k, if
put on his guard by having to fetch it from a locked repository, should
keep the reader under observation, unless well known, until the volume
is safely returned. Designing and dishonest persons are ever hovering
about public libraries, and some of the most dangerous among them are men
who know the value of books.

This class of reserved books should not be given out in circulation,
under any circumstances. Not only are they subject to injury by being
handled in households where there are children or careless persons, who
soil or deface them, but they are exposed to the continual peril of fire,
and consequent loss to the library. There are often books among these
rarities, which money cannot replace, because no copies can be found when
wanted. In the Library of Congress, there is a very salutary safe-guard
thrown around the most valuable books in the form of a library regulation
which provides that no manuscript whatever, and no printed book of
special rarity and value shall be taken out of the library by any person.
This restriction of course applies to Members of Congress, as well as to
those officials who have the legal right to draw books from the library.

CHAPTER 12.

THE FACULTY OF MEMORY.

To every reader nothing can be more important than that faculty of the
mind which we call memory. The retentive memory instinctively stores up
the facts, ideas, imagery, and often the very language found in books, so
clearly that they become available at any moment in after life. The
tenacity of this hold upon the intellectual treasures which books contain
depends largely upon the strength of the impression made upon the mind
when reading. And this, in turn, depends much upon the force, clearness
and beauty of the author's style or expression. A crude, or feeble, or
wordy, redundant statement makes little impression, while a terse, clear,
well-balanced sentence fixes the attention, and so fastens itself in the
memory. Hence the books which are best remembered will be those which are
the best written. Great as is the power of thought, we are often obliged
to confess that the power of expression is greater still. When the
substance and the style of any writing concur to make a harmonious and
strong impression on the reader's mind, the writer has achieved success.
All our study of literature tends to confirm the conviction of the
supreme importance of an effective style.

We must set down a good memory as a car