HENRY CHARLES LEA. ix 



His services in connection with tlie adoption of the first Inter- 

 national Copyright Act had the special value that he was both an 

 author and a publisher, and could look on the subject from two 

 points of view. The first of his two long periods of service on the 

 Board of Directors of the Philadelphia Library began early in this 

 period, closing in 1879. 



Before passing on to the characteristics of a later period it must 

 be noted that it was during this part of his life that ^Ir. Lea laid the 

 foundation of his library. So far as I am aware Air. Lea stands 

 alone among historical scholars in having done his work entirely in 

 his own library, without recourse to any university or public collec- 

 tion , and this library was entirely his own creation. He had no 

 nucleus for it, no aid in constructing it. No one who has evei 

 entered upon the serious study of a new field will fail to estimate 

 at something like its true value the difficulty of finding what 

 materials for its study exist, and of obtaining access to them. 

 In Mr. Lea's subject these difficulties existed in the highest de- 

 gree. Few bibliographical guides then existed, no older or even 

 contemporary scholar was at hand to give advice ; his ideals of 

 thoroughness were so uncompromising, and his desire for knowl- 

 edge of the actualities of the past was so keen, that the merely 

 obvious sources of information were quite inadequate to his desires. 

 Much that he did was pioneer work, in which equipment must be 

 constantly adjusted to newly discovered needs. Fortunately he had 

 means which enabled him to purchase books freely wherever they 

 might be found, and when the materials needed proved to exist only 

 in a manuscript form, to have special copies of those made for his 

 use. But the purchase price bears no very close relation to the value 

 of a library collected with care, insight, discrimination, years of labor 

 and watchfulness, and above all a constant realization of its character 

 as an instrument adapted to a certain specific end. I may perhaps 

 be pardoned if I say that Mr. Lea's bequest of his library to the 

 University of Pennsylvania instead of either burying it in a great 

 public collection, or allowing it to remain a purely private possession, 

 or scattering it to the four winds, seems to me to place in additional 

 clearness his conception of it as a working collection for purposes of 



