ther "Free."

The only capital that must be sunk in it is Time, and of that even one
hour a day will suffice to bring up vast stores of wealth from its
unfathomable depths, while the labour bestowed tends to rest rather than
to weary the body, at the same time that it enlarges the mind and
invigorates the soul.

Still another peculiarity of this mine is, that its products are various
and innumerable. You must go to Australia or to California for gold, to
Golconda or Kimberley for diamonds, to Mexico or Spain for silver, to
Cornwall for copper, tin, and lead, and to Sweden for iron; but in this
mine you will find the various metals and gems in neighbouring "pockets"
and nuggets, and seams and beds. Here you may gather the golden
opinions of the ancients in close proximity to those of the moderns.
Here you will find pearls of thought, sparkling gems of imagery, broad
seams of satire, and silvery streams of sentiment, with wealth of wisdom
and of wit. Hard iron-fisted facts also, and funny mercurial fancies
are to be found here in abundance, and there are tons of tin in the form
of rubbish, which is usually left at a pit's mouth, and brings little or
no "tin" to those who brought it to light, while there are voluminous
layers of literary lead, whose weight and dulness render the working of
them tedious;--but this need not, and does not, dishearten the digger,
for in all mines the poor and worthless material is ever in excess of
that which is valuable, and miserable indeed must be the spirit of him
who should refuse to manipulate the "dirt" because the large nuggets and
gems are few and far between. Throughout all the cuttings flow
glittering brooks of knowledge, and also many crystal rivulets drawn
from the pure waters of the River of Life.

The mine of which I write is the Public Library of Capetown.

And let it not be supposed that I exaggerate or over-estimate this mine.
It unquestionably takes rank as one of the noted libraries of the
world, and South Africa has reason to be proud of, and grateful to, the
men who, by their enlightened schemes and liberality, were the means of
creating what is at once a mine and a monument to the Cape.

But Capetown boasts of many other institutions which are well worthy of
notice. It is--and has been since its foundation by Van Riebeek in
1652--the seat of Governments. [See Note 1.] It is also the seat of the
Supreme Court and of the University of the Cape of Good Hope. It