h, from the generations of the hymn writers of the
Euphrates and the Indus to the generations now alive. There is nothing
save the air we breathe that we have common rights in so sacred and so
clear, and there is no other public treasure which so reasonably demands
to be kept and cared for and distributed for common enjoyment at common
cost.

Free corn in old Rome bribed a mob and kept it passive. By free books
and what goes with them in modern America we mean to erase the mob from
existence. There lies the cardinal difference between a civilization
which perished and a civilization that will endure.

J. N. LARNED.

GOOD BOOKS

The library offers the advantages of good society to many who could not
otherwise enjoy them. This is one of the most important influences that
tells on individual character. A man is not only known by the company
he keeps, but to a great extent he is made or unmade by his associates.
A great part of what we learn and much of what we are is absorbed
unconsciously from our environment.

Now books are written--at least the good books--by men and women of the
better sort. They are people of marked intelligence and refinement. They
have just views of truth and duty and are able to reveal to us many
secrets respecting the life that is being lived around us. They are
interpreters and guides in all lines of human activity and service. To
be intimate with them is good society. If then we can bring all these
choice spirits by their books into our village and introduce them to our
children and our neighbors, even to the poorest, and let them talk to
all who will listen, we have done something, we have done much to raise
the tone of general intelligence and refinement.

Here is the great opportunity to reach the homes of the poor and the
careless and even of the baser sort with new light. The books will
interest and meet the craving for knowledge which everybody has, and
then will come into confidential relations with many a reader, starting
new trains of thought, suggesting new ideas, offering sympathy and
kindling faith. The friendless will gain friends and these friends will
do them good.

In such ways, this institution, the public library, is calculated to
enlarge and enrich the community's life.

WILLIAM R. EASTMAN.

PLACE AND PURPOSE OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY

The place now assigned the public library, by very general consent, is
that of an integral part of our system of public and free e