278 CHARLES AMMI CUTLER 



thony Absolutes in this country, as they did in England twenty 

 five years before, an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge. 

 But the proprietary libraries had been founded by gentlemen 

 desirous of promoting the diffusion of useful knowledge and 

 extending the means of information, and as Duche writes in 

 1774, 'Tor one person of distinction and fortune there were 

 twenty tradesmen that frequented the library." These men 

 came there to learn. It may be doubted whether women fre- 

 quented the libraries at all. Amusement, the culture of the 

 imagination, the culture of a love and appreciation of beauty, 

 must have been very much in the background. 



The next variety of library to be established was the mer- 

 cantile, with which are to be joined the young men's associa- 

 tions, mechanics' institutions, and apprentices' libraries. 

 They sprang up in connection with the marked educational 

 movement of the second and third quarters of the century, 

 were designed mainly for young men who could not afford to 

 purchase a share in the joint stock libraries but could pay a 

 small annual fee, and they usually had classes for evening in- 

 struction and courses of lectures. They were another step in 

 cheapening knowledge. Like the social libraries, they flour- 

 ished for a time, and are still useful where they have be- 

 come solidly established, or in states where the free library 

 system has not yet penetrated, but they are destined to give 

 way in time to their powerful rival. 



They had an effect probably not in the least contemplated 

 by their founders. Like all libraries, they were continually in 

 want of money; they obtained it by extending their member- 

 ship beyond the merchants and clerks of the original plan to 

 any one who would pay the annual fee. To attract the public, 

 it was necessary to provide what the public wanted to read. 

 Going into competition with the circulating library, they 

 adopted its tactics, and the mercantile became as much 

 lighter than the social as the social was lighter than the college 

 library. So was the way prepared for the free public library, 

 both by a lessened cost to readers and by a mitigated austerity 

 in book selection. 



The inadequacy of these libraries for any thorough inves- 

 tigation compelled the formation of special libraries — his- 



