h
ill-humored or offended readers is to gently explain the matter, with
that "soft answer which turneth away wrath." Many a foolish and useless
altercation may thus be avoided, and the complainant restored to
cheerfulness, if not to courtesy; whereas, if the librarian were to meet
the case with a sharp or haughty answer, it would probably end without
satisfaction on either side. Whatever you do, never permit yourself to be
irritable, and resolve never to be irritated. It will make you unhappy,
and will breed irritation in others. Cheerfulness under all
circumstances, however difficult, is the duty and the interest of the
librarian. Thus he will cultivate successfully an obliging disposition,
which is a prime requisite to his success with the public and his
usefulness as a librarian.

It ought not to be requisite to insist upon good health as a condition
precedent for any one aspiring to be a librarian. So very much depends
upon this, that it should form a part of the conscientious duty of every
one to acquire and maintain a sound condition of physical health, as a
most important adjunct of a thoroughly sound and healthy condition of the
mind. This is easier than most persons are aware. If we except inherited
constitutional weaknesses, or maladies of a serious character, there is
almost no one who is not able by proper diet, regimen, and daily
exercise, to maintain a degree of health which will enable him to use his
brain to its full working capacity. It demands an intelligent and
watchful care of the daily regimen, so that only simple and wholesome
food and drink may be taken into the system, and what is equally
important, adequate sleep, and habitual moderate exercise. No one can
maintain perfect health without breathing good unadulterated air, and
exercising in it with great frequency. One's walks to and from the
library may be sufficient to give this, and it is well to have the motive
of such a walk, since exercise taken for the mere purpose of it is of far
less value. The habit of taking drugs, or going to a doctor for every
little malady, is most pernicious. Every one, and especially a librarian,
who is supposed (however erroneously) to know everything, should know
more of his own constitution than any physician. With a few judicious
experiments in daily regimen, and a little abstinence now and then, he
can subdue head-aches, catarrhs and digestive troubles, and by exercising
an intelligent will, can generally prev