And she a fair divided excellence,
Whose fulness of perfection lies in him;
But two such silver currents when they join,
Do glorify the banks that bind them in.

Each befits the other, as ALEXANDER said concerning the finest poem and
the most costly casket in the world when he enshrined the Iliad in the
Persian box of gold and gems. Both are lotteries where tickets cost
nothing and everybody may draw all the prizes.

In addition to this, the free library will be to some nothing less than
an _inspiration_. _To some_--I wish I could say _to all_, but alas, it
is only an "elect few" whom the library can inspire. Spectacles are
invaluable,--but only to those who have eyes. One Sultan never wore a
shirt that had not every word of the Koran written on it yet absorbed
little piety. AARON'S excuse for making only a golden calf was, that the
Jews did not bring him gold enough to make an ox. The cherubim who know
most can never equal the seraphim who love most. An ugly and stupid man,
walking with a lady on each arm, boasts that he is between wit and
beauty, but may not imbibe one particle of either.

To some, however, a free library will make up for the lack of a liberal
education. More than that. It will furnish such an education every jot
and tittle of it, and that, in some sense, better than was ever bestowed
in a college, because acquired in the face of greater difficulties.
Libraries have often vouchsafed this priceless boon. That in Salem did
to BOWDITCH, the mathematician, in the last century, and to WHIPPLE, the
essayist, in this. The Edinburgh library made HUME an historian. Another
was inspiration to COBBETT. So was that of the Erfurt convent to LUTHER.
"It had purchased," says his biographer, "at heavy cost, several Latin
Bibles just printed for the first time in the neighboring city of Mainz.
When he first opened one of these tomes his eyes fell on the story of
HANNAH and SAMUEL. "O, God," he murmured, "could I have one of these
books I would seek no other worldly treasure." A great revolution then
took place in his soul. His happiest hours were in the library.
Concerning such a scholar--

"We cannot say: ''Tis pity
He lacks instructions,' for he seems a master
To most that teach."

The influence of ancient Libraries on classical writers is manifest from
their quotations. PLUTARCH'S have been traced to 250 authors. PLINY'S to
2,000 works. Classical Libraries preserved