in the noble library of Trinity College,
Cambridge, and is the work of Sir Christopher Wren. He has kept these
cases down to very moderate height, for he doubtless took into account
that great heights require long ladders, and that the fetching and use
of these greatly add to the time consumed in getting or in replacing a
book. On the other hand, the upper spaces of the walls are sacrificed,
whereas in Dublin, All Souls, and many other libraries the bookcases
ascend very high, and magnificent apartments walled with books may in
this way be constructed. Access may be had to the upper portions by
galleries; but we cannot have stairs all round the room, and even with
one gallery of books a room should not be more than from sixteen to
eighteen feet high if we are to act on the principle of bringing the
largest possible number of volumes into the smallest possible space. I
am afraid it must be admitted that we cannot have a noble and imposing
spectacle, in a vast apartment, without sacrificing economy and
accessibility; and vice versa.

The projections should each have attached to them what I rudely term an
endpiece (for want of a better name), that is, a shallow and extremely
light adhering bookcase (light by reason of the shortness of the
shelves), which both increases the accommodation, and makes one short
side as well as the two long ones of the parallelopiped to present
simply a face of books with the lines of shelf, like threads, running
between the rows.

The wall-spaces between the projections ought also to be turned to
account for shallow bookcases, so far as they are not occupied by
windows. If the width of the interval be two feet six, about sixteen
inches of this may be given to shallow cases placed against the wall.

Economy of space is in my view best attained by fixed shelves. This
dictum I will now endeavor to make good. If the shelves are movable,
each shelf imposes a dead weight on the structure of the bookcase,
without doing anything to support it. Hence it must be built with wood
of considerable mass, and the more considerable the mass of wood the
greater are both the space occupied and the ornament needed. When the
shelf is fixed, it contributes as a fastening to hold the parts of the
bookcase together; and a very long experience enables me to say that
shelves of from half- to three-quarters of an inch worked fast into
uprights of from three-quarters to a full inch will amply suffice for
all sizes of