be wanted in Boston is, an apparatus
that shall carry this taste for reading as deep as possible
into society, assuming, what I believe to be true, that it
can be carried deeper in our society than in any other in
the world, because we are better fitted for it. To do this I
would establish a library which, in its _main_ department
and purpose, should differ from all free libraries yet
attempted; I mean one in which any popular books, tending to
moral and intellectual improvement, should be furnished in
such numbers of copies that many persons, if they desired
it, could be reading the same work at the same time; in
short, that not only the best books of all sorts, but the
pleasant literature of the day, should be made accessible to
the whole people at the only time when they care for it,
_i.e._ when it is fresh and new. I would, therefore,
continue to buy additional copies of any book of this class,
almost as long as they should continue to be asked for, and
thus, by following the popular taste,--unless it should
demand something injurious,--create a real appetite for
healthy general reading. This appetite, once formed, will
take care of itself. It will, in the great majority of
cases, demand better and better books; and can, I believe,
by a little judicious help, rather than by any direct
control or restraint, be carried much higher than is
generally thought possible.

[2] Mr. Ticknor was much struck by the publication of a cheap edition
of Johns' Translation of Froissart, by the Harpers, of which he found
a copy in a small inn of a retired village of southern New York, in
1844; and he always watched the signs of popular taste, both in
publishers' lists and in the bookshelves of the houses which he
entered, in his summer journeys, or in his errands of business and
charity in the winter.

After some details, of no present consequence, developing this idea, the
letter goes on:--

Nor would I, on this plan, neglect the establishment of a
department for consultation, and for all the common purposes
of public libraries, some of whose books, like
encyclopaedias and dictionaries, should never be lent out,
while others could be permitted to circulate; all on the
shelves being accessible for reference as many hours in the
day as possible, and always in the evening. This part of the
library, I sho