374 Village Libraries. 



be little doubt would be great in proportion to the greater number of per- 

 sons for whom they are intended. The establishment of village libraries 

 may be more difficult, and consequently slow, than libraries in private gar- 

 dens, where a more definite and immediate interest exists, both as respects 

 the employer and the employed ; but the friends of improvement will not 

 on that account be disheartened. Still, when we consider what has been 

 done in the establishment of Mechanics' Institutions and libraries, and the 

 result, there can be little doubt that what may be termed the agricultural 

 population, aided by clergymen, medical men, farmers, tradesmen, &c. will 

 in a short time follow in the road to improvement, and Labourers' In- 

 stitutions and Libraries ultimately become general throughout the country. 

 So many advantages maybe derived from the possession of knowledge, that 

 reading must ultimately become general in every class of society. 



A taste for reading among country labourers is most likely to be induced 

 by motives of profit or increased enjoyment; and it is thought that books 

 on gardening, by teaching them how to increase the advantages derived 

 from their gardens, would be more likely than any other books to present 

 these motives. After the purposes of utility were satisfied, those of inquiry 

 and curiosity would demand gratification ; and then would come into use 

 books on science, history, biography, and other departments of literature. 

 This taste might become progressive among the very lowest classes, till, 

 from a luxury indulged in under favourable circumstances, it became at last 

 a necessary of life, which could not be dispensed with in the calculation of 

 the means of subsistence. The idea of libraries in poorhouses and parish 

 workhouses, as necessary for the comfortable support of the aged poor, will 

 no doubt at first appear sufficiently extravagant ; but a little reflection will 

 soon convince us, that it is not more so than many other ideas which 

 have been realized. Supposing that reading were as universal amongst the 

 lowest classes as drinking tea, and that books were considered a necessary 

 part of the furnishing of every poor-house, what harm would result to any 

 part of society ? On the other hand, how greatly would be increased the 

 enjoyments of such as were compelled to become the inmates of these esta- 

 blishments? Those only can enter into this idea, who, from ill health, 

 solitude, or other circumstances, have been reduced to the pleasures of 

 reading. 



Could reading be rendered a necessary of life to the lowest classes, 

 the advantages to them would be great; because the wages paid for 

 their labour will always be limited to what constitutes for them the neces- 

 saries of life. If reading, therefore, could be rendered as essential as 

 clothing or cookery, it is evident the wages of labour would be increased, 

 so as to enable the" labourer to purchase books and candles, as well as cloth 

 and fuel, and the number of hours' labour per day diminished, in order to 

 allow him time to read, as well as to dress and cook. Everyone will allow 

 that even an approximation to such a result must be advantageous, not to 

 the labourer merely, but to society in general. 



Rait Village Library . — " Sir, — The success attending your suggestions 

 respecting garden libraries cannot fail to afford pleasure to every benevolent 

 mind at all interested in horticultural matters ; but those who, some five- 

 and-twenty or thirty years ago, plodded onward in the unwearied search 

 after that knowledge which is necessary to fit the horticultural student for 

 occupying with credit that situation to which he aspires, amongst the com- 

 paratively scanty materials which even that recent period afforded, will best 

 know how to appreciate the advantage to be derived from the recent works 

 on gardening, to which j^ou have contributed your full share, and which 

 garden or village libraries are well calculated to render easily accessible. 

 Such being my opinion, it may naturally be expected that I have taken some 



