taken up into heaven. He finds the Almighty sitting in something like the best room of a Wallachian peasant's cottage-there is always something profoundly pathetic in the homeliness of the popular imagination, forced, like the princess in the fairy tale, to weave its semblance of gold tissue out of straw. On being asked what reward he desires for the good service he has done, Bakála, who had always passionately longed to be the owner of a bagpipe, seeing a half wornout one lying among some rubbish in a corner of the room, begs eagerly that it may be bestowed to him. The Lord, with a smile of pity at the meanness of his choice, grants him his boon, and Bakála goes back to earth delighted with his prize. With an infinite possibility within his reach, with the choice of wisdom, of power, of beauty at his tongue's end, he asked according to his kind, and his sordid wish is answered with a gift as sordid. Yes, there is a choice in books as in friends, and the mind sinks or rises to the level of its habitual society, is subdued, as Shakespeare says of the dyer's hand, to what it works in. Cato's advice, cum bonis ambula, consort with the good, is quite as true if we extend it to books, for they, too, insensibly give away their own nature to the mind that converses with them. They either beckon upward or drag down. And it is certainly true that the material of thought reacts upon the thought itself. Sheakspeare himself would have been commonplace had he been paddocked in a thinly shaven vocabulary, and Phidias, had he worked in wax, only a more in. spired Mrs. Jarley. A man is known, says the proverb, by the company he keeps, and not only so, but made by it. Milton makes his fallen angels grow small to enter the infernal council room, but the soul, which God meant to be the spacious chamber where high thoughts and generous aspirations might commune together, shrinks and narrows itself to the measure of the meaner company that is wont to gather there, hatching conspiracies against our better selves. We are apt to wonder at the scholarship of the men of three centuries ago and at a certain dignity of phrase that characterizes them. They were scholars because they did not read so many things as we. They had fewer books, but these were of the best. Their speech was noble, because they lunched with Plutarch and supped with Plato. We spend as much time over print as they did, but instead of communing with the choice thoughts of choice spirits, and unconsciously acquiring the grand manner of that supreme society, we diligently inform ourselves and cover the continent with a network of speaking wires to inform us of such inspiring facts as that a horse belonging to Mr. Smith ran away on Wednesday, seriously damaging a valuable carryall; that a son of Mr. Brown swallowed a hickorynut on Thursday; and that a gravel bank caved in and buried Mr. Robinson alive on Friday. Alas! it is we ourselves that are getting buried alive under this avalanche of earthy impertinences. It is we who, while we might each in his humble way be helping our

fellows into the right path, or adding one block to the climbing spire of a fine soul, are willing to become mere sponges saturated from the stagnant goosepond of village gossip.

"One is sometimes asked by young people to recommend a course of reading. My advice would be that they should confine themselves to the supreme books in whatever literature, or still better to choose some one great author, and make themselves thoroughly familiar with him. For, as all roads lead to Rome, so do they likewise lead away from it, and you will find that, in order to understand perfectly and weigh exactly any vital piece of literature, you will be gradually and pleasantly persuaded to excursions and explorations of which you little dreamed when you began, and will find yourselves scholars before you are aware. For remember that there is nothing less profitable than scholarship for the mere sake of scholarship, nor anything more wearisome in the attainment. But the moment you have a definite aim attention is quickened, the mother of memory, and all that you acquire groups and arranges itself in an order that is lucid, because everywhere and always it is in intelligent relation to a central object of constant and growing interest. This method also forces upon us the necessity of thinking, which is, after all, the highest result of all education. For what we want is not learning, but knowledge-that is, the power to make learning answer its true end as a quickener of intelligence and a widener of our intellectual sympathies. I do not mean to say that every one is fitted by nature or inclination for a definite course of study, or indeed for serious study in any sense. I am quite willing that these should browse in a library,' as Dr. Johnson called it, to their hearts' content. It is, perhaps, the only way in which time may be profitably wasted. But desultory reading will not make a full man,' as Bacon understood it, of one who has not Johnson's memory, his power of assimilation, and, above all, his comprehensive view of the relations of things. Read not,' says Lord Bacon, in his Essay of Studies,'' to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously (carefully), and some few to be read wholly and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy.' This is weighty and well said, and I would call your attention especially to the wise words with which the passage closes.

"I have been speaking of such books as should be chosen for profitable reading. A public library, of course, must be far wider in its scope. It should contain something for all tastes, as well as the material for a thorough grounding in all branches of knowledge. It should be rich in books of reference, in encyclopædias, where one may learn without cost of research what things are generally known. For it is far more useful

to know these than to know those that are not generally known. Not to know them is the defect of those half trained and therefore hasty men who find a mare's nest on every branch of the tree of knowledge. A library should contain ample stores of history, which, if it do not always deserve the pompous title which Bolingbroke gave it, of philosophy teaching by example, certainly teaches many things profitable for us to know and lay to heart; teaches among other things how much of the present is still held in mortmain by the past; teaches that, if there be no controlling purpose, there is, at least, a sternly logical sequence in human affairs, and that chance has but a trifling dominion over them; teaches why things are and must be so and not otherwise; teaches, perhaps, more than anything else, the value of personal character as a chief factor in what used to be called destiny, for that cause is strong which has not a multitude but one strong man behind it. History is indeed mainly the biography of a few imperial men, and forces home upon us the useful lesson how infinitesimally important our own private affairs are to the universe in general. History is clarified experience, and yet how little do men profit by it-nay, how should we expect it of those who so seldom are taught anything by their own! Delusions, especially economical delusions, seem the only things that have any chance of an earthly immortality. I would have plenty of biography. It is no insignificant fact that eminent men have always loved their Plutarch, since example, whether for emulation or avoidance, is never so poignant as when presented to us in a striking personality. Autobiographies are also instructive reading to the student of human nature, though generally written by men who were more interesting to themselves than to their fellow-men. I have been told that Emerson and George Eliot agreed in thinking Rousseau's Confessions' the most interesting book they had ever read.

"A public library should also have many and full shelves of political economy, for the dismal science, as Carlyle called it, if it prove nothing else, will go far toward proving that theory is the bird in the bush, though she sing more sweetly than the nightingale, and that the millennium will not hasten its coming in deference to the most convincing string of resolutions that were ever unanimously adopted in public meeting. It likewise induces in us a profound distrust of social panaceas.

"I would have a public library abundant in translations of the best books in all languages; for though no work of genius can be adequately translated, because every word of it is permeated with what Milton calls the precious life blood of a master spirit,' which cannot be transfused into the veins of the best translation, yet some acquaintance with foreign and ancient literatures has the liberalizing effect of foreign travel. He who travels by translation travels more hastily and superficially, but brings home something that is worth having, nevertheless. Translations properly used, by shortening the

labor of acquisition, add as many years to our lives as they subtract from the processes of our education.

"In such a library the sciences should be fully represented, that men may at least learn to know in what a marvellous museum they live, what a wonder worker is giving them an exhibition daily for nothing. Nor let art be forgotten in all its many forms, not as the antithesis of science, but as her elder or fairer sister, whom we love all the more that her usefulness cannot be demonstrated in dollars and cents. I should be thankful if every day laborer among us could have his mind illumined, as those of Athens and of Florence had, with some image of what is best in architecture, painting and sculpture to train his crude perceptions and perhaps call out latent faculties. I should like to see the works of Ruskin within the reach of every artisan among us. For I hope some day that the delicacy of touch and accuracy of eye that have made our mechanics in some departments the best in the world may give us the same supremacy in works of wider range and more purely ideal scope.

"Voyages and travels I would also have, good store, especially the earlier, when the world was fresh and unhackneyed and men saw things invisible to the modern eye. They are fast sailing ships to waft away from present trouble to the Fortunate Isles.

"To wash down the dryer morsels that every library must necessarily offer at its board, let there be plenty of imaginative literature, and let its range be not too narrow to stretch from Dante to the elder Dumas. The world of the imagination is not the world of abstraction and nonentity, as some conceive, but a world formed out of chaos by the sense of the beauty that is in man and the earth on which he dwells. It is the realm of might be, our heaven of refuge from the shortcomings and disillusions of life. It is, to quote Spenser, who knew it well,

The world's sweet inn from care and wearisome turmoil.'

Do we believe, then, that God gave us in mockery this splendid faculty of sympathy with things that are a joy forever? For my part, I believe that the love and study of works of imagination is of practical utility in a country so profoundly material in its leading tendencies as ours. The hunger after purely intellectual delights, the content with ideal possessions, cannot but be good for us in maintaining a wholesome balance of the character and of the faculties. I for one shall never be persuaded that Shakespeare left a less useful legacy to his countrymen than Watt. We hold all the deepest, all the highest satisfactions of life as tenants of imagination. Nature will keep up the supply of what are called hardheaded people without our help, and, if it come to that, there are other as good uses for heads as at the end of battering rams.

"I know that there are many excellent people who object to the reading of novels as a waste of time, if as not otherwise harmful. But I think they are trying to outwit nature, who is sure to

prove cunninger than they. Look at children. One boy shall want a chest of tools and one a book, and of those who want books one shall ask for a botany, another for a romance. They will be sure to get what they want, and we are doing a grave wrong to their morals by driving them to do things on the sly, to steal that food which their constitution craves and which is wholesome for them, instead of having it freely and frankly given them as the wisest possible diet. If we cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, so neither can we hope to succeed with the opposite experiment. But we may spoil the silk for its legitimate uses. I can conceive of no healthier reading for a boy, or girl either, than Scott's novels or Cooper's, to speak only of the dead. I have found them very good reading at least for one young man, for one middle-aged man, and for one who is growing old. No, no; banish the Antiquary, banish Leather Stocking, and banish all the world! Let us not go about to make life duller than it is.

"But I must shut the doors of my imaginary library, or I shall never end. It is left for me to say a few words of fitting acknowledgment to Mr. Fitz for his judicious and generous gift. It is always a pleasure to me that I believe the custom of giving away money during their lifetime (and there is nothing harder for most men to part with, except prejudice) is more common with Americans than with any other people. It is a still greater pleasure to see that the favorite direction of their beneficence is toward the founding of colleges and libraries. My observation has led me to believe that there is no country in which wealth is so sensible of its obligations as our own. And, as most of our rich men have risen from the ranks, may we not fairly attribute this sympathy with their kind to the benign influence of democracy rightly understood? My dear and honored friend, George William Curtis, told me that he was sitting in front of the late Mr. Ezra Cornell in a convention, where one of the speakers made a Latin quotation. Mr. Cornell leaned forward and asked for a translation of it, which Mr. Curtis gave him. Mr. Cornell thanked him, and added: If I can help it, no young man shall grow up in New York hereafter without the chance, at least, of knowing what a Latin quotation means when he hears it.' This was the germ of Cornell University, and it found food for its roots in that sympathy and thoughtfulness for others of which I just spoke. This is the healthy side of that good nature which democracy tends to foster, and which is so often harmful when it has its root in indolence or indifference; especially harmful where our public affairs are concerned, and where it is easiest, because there we are giving away what belongs to other people. In this country it is as laudably easy to procure signatures to a subscription paper as it is shamefully so to obtain them for certificates of character and recommendations to office. And

is not this public spirit a natural evolution from that frame of mind in which New England was colonized, and which found expression in these

grave words of Robinson and Brewster: 'We are knit together as a body in a most strict and sacred bond and convenant of the Lord, of the violation of which we make great conscience, and by virtue whereof we hold ourselves strictly tied to all care of each other's good, and of the whole.' Let us never forget the deep and solemn import of these words. The problem before us is to make a whole of our many discordant parts, many foreign elements, and I know of no way in which this can better be done than by providing a common system of education and a common door of access to the best books by which that education may be continued, broadened, and made fruitful. For it is certain that, whatever we do or leave undone, those discordant parts and foreign elements are to be, whether we will or no, members of that body which Robinson and Brewster had in mind, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, for good or ill

"There is no way in which a man can build so secure and lasting a monument for himself as in a public library. Upon that he may confidently allow Resurgam' to be carved, for through his good deed he will rise again in the grateful remembrance and in the lifted and broadened minds and fortified characters of generation after generation. The pyramids may forget their builders, but memorials such as this have longer memories.

"Mr. Fitz has done his part in providing your library with a dwelling. It will be for the citizens of Chelsea to provide it with worthy habitants. So shall they, too, have a share in the noble eulogy of the ancient wise man: The teachers shall shine as the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.'

THE NEWBERRY LIBRARY IN

CHICAGO.

By W. F. POOLE, LL.D.

From the Congregationalist.

THE magnificent legacy of $3,000,000 for the establishment and support of a free public library, in the city of Chicago, became available by the death of Mrs. Julia Newberry, the widow of the testator, in Paris, on the 9th of December. This is the largest foundation for a free library ever made in this or any other country, and the establishment of such an institution is more a matter of national than of local importance. To scholars and lovers of choice books which are rarely seen in this country it will be cheering information to learn that the new institution with such large means is, by the conditions of the legacy, to be simply and strictly a library; and hence will be without the appendages of a picture gallery, an art school, a musical college, and courses of lectures, which were attached to Mr. George Peabody's donation to Baltimore, and which have so minimized the income of each department that neither the library nor any of the appendages have become, or can become, pre

eminent, or anything more than of local interest. In expending the income, and such part of the principal as they may think proper, the trustees are authorized to purchase and procure books, maps, and charts, and all such other articles and things as they may deem proper for a library, and for extending and increasing such library.' The only other restrictive condition attached to the legacy is that the library shall be in that portion of the city known as the "North Division,' or, in common parlance, the "North Side."

The testator wisely placed the organization and entire management of this great institution, as well as the distribution of his whole estate, in the hands of only two trustees, instead of a numerous board, among whom differences of opinion in its administration may arise. To these trustees he gave very large discretionary powers, among which was that of choosing their own successors. He was judicious, also, in selecting men for trustees who were eminently qualified for the duty, and in whom the public have entire confidence. The trustees he named in his will were Judge Mark Skinner and Mr. E. W. Blatchford. Judge Skinner, in 1874, being about to make a prolonged visit to Europe, resigned, and Mr. William H. Bradley was appointed to fill the vacancy. Although Mr. Newberry and his family were in their church relations Episcopalians, Judge Skinner is a Presbyterian, and Mr. Blatchford and Mr. Bradley are leading members of the New England (Congregational) Church, and perhaps the most efficient supporters of what may be called" New England thought" in the North-west. Mr. Blatchford is known to the readers of the Congregationalist as the Vice-President of the American Board of Foreign Missions, and a large contributor to its funds. The character of the trustees is a sure guarantee that the Newberry Library of Chicago will, under their management, serve the noblest ends.

Although established as a free public library, the new institution will have no official connection with, nor will it supplant the work or functions of, the Chicago Public Library. The latter is a municipal institution, with 115,000 volumes, and is supported by local taxation. Both are needed in a city which has now 700,000 inhabitants, and will soon have a million. The Public Library, now twelve years old, and with an annual income of $70,000, will go on giving out books for home use, establishing branch libraries and meeting the wants of the people at large. The trustees of the Newberry Library have not yet announced their plans, and, indeed, since the death of Mrs. Newberry, have not had time to form them; yet there is a feeling on the part of the public that the library will meet the higher wants of scholars, literary and scientific students of those from abroad as well as of those resident in the city. The possibilities as to what a $3,000,000 fund may do in supplying the neglected wants of American scholarship will be an inspiration to every student in the land.

The Astor Library, as to its origin and purposes, is the one with which the Newberry

Library will naturally be compared; and the comparison will show the enormous disproportion in their financial resources. John Jacob Astor died in March, 1848, and by his will devoted $400,000 to the foundation of the Astor Library naming $75,000 for the erection of a building, $120,000 for the purchase of books, and $25,000 for the purchase of a site. A permanent fund of $180,000 remained after these expenditures, for the support of the library. In 1855 his son, Mr. William B. Astor, gave an adjoining lot of land, money for the erection of another building, and a collection of books, the whole of his expenditures amounting to $300,000.* The foundation, therefore, of the Astor Library, not including interest, was $700,000, against the $3,000,000 fund of the Newberry Library.

Mr. Walter L. Newberry, the testator, came from Detroit, Mich., in 1834, when Chicago was a village having 3000 inhabitants. Three years later a city government was organized, and the first census then taken showed a population of 4170. Mr. Newberry brought with him some ready money, and invested it in 40 acres on the North Side," which is now the choicest residence property in the city. The limits of the purchase, by modern bounds, are Chicago Avenue on the north, Lake Michigan on the east, Kinzie Street on the south (within one block of the river), and Franklin Street on the west. Much of this property, covered with expensive buildings and constantly rising in value, is still held by the trustees of the Newberry estate. Mr. Newberry died in November, 1868, leaving a widow, two young unmarried daughters, and an estate of several millions. His will provided for the widow an annuity in lieu of dower, and left the bulk of the estate to his daughters, and, if they had children, to their issue. If one daughter should die without issue, the other daughter was to take the whole estate. If both daughters died without issue, then, "immediately after the decease of my wife," his trustees were to divide the estate into two equal shares," my said trustees being the sole judges of the equality and correctness of such division," and to distribute one share among the surviving descendants of his brothers and sisters, per stirpes, and not per capita. The other share was to be applied to the founding of a free public library, as already described. The elder daughter died in 1874, and the younger in 1876, both unmarried, and the contingency as to a public library took effect.

The widow, in lieu of the provision made for her in the will, elected to take her right of dower, and the trustees settled with her on this basis. She then went abroad, and resided in Paris and other parts of the Continent. Soon after the death of the younger daughter, the question was raised by the heirs in the courts as to the legal time for the distribution of the estate, and the interpretation of the clause in the will,

*Bureau of Education's "Report on Public Libraries," 1876, p. 931. A third building has since been erected, and the Astor family has made other gifts to the library.

"immediately after the decease of my wife." Did it mean the actual physical decease of the wife, or did it mean the termination of her legal and civil relations to the estate, to which the principle in law called "acceleration' would apply? In the lower courts a decision was given in favor of the latter view, which, if sustained, would have brought on the immediate distribution of the estate. An appeal being taken to the Supreme Court, the decision was reversed by a very close vote of the judges. A petition for a rehearing was filed, and the case was again tried, the best legal talent in the State being employed, and the court reaffirmed its former decision. The distribution was therefore postponed until the actual decease of Mrs. Newberry, which has now occurred.

The precise value of the estate will not be known until the appraisement now in progress is completed. Some very wild statements of its value have appeared in print, and for correcting these reports, one who is in a position to know its value has stated that his estimate is $6,000,000.

THE NEW YORK CITY HALL LIBRARY.

From the New York Commercial advertiser. THIS library originated in the attempt of a Frenchman, named Alexander Vattemare in 1842 to establish a foreign literary bureau or exchange which should be under control of the common council. He expected to collect numerous foreign volumes, and to make it the headquarters for literary men of all nations in passing through the city. The room, then much smaller, and now occupied by the library, was given to him. He began with his own very valuable library of several hundred volumes in French, but met with little success, and in two years the attempt at collecting a library was abandoned. His books, now valued at about $40,000, remained in possession of the Board of Aldermen.

In the mean time a number of volumes containing the proceedings of the Board of Aldermen was rapidly increasing, while the clerk of the board found it impossible to attend to the numerous requests for information concerning its past transactions. It was then decided to turn the room occupied by Mr. Vattemare into a library which should contain the records of all matters pertaining to the commonalty of New York. This intention has been fulfilled, and the chronicler of this city's history may find ample material in the musty volumes on its shelves unattainable elsewhere. There are between four and five thousand volumes. Of these the more recent are in good condition, as are also those in French, which are rarely consulted. The library also contains volumes of the original manuscript of the early proceedings of the Board of Aldermen, together with such as have been printed since 1830. It also contains the laws of the State since 1785. These are but a few of the many valuable authorities to be found here.

About forty volumes are added yearlyviz., two volumes containing the laws of the State, seven containing the proceedings of the

Board of Aldermen and about thirty from Congress.

ant.

When the great importance of this library is considered, as well as the fact that it is the only source from which much information concerning the past history of this city can be obtained, it would naturally be expected that it would be an object of great solicitude and care to those who have the city's affairs in charge. This, however, has not been the case. Formerly the librarian was appointed at a good salary to attend to comparatively few books, and these appear in many cases to have been abused. Pages have been torn out, and it is said that volumes have been stolen. The salary has been greatly reduced, and the librarian is chosen merely with political ends in view. Of late a stricter watch has been kept, and the volumes of recent date are in fair condition. The clerk of the Board of Aldermen is the real custodian of the books, and the librarian is merely an assistA new librarian is appointed every year, and in the last decade there has been only one instance in which the same man has held the office for two successive years. As the appointment of this officer lies with the Board of Aldermen, the object of these frequent changes is quite evident. The consequences are equally so. The inquirer enters the room seeking information which he believes such a library is likely to contain. He calls for a catalogue. There is none. He then describes what he wants, naturally expecting the librarian will know just where the books are kept; but that officer is very apt to know as little of their whereabouts as the inquirer himself. The salary of the office is not such as to attract men of great intelligence or high attainments; and, in any case, knowing that he is sure to be superseded at the end of the year, no one is likely to make any special effort to qualify himself as a guide to the ignorant.

Only one attempt has been made to prepare a catalogue of the library, but the librarian who began the work was superseded as usual after his year's service, and his successor was either too indolent to complete it or too strongly impressed with a sense of the frailty of his tenure of office to employ his time with no hope of reward. It may be remembered that Mr. R. H. Stoddard, the poet, when appointed librarian some years ago, was so discouraged by the disorganization and disorder of the library management that he resigned the office.

The Board of Aldermen appear to have no special interest in the library, as such, beyond the salaried office involved, and which is at its disposal. Indeed, some of the city fathers wish to do away with it, which perhaps accounts for some of the highly-colored reports of its mismanagement which have appeared from time to time.

Another abuse is that the room is not reserved as a library. A reporter was surprised, while sitting in the library, to notice the entrance of several Italians, among them a woman. Obviously their object was not historical research. In answer to a question a gentleman said: "Oh, it's some Italians going to be married. When a