ibrary of Philadelphia. Here is an extract
from the will of James Logan, the founder--

"In my library, which I have left to the city of Philadelphia for the
advancement and facilitating of classical learning, are above one hundred
volumes of authors, in folio, all in Greek, with mostly their versions.
All the Roman classics without exception. All the Greek mathematicians,
viz. Archimedes, Euclid, Ptolemy, both his Geography and Almagest, which I
had in Greek (with Theon's Commentary, in folio, above 700 pages) from my
learned friend Fabricius, who published fourteen volumes of his
_Bibliotheque Grecque_, in quarto, in which, after he had finished his
account of Ptolemy, on my inquiring of him at Hamburgh, how I should find
it, having long sought for it in vain in England, he sent it to me out of
his own library, telling me it was so scarce that neither prayers nor
price could purchase it; besides, there are many of the most valuable
Latin authors, and a great number of modern mathematicians, with all the
three editions of Newton, Dr. Watts, Halley, etc." The inscription on the
house of the Philadelphia Library is well worthy of repetition here. It
was prepared by Franklin, with the exception of the reference to himself,
which was inserted by the Committee.

Be it remembered,
in honor of the Philadelphia youth
(then chiefly artificers),
that in MDCCXXXI
they cheerfully,
at the instance of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN,
one of their number,
instituted the Philadelphia Library,
which, though small at first,
is become highly valuable and extensively useful,
and which the walls of this edifice
are now destined to contain and preserve:
the first stone of whose foundation
was here placed
the thirty-first day of August, 1789.

Mr. F.B. Perkins, of the Boston Public Library, contributed to the _Report
on Public Libraries in the United States_ a useful chapter on "How to make
Town Libraries successful" (pp. 419-430). The two chief points upon which
he lays particular stress, and which may be said to form the texts for his
practical remarks, are: (1) that a Public Library for popular use must be
managed not only as a literary institution, but also as a business
concern; and (2) that it is a mistake to choose books of too thoughtful or
solid a character. He says, "It is vain to go on the principle of
collecting books that people ought to read, and afterwards trying to coax
them to read them. The only pra