an absence of many weeks, he
brought the books to Capt. Ben Brown's, in a sack on a pack-horse. I was
present at the untying of the sack and pouring out of the treasures.
There were about 60 volumes, I think, and well selected; the library of
the Vatican was nothing to it, and there never was a library better
read. This, with occasional additions, furnished me with reading while I
remained at home."

That is the stuff of which strong men are made, and strong communities,
and mighty nations. And what was done at Marietta, and at Cincinnati,
and at Ames, was done in a multitude of other towns all over the
north-west. At Vincennes, Indiana, a library was started by similar
means in 1807; and one of the founders was Gen. Wm. Henry Harrison, the
hero of Tippecanoe and hard cider. That was the first public library
established in Indiana.

So, too, in Michigan, far back in its territorial days, similar
libraries were formed, especially that of the Young Men's Society of
Detroit. But in Michigan, by far the greatest service in this direction
has been rendered more recently by the ladies, whose admirable library
associations in such towns as Ann Arbor, Flint, and Kalamazoo have done
much, especially during the past twenty years, for the literary
improvement and enjoyment of the people.

But this third stage of library evolution, good and useful as it has
been during the past 150 years, has this defect: it does not offer books
freely to all who would like books; it is limited to those who
participate in its privileges by paying for them.

Therefore society pushed forward into a fourth stage of evolution--one
still nearer to the grand object to be reached--the complete
popularization of books. This fourth stage was reached chiefly through a
new idea entering into the case, namely, the duty of the state to help
in providing books for the people who compose the state. The principle
is already admitted that the state must educate its citizens, and for
that purpose must sustain schools. For the same purpose, and on the same
principle, it must sustain libraries; for these are but an annex to
schools, and the books in them are only a part of the necessary
apparatus for public education.

In this way was started the fourth plan, that of "district school
libraries," a plan which for a while was hailed with delight as a real
contribution to human progress and happiness; which was eagerly adopted
in this state and in many others; but