might not be made knowne,
whereof one booke was a treatise of St. Augustine of the Citty of God
translated into English, the other three greate Volumes wer the works of
Mr. Perkins' newlie corrected and amended, wch books the Donor desyred
they might be sent to the Colledge in Virginia there to remayne in saftie
to the use of the collegiates thereafter, and not suffered at any time to
be sent abroade or used in the meane while. For wch so worthy a guifte my
Lord of Southampton desyred the p'tie that presented them to returne
deserued thanks from himselfe and the rest of the Company to him that had
so kindly bestowed them."[1]

The college here referred to was the first ever founded in America, and
was seated at Henrico, at the confluence of the James River with the
Chickahominy. It was designed not only for the education of the Virginia
settlers, but to teach science and Christianity to the Indians. Large
contributions were raised in England by Sir Edwin Sandys, and others of
the Virginia Company, for its support. But this Virginia college and its
incipient library were doomed to a speedy extinction. Like so many other
brilliant "prospects for planting arts and learning in America," it did
not survive the perils of the colonial epoch. It was brought to a period
by the bloody Indian massacre of March 22, 1622, when three hundred and
forty-seven of the Virginia settlers were slaughtered in a day, the new
settlement broken up, and the expanding lines of civilization contracted
to the neighborhood of Jamestown.

Harvard University Library was founded in 1638 by the endowment of John
Harvard, who bequeathed to the new college his library and half of his
estate. Soon afterwards enriched by the zealous contributions of English
Puritans and philosophers, of Berkeley, and Baxter, and Lightfoot, and
Sir Kenelm Digby, the first university library in America, after a
century and a quarter of usefulness, was totally destroyed with the
college edifice in the year 1764 by fire. When we contemplate the ravages
of this element, which has consumed so many noble libraries, destroying
not only printed books of priceless value, but often precious manuscripts
which are unique and irreplaceable, a lively sense of regret comes over
us that these creations of the intellect, which should be imperishable,
are even yet at the mercy of an accident in all the libraries of the
world save a very few. The destruction of books in private hands is
natur