e Boston Public Library in
1884 and also reorganized the Berkshire Athenaeum of
Pittsfield, Mass., in the same year.

Among all the pictures of Abraham Lincoln none perhaps are more
interesting than two which represent scenes at the beginning and at the
end of his life. In the first, a lad of thirteen or fourteen, he is
reading by the light of a fire in his father's log hut. In the second,
he is reading the Bible to his sons in a room in the White House. This
Bible, which lies before the President in the latter picture, with a
catechism and a spelling-book, were the only books in that frontier
cabin when he learned to read. Though his father could neither read nor
write, yet he took the greatest interest in getting books for his son,
so that when he was eighteen his library consisted of the Bible,
Pilgrim's Progress, Aesop's Fables, Weem's and Ramsay's Lives of
Washington, a Life of Clay, the Autobiography of Franklin, and a copy of
Plutarch. It is note-worthy that the one which influenced him the most
strongly, after the Bible, was the Life of Washington. At the very
crisis of his career, when on his way to the national capital to take
the leading part in crushing out the rebellion, he reverted to those
early days, and recalled the burning thoughts which filled his mind
while reading of the sufferings and sacrifices endured for the sake of
freedom by the great patriot leader and his followers.

Lincoln's experience was, of course, no solitary one, but it doubtless
had a great effect when it became generally known. It filled many men's
imaginations with pictures of obscure lads with latent powers for noble
deeds in danger of being stunted or wholly destroyed for want of proper
nourishment, and they gave freely and generously that these "village
Hampdens," these hearts "pregnant with sacred fire," might not live
useless and ignoble lives for want of books alone. Hence to-day a large
section of our country is dotted over with libraries, in which the
collective wisdom and experience of the world, as it were, are gathered
for the use especially of the youth of the nation.

But, as is inevitable with the blessing of abundance, has come its
danger also. Lincoln's naturally great intellectual powers were
strengthened by their being at first exercised upon a few subjects. The
possession of a book being an era in his early life from its rarity, he
read and re-read each one which he got, so as almost to learn it by
h