154 LENDING LIBRARIES. tCHAP. XI. 



as concerts, dancing, and the theater might give, under proper 

 regulations ; for these are now usually discouraged by religion 

 ists, who can find no other substitute for them but sermons and 

 reiterated church services. 



Among the signs of the times, and of the increasing taste for 

 reading, the great number of lending libraries in every district 

 must not be forgotten. Toward the purchase of these the State 

 grants a certain sum, if an equal amount be subscribed by the 

 inhabitants. They are left to their own choice in the purchase 

 of books ; and the best English poets and novelists are almost 

 always to be met with in each collection, and works of biography, 

 history, travels, natural history, and science. The selection is 

 carefully made with reference to what the people will read, and 

 not what men of higher education and station think they ought 

 to read. 



