ent their recurrence. If one finds
himself in the morning in a state of languor and lassitude, be sure he
has abused some physical function, and apply a remedy. An invalid will
make a poorly equipped librarian. How can a dyspeptic who dwells in the
darkness of a disease, be a guiding light to the multitudes who beset him
every hour? There are few callings demanding as much mental and physical
soundness and alertness as the care of a public library.

Sound common sense is as essential to the librarian as sound health. He
should always take the practical straightforward view of every item of
library business and management, remembering that the straight road is
always the shortest way between two points. While he may be full of
ideas, he should be neither an idealist nor a dreamer. In library
methods, the cardinal requisites to be aimed at, are utility and
convenience. A person of the most perfect education, and the highest
literary attainments, but destitute of common sense, will not succeed in
the conduct of a library. That intuitive judgment, which sees the reason
of everything at a glance, and applies the proper agencies to the case in
hand, is wanting in his composition. Multitudes of emergencies arise in
library service, where the prompt and practical sense of the librarian is
required to settle a dispute, adjust a difficulty, or to direct what is
to be done in some arrangement or re-arrangement of books, or some
library appliance or repair. In such cases, the unpractical or
impracticable man will be very likely to decide wrongly, choosing the
inconvenient method instead of the convenient, the more costly instead of
the more economical, the laborious in place of the obvious and easy; in
short, some way of doing the work or settling the difficulty which will
not permit it to stay settled, or will require the work to be done over
again. The man of common-sense methods, on the other hand, will at once
see the end from the beginning, anticipate every difficulty, and decide
upon the proper course without trouble or hesitation, finding his
judgment fully vindicated by the result.

The librarian in whom the quality of common sense is well developed will
be ever ready to devise or to accept improvements in library methods.
Never a slave to "red tape," he will promptly cut it wherever and
whenever it stands in the way of the readiest service of books and
information to all comers.

Another quality which every librarian or