4 THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 



There is an irregularity about it all that puts 

 you ill at ease. You care not for its volumes, 

 rich and rare, nor its elegance, it is all cold and 

 repulsive. 



Then there are other libraries so easy and 

 cosy and delightful, you give a special look at 

 every picture and bit of bric-a-brac, you long to 

 take its books in hand and try its inviting chairs, 

 and feel the stimulus of best literature under 

 best conditions. A room is like a person, it 

 needs the touch of taste and sympathy to make 

 it restful and homelike, for like a person it has 

 its individuality. Because we love books and 

 pictures and they mean so much to us, our 

 library is our living-room. 



There is magic in possession; but possession 

 comes not from what is about us, but from 

 what we have within. Relation is everything, 

 but it must be vital. A man might hold legal 

 titles to the world's best Madonnas, but if he 

 did not have artistic taste he could never pos- 

 sess them. The poorest one who looked on 

 them to appreciate and prize would possess 

 them more than he. This is how it is that 

 some folks who reside in the biggest houses 

 live in the smallest world, and some dwelling 

 in the smallest houses live in the most glorious 

 world. Plutarch has a parable of a man who 



