s of the city government are
about to give new strength to those ties of gratitude and affection,
which bind the hearts of the children of Boston to their beloved city.
Hitherto the system of public education, excellent as it is and wisely
supported by a princely expenditure, does but commence the work of
instruction and carry it to a certain point; well advanced, indeed, but
far short of the goal. It prepares our young men for college, for the
counting-room, for the office of the engineer, the _studio_ of the
artist, the shop of the artisan, the laboratory of the chemist, or
whatever field of employment they may be destined to enter, but there it
leaves them, without further provision for the culture of the mind. It
disciplines the faculties and forms a taste for the acquisition of
knowledge, on the part of our young men and women, but it provides no
means for their exercise and gratification. It gives them the elementary
education requisite for their future callings, but withholds all
facilities of access to those boundless stores of recorded knowledge, in
every department, by which alone that elementary education can be
completed and made effectual for the active duties of life.

But to-day our honored city carries on and perfects her work. The
trustees, from their first annual report to the present time, have never
failed to recommend a first class public library, such as that, sir, for
whose accommodation you destine this noble building, as the completion
of the great system of public education. Its object is to give to the
entire population, not merely to the curious student, but to the
inquisitive member of either of the professions, to the intelligent
merchant, mechanic, machinist, engineer, artist or artisan, in short, to
all of every age and of either sex, who desire to investigate any
subject, either of utility or taste, those advantages which, without
such an ample public collection, must necessarily be monopolized by the
proprietors of large private libraries, or those who by courtesy have
the use of them; nay, to put within the reach of the entire community
advantages of this kind, far beyond those which can be afforded by the
largest and best provided private libraries.

The trustees are anxious that the institution, whose prosperity they
have so much at heart, should continue to be viewed in this light; as
one more added to the school-houses of the city, at which Boston boys
and girls, when they have ou