ork
requires technical knowledge[6]--all persons on whom depends the
industrial progress of the community.

4. It furnishes information and inspiration to ministers, teachers,
journalists, authors, physicians, legislators--all persons on whose work
depend the intellectual, moral, sanitary, political and religious
welfare and advancement of the people.

5. It is the stimulus and the reliance of the literary and study clubs,
which, especially among the women, have done much not only for
individual self-culture but also for civic enlightenment and social
betterment. This represents its numerous post-graduate courses, which
are taken by constantly increasing numbers.

6. It has philosophers and theologians to explain and expound and to
exhort those who are willing to listen; but, far better, it has poets
and dramatists and novelists--who compel a hearing and impress on heart
as well as mind the fundamental truths of morality and religion.

7. It is also a school of manners, which have been well defined as minor
morals. The child learns by example and by the silent influence of his
surroundings; and every visit to a library is a lesson in propriety and
refinement. The roughest boy or the rudest man cannot fail to be
impressed by the library atmosphere and by that courtesy which is the
chief element in the "library spirit."

8. It imparts, as the school cannot, knowledge of one's self, and of
one's relations to one's fellow-man, and thus prepares the individual
for citizenship and fellowship in organized society and leads him to be
an active force in social advancement.

9. It elevates the standard of general intelligence throughout the
community, on which depends its material prosperity as well as its moral
and political well-being.

[6] The information furnished by a book in the Cincinnati Public
Library once saved that city a quarter of a million dollars. This in
numerous instances, but on a smaller scale, is a part of the everyday
work of the library.

10. But not last, if an exhaustive list were aimed at--nor least it
supplies a universal and urgent craving of human nature by affording to
all entertainment of the highest and purest character, substituting this
for the coarse, debasing, demoralizing, amusements which would otherwise
be sought and found. Further, it brings relief and strength to many a
suffering body and cheer and solace to many a sorrowing heart. It is
instruction and inspiration to the young, c