notable book should be in the library sooner or later,
and if possible at its foundation. Thus will its utility and
attractiveness both be well secured.

Taking first the case of a small public library about to be started, let
us see in a few leading outlines what it will need.

1. A selection of the best works of reference should be the corner-stone
of every library collection. In choosing these, regard must be had to
secure the latest as well as the best. Never buy the first edition of
Soule's Synonymes because it is cheap, but insist upon the revised and
enlarged edition of 1892. Never acquire an antiquated Lempriere's or
Anthon's Classical Dictionary, because some venerable library director,
who used it in his boyhood, suggests it, when you can get Professor H. T.
Peck's "Dictionary of Classical Antiquities," published in 1897. Never be
tempted to buy an old edition of an encyclopaedia at half or quarter
price, for it will be sure to lack the populations of the last census,
besides being a quarter of a century or more in arrears in its other
information. When consulting sale catalogues to select reference books,
look closely at the dates of publication, and make sure by your American
or English catalogues that no later edition has appeared. It goes without
saying that you will have these essential bibliographies, as well as
Lowndes' Manual of English Literature first of all, whether you are able
to buy Watt and Brunet or not.

2. Without here stopping to treat of books of reference in detail, which
will appear in another place, let me refer to some other great classes
of literature in which every library should be strong. History stands
fairly at the head, and while a newly established library cannot hope to
possess at once all the noted writers, it should begin by securing a fine
selection, embracing general history, ancient and modern, and the history
of each country, at least of the important nations. For compendious short
histories, the "Story of the Nations" series, by various writers, should
be secured, and the more extensive works of Gibbon, Grote, Mommsen,
Duruy, Fyffe, Green, Macaulay, Froude, McCarthy, Carlyle, Thiers,
Bancroft, Motley, Prescott, Fiske, Schouler, McMaster, Buckle, Guizot,
etc., should be acquired. The copious lists of historical works appended
to Larned's "History for Ready Reference" will be useful here.

3. Biography stands close to history in interest and importance. For
general ref