adily in view that the Library
of the Government must become, sooner or later, a universal one. As the
only library which is entitled to the benefit of the copyright law, by
which copies of each publication for which the Government grants an
exclusive right must be deposited in the National Library, this
collection must become annually more important as an exponent of the
growth of American literature. This wise provision of law prevents the
dispersion or destruction of books that tend continually to disappear; a
benefit to the cause of letters, the full value of which it requires
slight reflection to estimate.

This National Library now embraces 840,000 volumes, besides about 250,000
pamphlets. It is freely open, as a library of reference and reading, to
the whole people; but the books are not permitted to be drawn out, except
by Senators and Representatives and a few officials for use at the seat
of government. Its new, commodious and beautiful building, which may
fitly be called the book-palace of the American people, open day and
evening to all comers, is a delight to the eye, and to the mind.

* * * * *

The library of the Boston Athenaeum originated, in the year 1806, with a
society of gentlemen of literary tastes, who aimed at creating a
reading-room for the best foreign and American periodicals, together with
a library of books. To this a gallery of art was subsequently added. The
undertaking proved at once successful, leaving us to wonder why
cultivated Boston, though abounding in special and parish libraries,
should so long have done without a good general library; New York having
anticipated her by fifty-two years, and Philadelphia by three-quarters
of a century. The Athenaeum Library is peculiarly rich in files of
American newspapers, both old and new, and its collection of early
pamphlets is one of the largest in the country. In literature and science
it embraces a heavy proportion of the best books, its total number of
volumes being reckoned at 190,000. Its collection of books, pamphlets,
and newspapers relating to the recent civil war is among the completest
known. The price of a share in the Athenaeum is three hundred dollars, a
large sum when compared with that of other proprietary libraries; but it
involves much more valuable property-rights than any other. The annual
assessment is five dollars to shareholders, who alone possess the right
to draw books. The proprietors