698 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that may ultimately destroy the per- 

 nicious system now so widely deplored, 

 but from which escape is generally held 

 to be most hopeless ? Professor Smith 

 well observes : " Such an agreement as 

 would be fatal to the standing organi- 

 zation of civil discord is by no means 

 out of the question ; to it tends the ad- 

 vance of political science and the scien- 

 tific spirit generally, which, gradually 

 making its way in all spheres, is not 

 likely to leave politics untouched. ... In 

 fine, as has been already said, the best 

 and indeed the only possible form of 

 government, if the advocates of party 

 are to be believed, is one, the founda- 

 tion of which must inevitably be weak- 

 ened by every advance of the public 

 intelligence, and which the attainment 

 of truth on the great political questions 

 will bring utterly to the ground." 



FREE CIRCULATING LIBRARIES. 



In that great work of popular edu- 

 cation to which the present age is com- 

 mitted, the importance of books and 

 libraries is sufficiently recognized, al- 

 though the practical measures for mak- 

 ing these instrumentalities available 

 are, as yet, far from being perfected. 

 The object has hitherto been, rather 

 to get together extensive collections of 

 books, with as many as possible that 

 are rare and expensive, and place them 

 in monumental buildings, that may be 

 at the same time ornaments to the 

 town and memorials of the munificence 

 of founders and donors. Such institu- 

 tions are invaluable, but they are by no 

 means adequate to do the most impor- 

 tant work which libraries are capable 

 of accomplishing. They meet the wants 

 of scholars, of people of leisure and 

 cultivation, and they are also generally 

 available to all classes who prize books 

 sufficiently to take a certain amount of 

 trouble in obtaining them. But there 

 is a very large portion of the population 

 in cities who from various causes are 

 practically hindered from making use 



of these large libraries. To multitudes 

 the expense of membership is a serious 

 objection, and there are other multi- 

 tudes who are both capable of reading 

 and willing to read, but who do not 

 care enough about it to make the little 

 effort necessary to render such libraries 

 useful to them. They are indifferent, 

 perhaps dull, and can only be reached 

 by removing every possible impediment 

 to the procurement of books ; and it is 

 this class, moreover, which most needs 

 the improvement that may be obtained 

 by habitual reading. Of our common- 

 school system this, at any rate, may be 

 said, that it teaches the mass of the peo- 

 ple to read, and thus brings them to a 

 point where further cultivation is pos- 

 sible ; but if it has been necessary to 

 resort to compulsory education to over- 

 come the disinclination for even learn- 

 ing to read, it is surely a matter of 

 moment to make the utmost possible 

 provision for the general encourage- 

 ment of the habit of reading as a means 

 of continued mental cultivation. 



Influenced by such considerations, 

 a few persons have recently combined, 

 in New York, to take an efficient step 

 in this direction. They began in a 

 small and experimental way, but the 

 results of the trial they have made have 

 been in a high degree satisfactory and 

 promising. Rooms were taken in Bond 

 Street, and a few books collected some 

 by purchase and some by donations to 

 be lent out free of expense to anybody 

 and everybody who wished them, the 

 only requirement being that some ref- 

 erence should be given, to satisfy the 

 librarian that the borrower had a fixed 

 residence. It was no sooner known 

 that books were thus obtainable, than 

 the applications for them increased until 

 they met the full measure of the supply, 

 and the effort was proved in every re- 

 spect successful. In the report of the 

 trustees, recently issued, it is said : 



The library now contains 5,085 volumes. 

 A very lartje proportion of these have been 

 contributed by friends of the library, and 



