he read American history was largely
due his future fitness for the great work which God gave him to do.

To what highest and most profitable use can I put my reading? is the
question then which each one should ask himself, and according as the
answer is, so should the choice be made. It may be that one will read
that he may understand better his duties and privileges as a citizen;
another, that he may be a just master, or an intelligent and faithful
workman; still another, that she may be a wise parent; while a fourth
may have the strong conviction that everything else should be laid aside
for the study of one of the masterpieces of the world's literature, that
he may develop his higher faculties and become a man thinking lofty
thoughts and capable of noble deeds.

But there is a very large class of readers, especially of a public
library, to whom what I have just said will be of but little use. And as
it is upon them that the choice of books has the greatest influence for
good or evil, it is to speak of their interests that I turn with the
deepest solicitude. This class may be subdivided into two classes--the
children of intelligent parents who are capable of directing their
reading, and those children who have none to guide them in their choice.
As regards the former, one of the greatest dangers of the public
library, in my opinion, is that many parents throw off all
responsibility as to the books their children read upon those who have
charge of the library. A generation ago, all the books, as a rule, which
the young read were bought especially for them by their parents or
friends, with more or less care in the selection. Of course under these
circumstances they had a general knowledge of what their children read.
Now a great many parents neither know, nor do they apparently seem to
care to know, what books fall into their children's hands, so long as
they are from the public library, which is supposed to be a guarantee
for their fitness for young readers. Without entering here upon the
important question as to what books should or should not be put in a
public library, it is enough to say that no intelligent parent, with a
right idea of his duty toward his children, can properly lay this
responsibility upon persons, however carefully chosen or however
faithful in the discharge of their duties. The capacity of children for
receiving good or bad impressions from books differs, as their features
and forms vary. The s