16 
INTRODUCTION. 
people of the state of New-York are scarcely enjoying its first fruits. When it 
is remembered that knowledge exerts a self-expanding and self-regenerating 
power, and that the relations not only among the several American communities, 
but between all regions of the earth, are becoming more and more intimate, it is 
perhaps not presumptuous to suppose that the ripened fruits of the plan are to be 
developed in the intellectual, moral and social improvement of the whole human 
family.* 
The first notice of a library which we meet, bears date an hundred and four¬ 
teen years ago ; when an association in England, called the “ Society for the Pro¬ 
pagation of the Gospel,” transmitted to Richard Montgomerie, governor of the 
province, a thousand volumes, a gift from Dr. Millington, rector of Newington.f 
The society informed the governor, that the books were intended as a library for 
the use of the clergy and gentlemen of New-York, Connecticut, New-Jersey and 
Pennsylvania; and requested that the assembly would provide a depository. The 
subject was referred to the corporation of the city of New-York, who assigned an 
apartment in the city hall. In 1754, the sum of six hundred pounds was sub¬ 
scribed by an association in the city of New-York, and expended in the purchase 
of seven hundred volumes of “ new and well chosen books.” The society was 
incorporated in that year; and it was expected that its collection, containing the 
two libraries which have been mentioned, would, by further contributions, “ be¬ 
come vastly rich and voluminous.” The society still exists, and its library, now 
amounting to forty thousand volumes, proves that the expectations of its founders 
have been fully realized. Notwithstanding, however, the advantages thus enjoyed 
by the citizens of the embryo metropolis, the historian, in 1762, gave this unfa¬ 
vorable account of the intellectual condition of the colonists: “ Their schools are 
in the lowest orders; the instructors want instruction; and through a long 
shameful neglect of all the arts and sciences, the common speech is extremely 
* Notes concerning common schools were received from Gideon Hawley, L.L.D., and Samuel S. Randall, Esq. the 
deputy general superintendent, 
t American Gazetteer, 1702. 
