40 Mis. No. 98. 



could be arranged in order of relevancy, with respect say to natural 

 science, from the one which is most essential to it down to the one which is 

 least essential to it, there would be nO perceptible break anywhere, no point 

 at which natural knowledge ends and other knowledge begins. "^ What,, 

 then, must he who would devote himself to the enlargement of one de- 

 partment of knowledge, wait' ere he commences till he has mastered all? 

 By no meanS; such is not the inference. The legitimate conclusion from 

 the argument is; that no thorough student in any one department of knowl- 

 edge can safely say that he may not need 10,000, or even 50,000, books, 

 and many of them of a character at first sight most remote from his path, 

 not, indeed, for the purpose of reading or of studying tiiem, but in order to 

 settle, by momentary references, questions which may arise, the settling 

 of which may be of the greatest importance to his progress. 



If this be true with respect to those sciences where there is the least ap- 

 parent want of books, much more is it so of those whose deductions are 

 drawn from researches among the records of the past. The demands of 

 the statesman, the jurist, the political economist, the historiau, cannot be 

 met without furnishing the materials for the widest investigation, nor al- 

 Avays, indeed, those of the novelist or the poet. I have sometimes heard it 

 said that the knowledge of the middle ages to be gained hom oi]e of .the 

 novels' of Sir Walter Scott is far more valuable tlian that to be acquired 

 from the perusal of a library of dusty tomes. But who that has ever lived 

 was a more constant deiver amidst the dusty lore of the past, in old 

 libraries, among worm-eaten books, than the illustrious autiiorof these vol- 

 umes. He could not otherwise have produced them. Without the large 

 libraries we could not have had the enchanting romance. 



If it be asked, whether the libraries which we already possess are not 

 sufficient to meet this demand, we reply, in the first place, that the large 

 libraries of Europe, containing from 200,000 to 800,000 volumes, some of 

 them selected with great care, have not been found large enough to meet 

 the wants of her scholars, and we may not allow that our countrymen 

 are less fond of learning, less thorough and profound in their investigations^ 

 when they have the means of pursuing them, than tlieir transatlantic 

 brethren. 



It may, however, jusdy be supposed diat the number of volumes is a 

 very inadequate criterion of the value of a library; that a judicious selec- 

 tion may do much to compensate for numerical inferiority, and,jConse- 

 quently, that our libraries, although smaller, may be more useful to learn- 

 ing than the larger collections of Euro])e. This may be sufficiently 

 answered by applying another and the most satisfactory method of testing the 

 real value of our libraries; which is to take some works of acknowledged 

 learning and importance, and inquire what books were necessary for their 

 composition, and how many of them our public libraries can furnish? 

 This process, it will be seen, is a tedious one. I have, hovv'ever, pursued it 

 in reference to a considerable number of books on a variety of subjects. 

 Some of the results thus obtained may be stated in a few words, and they 

 are fair specimens of all the others. 



In Mr. Wheaton's History of International Law — a production which 

 reflects great credit upon American talent and scholarship, and which pro- 

 cured for its lamented author the honor of 'election to the French Insti- 

 tute — 139 works are referred to in the notes. A much larger number 

 were, of course, consulted, many of which are mentioned in the body ol 

 the work. Thirty-nine among the most important and expensive of those 



