288 CONGRESSIONAL PROCEEDINGS. 



not. Irving's Columbus was written in Spain. Wheaton's Northmen 

 was 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 with an 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 Gottingcn or Oxford. It tires of the pursuit, or abandons it alto- 

 gether, or substitutes some shallow conjecture for a deep and accurate 

 research, and there an end. Let me refer to a passage or two of the 

 complaints of studious men on this subject: 



An extensive library, answering to the wants of literary men who are to use it, is 

 essential to the public and effectual promotion of learning. In this country the 

 want of large libraries is a serious discouragement of superior attainments and accu- 

 rate researches in almost every walk of study. The time necessary for reading or 

 examining a particular book is often consumed in attempts to discover or obtain it, 

 and frequently after every effort it can not be procured. We are obliged to give 

 over our inquiries on subjects where we would arrive at fullness and exactness in 

 our knowledge because destitute of the assistance which the learned, in the same 

 track of study, have furnished, or to continue them under the disadvantage of igno- 

 rance respecting what has been done by others. Thus we are liable to be occupied 

 in solving difficulties which have been already cleared, discussing questions which 

 have been already decided, and digging in mines of literature which former ages 

 have exhausted. Everyone who has been in the way of pursuing any branch of 

 study in our country beyond the mere elements, or the polite and popular literature 

 of the time, knows how soon the progress is often arrested for want of books. This 

 is not the case merely with persons of moderate means who are unable to purchase 

 a library of their own, but it is a want felt under the most favorable circumstances. 



It is also of great importance that the library of a university should not only be 

 good, but very good, ample, munificent, a deposit of the world's knowledge. It is 

 a grievous thing to be stopped short in the midst of an inquiry for perhaps the very 

 book that throws most light upon it; and the progress of learning must be small 

 indeed among us so long as the student must send across the Atlantic at every turn 

 for the necessary aids to his pursuits. It is not with us as it is in Europe, where 

 very many libraries exist and where what is not contained in one may be found in 

 another, and the learned are able to aid each other's labors by furnishing mutually, 

 as desired, extracts and references to such books as may exist at one place and fail at 

 another. To say nothing of our two best libraries being remote from each other and 

 from many parts of the country, they are themselves, of course, inadequate. In 

 making one tolerably complete department expressly chosen for that and entirely 

 devoted to it we might easily comprise the amount of books in our largest collection. 

 When it is added that the libraries mentioned are miscellaneous, their number of 

 books small, as the sum total is scattered over all the parts of knowledge, and many 

 introduced by separate contributions without mutual reference to each other, it is 

 obvious that, comparatively speaking, the best must be extremely defective. (North 

 American Review, vol. 8, p. 192. ) 



What public library in this country contains the materials for an accurate history 

 of any one department of science? Take even the most limited, or rather one of the 

 most recent of all, the science of political economy. Here our researches are con- 

 fined to one definite period. We have no dusty archives to explore, no time-worn 

 manuscripts to decipher. The origin of the science is within the memory of our 

 fathers, and we ourselves have witnessed its sudden growth and rapid development. 



