ve, the color that gold would take if it
were capable of stain. But there is no stain here, or rather all stains
are taken up and converted into beauty. Dust, dirt, smudges, all are
here, and each is made to contribute a new element of charm. Is the
resultant more beautiful than the spotless original? Compare it with the
pearly tint of the diploma, or turn up the folded edge of one of those
flexible bindings and note the chalky white of the parchment's protected
under-surface. The same three hundred years that have made over Europe
and made English America have, as it were, filled in the rhythmic pauses
between their giant heart-beats by ripening Dr. Holmes's wine and
touching with Midas caress these parchment bindings!

It is surely a crime to keep such beauty of tint and tone hidden away in
drawers or all but hidden on crowded shelves. Let them be displayed in
open cases where all may enjoy them. But let us go softly; these
century-mellowed parchments are too precious to be displayed to
unappreciative, perhaps scornful, eyes. Put them away in their
hiding-places until some gentle reader of these lines shall ask for
them; then we will bring them forth and persuade ourselves that we can
detect a new increment of beauty added by the brief time since last we
looked on them. I once heard an address on a librarian's duty to his
successors. I will suggest a service not there mentioned: to choose
every year the best contemporary books that he can find worthily printed
on time-proof papers and have them bound in parchment; then let him
place them on his shelves to gather gold from the touch of the mellowing
years through the centuries to come and win him grateful memory such as
we bestow upon the unknown hands that wrought for these volumes the
garments of their present and still increasing beauty.

LEST WE FORGET THE FEW GREAT BOOKS

One result of the stir that has been made in library matters during the
last two generations, and especially during the latter, is the enormous
increase in the size of our libraries. In 1875 the public libraries of
the United States contained a little less than 11,500,000 volumes. In
the five years from 1908 to 1913 the libraries of 5,000 volumes and over
added nearly 20,000,000 volumes, making a total of over 75,000,000
volumes, an increase of 35.7 per cent. In 1875 there were 3682 libraries
of more than 300 volumes each; in 1913 there were 8302 libraries of over
1000 volumes each. In