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tory of Leo X, it was comparatively easy for him to cross the channel and 

 consult larger collections on the continent; but for our authors a voyage of 

 several thousand miles, and tiie expense of a residence abroad, are almost 

 insurmountable barriers to literary exertion. 



To lay the foundations of a large library is not a short nor an easy task. 

 Few persons, even among learned men, estimate its difficulties aright. 

 Much time and labor must be expanded with but small immediate results. 

 Patience and toil must be exercised by those intrusted with the task, and 

 tolerated, if not appreciated, by the public. The history of similar insti- 

 tudons must be studied in order to avoid their mistakes, and profit by 

 their successful experience. Lists of books must be made by a diligent 

 study of the literature of every department of knowledge, and a wide con- 

 sultation with men profoundly acquainted with each. Plans must be 

 formed, not merely for the moment, and to meet temporary exigencies; 

 but such as are capable of indefinite extension; such as will not require to 

 be remodelled even when the library is expanded to its greatest magni- 

 tude. 



How much expense, delay, mortification, and complaint might have 

 been spared, had the directors of the large libraries of Europe, from the- 

 outset, foreseen and provided for the great enlargement of these estab- 

 lishments. 



Tlie large public library is, in truth, a modern, a new institution. It 

 is only within (he last half century that the uses of such libraries have- 

 been fully understood and appreciated, and the method of forming and, 

 conducting them studied upon true principles, and with satisfactory re- 

 sults. The public libraries of the ancients, and those of later times, 

 down nearly to the present century, were, as aids to learning, or means of 

 popular progress in knowledge, not to be compared with those of our own 

 day. 



Books, as Voltaire has well said, rule the whole civilized world. But 

 so rapid has been of late years the muldplication of them, that few 

 scholars indeed can procure, by their own private resources, all that they 

 need for their investigations. Yet, with the multiplication of books has 

 increased the number which it is necessary for every one to consult who 

 would not be behind the age in his learning. Hence public libraries have- 

 become an indispensable requisite to the attainment of liberal scholarship. 

 The books in a public library cannot, however, be so well known to any^ 

 particular student as those of his own shelves, nor can they be equally 

 accessible to him; for he is not the only one who has a right to them, nor 

 is it his convenience alone that is to be consulted. Hence arises the im- 

 portance of so arranging, cataloguing, and keeping the library, as to facil- 

 itate the researches of each, without prejudice to the claim of any, or to 

 the transmission of the privilege unimpaired to others. That the meet- 

 ing of all these demands is no light matter^ may be inferred from the fact 

 that it has been made the serious study of some of the ablest minds in 

 Europe; that its principles have been in Germany so thoroughly dis- 

 cussed and reduced to system, as, within the last twenty years, to have 

 claimed admission inlo the family of the sciences. 



It was in view of considerations like these, that the plans of the Smith- 

 sonian Library were made to embrace the early accumulation of works 

 for bibliographical reference on all branches of learning; the collection of 

 information respecting existhig libraries of this and of other countries,: 



