one who listens to an endless dribble of small talk
lays up nothing out of all the palaver, which, to use a common phrase,
"goes in at one ear, and out at the other," so the reader who
continuously absorbs all the stuff which the daily press, under the
pretext of "printing the news," inflicts upon us, is nothing benefited in
intellectual gifts or permanent knowledge. What does he learn by his
assiduous pursuit of these ephemeral will o' the wisps, that only "lead
to bewilder, and dazzle to blind?" He absorbs an incredible amount of
empty gossip, doubtful assertions, trifling descriptions, apocryphal
news, and some useful, but more useless knowledge. The only visible
object of spending valuable time over these papers appears to be to
satisfy a momentary curiosity, and then the mass of material read passes
almost wholly out of the mind, and is never more thought of. Says
Coleridge, one of the foremost of English thinkers: "I believe the habit
of perusing periodical works may be properly added to the catalogue of
anti-mnemonics, or weakeners of the memory."

If read sparingly, and for actual events, newspapers have a value which
is all their own; but to spend hours upon them, as many do, is mere
mental dissipation.

CHAPTER 13.

QUALIFICATIONS OF A LIBRARIAN.

In directing attention to some of the more important elements which
should enter into the character and acquirements of a librarian, I shall
perhaps not treat them in the order of their relative importance. Thus,
some persons might consider the foremost qualification for one aspiring
to the position of a librarian to be wide knowledge in literature and
science: others would say that the possession of sound common sense is
above all things essential; others an excellent and retentive memory;
still others might insist that business habits and administrative faculty
are all-important; and others again, a zeal for learning and for
communicating it to others.

I shall not venture to pronounce what, among the multitude of talents
that are requisite to constitute a good librarian is the most requisite.
Suffice it to say, that all of them which I shall notice are important,
and that the order of their treatment determines nothing as to which are
more and which are less important. So much is expected of librarians that
it actually appears as if a large portion of the public were of the
opinion that it is the duty of him who has a library in charge to possess
him