418 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



superfluous. Each of the hundred authors, who have pro- 

 duced those thousands of vohimes, had read also /«5 thousands. 

 The scholar is formed, not by the books alone that he has 

 read, but he receives, at second hand, the essence of multi- 

 tudes of others ; for every good book supposes and implies 

 the previous existence of numerous other good books. 



An individual even of moderate means, and who is con- 

 tent to confine his studies within somewhat narrow bounds, 

 may select and acquire for himself a library adequate to his 

 own intellectual wants and tastes, though entirely unsuited 

 to the purposes of one of different or larger aims, and by 

 the diligent use of this, he may attain a high degree of men- 

 tal culture ; but a national library can be accommodated to 

 no narrow or arbitrary standard. It must embrace all 

 science — all history — all languages. It must be extensive 

 enough, and diversified enough, to furnish aliment for the 

 cravings of every appetite. We need some great establish- 

 ment, that shall not hoard its treasures with the jealous 

 niggardliness which locks up the libraries of Britain, but 

 shall emulate the generous munificence which throws open 

 to the world the boundless stores of literary wealth of Ger- 

 many and France — some exhaustless fountain, where the 

 poorest and humblest aspirant may slake his thirst for 

 knowledge, without money and without price. 



Of all places in our territory, this central heart of the 

 nation is the fittest for such an establishment. It is situated 

 in the middle zone of our system — easily and cheaply acces- 

 sible from every quarter of the Union — blessed with a mild, 

 a salubrious, and an equable climate — abundant in the nec- 

 essaries and comforts of physical life — far removed from 

 the din of commerce, and free from narrow and sectional 

 influences. 



Let us here erect a temple of the muses, served and guarded 

 by no exclusive priesthood, but with its hundred gates thrown 

 open, that every votary may enter unquestioned, and you 

 will find it thronged with ardent worshippers, who, though 

 poverty may compel them to subsist, like Heyne, on the 

 pods of pulse and the parings of roots, shall yet forget the 

 the hunger of the body in the more craving wants of the 

 soul. 



From the limited powers of our National Government, 

 and the jealous care with which their exercise is watched 

 and resisted, in cases where the interests of mere humanity 

 — not party — are concerned, it can do little for the general 

 promotion of literature and science. The present is a rare 

 opportunity, the only one yet offered, and never perhaps, to 



