The voice of freedom. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1839-1848, 1846-06-18

lion of literature and science. The pre-.
eat is a rare opportunity, the only on
yet offered, and never, perhaps, to be re
peated, for taking our proper place anon.
the nations of the earth, not merely as
political society, but as patrons of knowl
edge and the liberal arts. The treasure
of our national wealth are, perhaps, no
at our command for this purpose and !!
is only by The discreet use of this bequest
and Of the funds which private literally
will assutedIy contribute to extend The
means of the institution, that we can hope
to kindle a luminary, whose light shall
encompass the earth, and repay 10 Eu
rope the illumination we have borrowed
from her.
The library of Gouingen, of which
have spoken, contains six times as many
volumes as the largest American ~collec.
lions; it has been accumulated within a
comparatively short period, scarcely a
cen'ury-and, having been selected upon
a fixed plan by the ablest scholars in the
world, it contains few books originally
without merit, few duplicates, and few
which the progress of science and litera>
ture have rendered worthless. And vet,
though upon the whole the best existing
library, it, in many departments, does not
approach 10 completeness, and the schol-
ars who resort to it are often obliged to
seek elsewhere sources of knowledge
which Gottlngen does not afford.
W. shall perhaps be best able to est.
mate our own deficiencies and wants by
comparing the contents of our Congress
sional library with the actual extent of
existing literature. The library of Con,
gress contains more than 10000 volumes,
in general valuable and we'll chosen, with
not many duplicates, not many books that
one would altogether reject. 1t is not
composed, like TOO many of our public liz
braries, in any considerable degree, of
books which have been giren, because
the proprietor found them too worthless
TO keep, but it has been almost wholly
purchased and selected from The best Eu-
ropean sale catalogues, and yet there is
no one branch of liberal study, even
among those of greatest interest TO our.
selves, in which it is not miserabIy def
cient.
There is, perhaps, no better general
catalogue OF such books, in the various
departments of learning, as are priced by
collectors, than the Table Methodique, in
the last edition of Brunel's Manuel du
Libraire. Brunei enumerates more than
10000 works. making, in the whole,
about 100, 900 volumes, and processes to
only the most important aud the
rarest. The list, contains, no doubt, very
many works of little intrinsic worth, or
even adventurous interest but it is, per-
haps, not too much to say, that a library
the larger class ought 10 possess al
least $4,000 of the volumes it specifes.-
But this list is even tolerabIy complete in
but few departments. In French history
and literature, in civil and international
in the history and literature of class
steal antiquity and of early Typography,
in theology, in medicine, you will find it
perhaps nearly satisfactory F.; but in the
and literature of all other nations,
and ia almost every other field of inquiry
but those | have mentioned, the learned
scholar will miss the titles of many more
valuable works than he will find, while
many highly interesting and important
chapters are almost entirely blank. The
Congressional library does not probably
contain one-fourth even OF the small pro-
of Brunet's list which l have de~
scribed as of intrinsic and permanent
But are there not numerous
branches of knowledge we'll worthy a
place in every great literary repository,
and which are yet wholly unrepresented
10 our alcoves2 Let US devote IA
% some dry statistics concerning the liter
of continental Europe. The BibIl-
otheca Historical Sueo.G othica of Warm
hoIlz, the last volume of which appeared
in 1917, enumerates no less than 10000
works Illustrative Of the history of Swe-
alone; and the thirty years since
added greatly to the number. The
decentralization of Nyerup, published
in 1920, gives the titles of probably an
equal number Of works belonging to the
literature of the countries subject to the
crown. Holland, 100, has noble
historians, naturalists, poets, and dramat,
.sts, and has produced many works Of
unsurpassed value upon the history of
commerce and navigation. The list of
Brunei contains not one in a hundred of
he standard authors of these several
and the library of Congress,
IS far as remember. does not possess a
volume in the language of either of them.
consider the vast extent and sur
value of the literature of Germa>
ny. Of the 100000 different volumes
If printed books supposed to exist, it is
computed that more than one>third are in
he German language. The learning OF
Germany embraces every field Of human
inquiry, and the efforts of her scholars
nave done more to extend the bounds Of
modern knowledge than The united labors
If the rest of the Christian world. Eve.