er type come
men who represent with honor their state and their nation; men who widen
the bounds of freedom and who add new stars to the celestial sphere of
knowledge. Is all this wholly a matter of reading? One would not dare to
assert it absolutely, remembering the advantages of race, government,
and religion enjoyed in New England. And yet we have only to fancy the
condition of even such a town after one generation, supposing all its
printed matter and its power to read were taken away, if we would
realize what an impulse to progress and prosperity is given by the
presence of the volumes that line the shelves of our public libraries.

If the fortunes of a community in the modern world are bound up with the
use that it makes of books and libraries, no less are those of the
individual. This is true whether we refer to his private satisfaction or
to his public advancement. The animal is endowed with instinct, which is
sufficient for the guidance of his life, but it permits of no
development. Man must depend upon judgment, experience, reason--guides
that are often only too blind; but at least they admit of progress. In
fact it is only in the field of knowledge that human progress appears to
be possible. We have no better bodies than the ancient Greeks had--to
put the case very mildly. We have no better minds than they had--to make
an even safer assertion. But we _know_ almost infinitely more than they
did. In this respect the ancient Greeks were but as children compared
with ourselves. What makes this tremendous difference? Simply the fact
that we know all that was known by them and the Romans and the men of
the middle ages, and through this knowledge we have learned more by our
own discovery than they knew, all put together. The path to success for
men and races lies through the storehouse where this vast knowledge is
garnered--the library. But it is something more than a storehouse of
knowledge; it is an electrical battery of power. This knowledge, this
power, can be obtained in its fullness only through books. The man,
therefore, who aspires to lead his fellows, to command their respect or
their votes, must not rely on native talent alone; he must add to it the
stored-up talent of the ages.

There is an old proverb: "No man ever got rich with his coat off." This
is a puzzling assertion, for it seems to contradict so many accepted
ideas. General Grant, for instance, when asked for his coat-of-arms,
replied: "A pair of