orth. Before undertaking the arduous task of guiding others
in their intellectual pursuits, one should make sure that he is himself
so well-grounded in learning that he can find the way in which to guide
them. To do this, he must indispensably have something more than a
smattering of the knowledge that lies at the foundation of his
profession. He must be, if not widely read, at least carefully grounded
in history, science, literature, and art. While he may not, like Lord
Bacon, take all knowledge to be his province, because he is not a Lord
Bacon, nor if he were, could he begin to grasp the illimitable domain of
books of science and literature which have been added to human knowledge
in the two centuries and a half since Bacon wrote, he can at least, by
wise selection, master enough of the leading works in each field, to make
him a well-informed scholar. That great treasury of information on the
whole circle of the sciences, and the entire range of literature, the
Encyclopaedia Britannica, judiciously studied, will alone give what would
appear to the average mind, a very liberal education.

One of the most common and most inconsiderate questions propounded to a
librarian is this: "Do you ever expect to read all these books through?"
and it is well answered by propounding another question, namely--"Did
_you_ ever read your dictionary through?" A great library is the
scholar's dictionary--not to be read through, but to enable him to put
his finger on the fact he wants, just when it is wanted.

A knowledge of some at least of the foreign languages is indispensable to
the skilled librarian. In fact, any one aspiring to become an assistant
in any large library, or the head of any small one, should first acquire
at least an elementary knowledge of French and Latin. Aside from books in
other languages than English which necessarily form part of every
considerable library, there are innumerable quotations or words in
foreign tongues scattered through books and periodicals in English, which
a librarian, appealed to by readers who are not scholars, would be
mortified if found unable to interpret them. The librarian who does not
understand several languages will be continually at a loss in his daily
work. A great many important catalogues, and bibliographies, essential
parts of the equipment of a library, will be lost to him as aids, and he
can neither select foreign books intelligently nor catalogue them
properly. If he depends u