The northern galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1844-1848, 1846-05-26

class ought TO possess at least 25,OOU OF the
| volumes it specifies But this list is even
tolerably complete in but few departments.
In French history and literature, in civil and
| International law. in the history and literature
of classical antiquity and Of early typography
| in theology, in medicine, you will fluid il per-
| haps nearly satisfactory; but in the history
| and literature Of all other nations, and almost
| every other field of enquiry 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 onefourth even of the small proper
ton Of Brunet's list which | have described
as Of intrinsic and permanent value. But are
| there not numerous branches of knowledge
well worthva place in every great literary re-
| posItory. and which are yet wholly nnrepre-
scented in our alcovesl Let us devote
moment 10 some dry statistics concerning the
literature Of continental Europe. The Bib
liotheca Historical Sueo- Gothica Of Warm
holrz, the last volume OF which appeared in
1917. enumerates no less than 10000 works
illustrative Of the history of Sweden alone;
and the thirty years since have added greatly
to the number. The Literatnr Lexicon Of
Nyerup, published in 1920. gives the titles of
probably an equal number of works be-
longing to the literature of the countries sub
ject to the Danish crown. Holland. too, has
noble historians, faturalists, poets, and dram
atists, and has produced many works of I'M
surpassed value upon the history Of commerce
and navigation. The list of Brunei contains
not one in hundred Of the standard authors
Of these several countries; and The library Of
Congress, as far as remember, does moi pos
sess volume in the language Of either of
them. Again. consider the vast extent and
surprising value Of the literature of Ger
many. OF the 100000 different volumes
of printed books supposed TO exist, it is COM
puted that more than one-thIrd are in the
German language. The learning Of Germany
embraces every field of human inquiry, and
the efforts of her scholars have done more 10
extend the bound of modern knowledge than
the united labors Of the rest of the Christian
world Every scholar familiar with her lit
erature let me not say familiar. for life is TOO
short for any man to count its bOundless
treasures but every enlightened student who
has but dipped into it, will readily confess its
iuinite superiority TO any other, j might al
most say TO all other literatures. 1t has been
affirmed, that more than one-half Of our pop
ulation is Of recent German origin. and Ger
man is the vernacnlar tongue ofextensive dis
tricts Of American soil. Yet the library Of
Congress contains not one hundred, probably
not hfty,volumes in that noble language. You
have none of the numerous writers of the
vast empire Of Russia. or Of Poland; nothing
of the curious literatures Of Hungary and Bo-
hernia; only the commorest books in Italian
and Spanish; moi volume in the language
of Portugal, rich as it is in various liiera-
ture. and especially in the wild yet true TO-
nance Of OrienIal discovery and conquest.
that como down to us through the pages of
learned De Barros and quaint old Castanhe
| da, ringing upon the ear and stirring the
blood like the sound ola iar-oti trumpet In
| the Boundess world. too, Of oriental learning
Of which our increasing commercial relations
with the countries Of the East render il highly
desirable that we should possess the means
of acquiring knowledge, you have nothing to
shew but few TRANSACTIONS OF the Bible. and
perhaps some works Of devotion or elemental
| nv religious doctrine. which American mis-
sionaries have presented you.
| Will it not be admitted that an American
library of people descended from men of
every cline, aud blood, and language coun-
try which throws open her doors as an asyl-
um for the oppressed ofcvery race and every
tongue, should be somewhat more compre-
hensive in its raugel That it should at least
have some representatives of every written
tongue that is spoken within lis borders
But even in English literature. our library
is sadly meacre. How far are from pcs
sessing tolrrable complete series Of the En-
slish printed books Of the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries, or even of that hes: age Of
| 4, hot hicI ~
honest American most truly sympaihizes. the
age of Cromwell and of Milton7 Would it
not be we'll TO have at our command the
means of enabling some diligent scholar TO
write what has not yet been worIhily written,
or indeed scarce even attempted. complete
history of the literature OF our AngloSaxon
mother tongue or to perform that Herculean
task, which, in spite of the vaunIe1 but feeble
labors of Webster, remains sill to be accom-
ri she'd, the preparation Of a respectable En-
glish dictionary
| If there is any department Of learning, in
which a library selected for the use Of the
representatives of a democracy should be
complete, it is that of history. But what have
we Of the sources of historical Investigations!
| Histories indeed we have. but little history.
True, we have Robertson, and Hume, and
Voltaire, and Gibbou. aud. above all, Alison,
a popular writer in these days, and
"Like Sir.Agfippa, for profound
And solid lying, much renowned"
but OF those materials from which true history
is to be drawn, we have little, very little. The
works belonging to the proper history OF The
American continent alone, every one OF which
it would be highly desirable 10 possess, num-
Der certainly more than 20 coo volumes, fully
equally to oue-haf the Congressional library,
and of these we have, as yet, but small pro
portion.
1.-THE bounty CT the generous foreigner. i'll
spite of the broad language which expresses
his liberal purpose. is to be confined TO the
narrow uses which some gentlemen propose,
the appropriation of $1,000 per annum is
unnecessarily large, at least for permanent
expenditure. moderute amount would
collect all that is worth buying in the expert
mental sciences, aud small annua! appTo-
priatioH would keep ur with The advance of
knowledge in this department. But II Is due
to ourselves, due to eur age, due to ben