d mortal in prison or asylum has ascertained that
number; but we do not care to know that fact or have any one else know
it. The exact number of grains in some ant-hill is doubtless
discoverable, but only a lunatic would care for the discovery. Most
facts in nature and in history are in our present stage of development
without value. Only when these facts are collected, classified, seen in
relation, and translated into truth do they become of value to men.

For this reason the library must encourage, slow, patient, thoughtful
reading. We have long been told that a taste for reading is worth ten
thousand a year. Whether this is true or not depends altogether on what
sort of reading is referred to. The habit of letting the mind lie
passive while some scribbler plays upon it is not worth ten thousand a
year. The habit of letting the mind become a waste basket for sensation
and scandal is not worth ten thousand a year. The habit of reading as a
substitute for thinking is worth nothing, but is sheer damage to mental
fibre. The university library is even more important than the university
laboratory. In the laboratory we verify the theory which is far more
likely to be discovered in the library. The new discovery is a new
combination of old ideas, and such mental combination comes to us more
easily when we are dealing with thoughts than with things.

Our students need to use books not only as tools, but as friends. In the
old days, when the reading of college students was far more promiscuous
than to-day, they were accustomed to regard books almost as personal
acquaintances, and there was a genuine exchange of reaction of writer
and reader. Such reading was indeed very desultory, but, as our
professor of English literature is accustomed to say, "it was immensely
fattening." Now, on the other hand, the college student goes to the
library with a list of references, using many books, but becoming really
acquainted with none. He opens one work at volume 2, page 193, another
at volume 4, page 315, and, having extracted the precise bit of
information he desires, has no further use for the author in question.
This modern method of reading is far more accurate and definite than the
older method, and is obviously effective in securing results. But it
must be supplemented by the "browsing" of former days, by the large
horizons which come from being set free in the companionship of great
minds.

Thirdly: Ideals. Our libraries must not