. TWENTY-NINTH CONGRESS, 1845-1847. 339 



other branch, but no longer there to adorn its debates with the gay 

 flowers of his brilliant eloquence. 



He objected to limiting the cost of the librarj^ building to $100,000, 

 seeing, as he reminded the Senate, that the "largest class" of public 

 libraries contain from a quarter of a million to upward of a half a 

 million of volumes. He said: 



Twenty thousand dollars a year for twenty-five years are $500,000; and $500,000 

 directly expended, not by a bibliomaniac, but by a man of sense and reading, 

 thoroughly instructed in bibliography, would go far, very far, toward the purchase 

 of as good a library as Europe can boast. (Speech of Senator Choate, January 8, 

 1845. ) 



He adds, a little further on, that "such a step taken, we should 

 never leave the work unfinished;" and that when finished, it would 

 "rival anything civilization has ever had to show." 



He argues of the value and importance of such a librar}^ after this 

 wise: 



I do not know that of all the printed books in the world we have in this country 

 more than 50,000 different works. The consequence has been felt and lamented by 

 all our authors and all our scholars. It has often been said that Gibbon's History 

 could not have been written here for want of books. I suppose that Hallam's Mid- 

 dle Ages, and his Introduction to the Literature of Europe could not. Irving's 

 Columbus was written in Spain; Wheaton's Northmen prepared to be written in 

 Copenhagen. See how this inadequate supply operates. An American mind kindles 

 with a subject; it enters on an investigation with a spirit and ability worthy of the 

 most splendid achievement; goes a little way; finds that a dozen books — one book, 

 perhaps — is indispensable, which can not be found this side of Gottingen or Oxford; 

 it tires of the pursuit, or abandons it altogether, etc. 



And the Senator branches ofi^, in his own brilliant style, into a dis- 

 sertation on the value and importance of such a library : "A vast store- 

 house," says he; "a vast treasury of all the facts which make up the 

 history of man and of nature; * * '^ a silent, yet wise and eloquent 

 teacher; dead, yet speaking; not dead! for Milton has told us: 'A good 

 book is not absolutel}^ a dead thing — the precious lifeblood, rather, of- 

 a master spirit; a seasoned life of man, embalmed and treasured up, 

 on purpose to a life beyond life.' " 



If the question were between a library and no library, between 

 books and no books, the language thus employed, fervid as it is, 

 would be all insufficient to shadow forth the towering magnitude of 

 the subject. John Faust — if, indeed, to the goldsmith of Mentz the 

 world owe the art of typesetting — conferred on his race a greater boon 

 than ever before did living man. There is no comparison to be made 

 between the effects of the art of printing and these of any other dis- 

 covery put forth by human wit. There is nothing to which to liken 

 it. It was a general gaol delivery of the thoughts of the world. It 

 was a sending forth of these winged messengers, hitherto bound down 

 each in his own narrow sphere, emancipated, over the earth. And 



