school-house, and the town-house, and such collections of books as might be expected in a new country of vast material resources, that began early to mature, Section 4and that are now developed with wonderful activity. The set time for the proper materials to cultivate the mind is at hand. Already public attention is directed to the subject. Very recently a few libraries in this country have indicated a most promising growth. It is quite safe to predict, that a few years more only will be needed to give us, at least, two or three collections of books of two hundred thousand volumes each; and looking forward half a century, we can see a national library of half a million or a million tomes, for when any important enterprise is once sta...