Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1858-01-06
Public Libraries

| az am aware that there is still floating
about in the community, vague pre- &c
AGAINST what is called book. learning. One
sometimes hears doubts expressed of the
utility of public libraries; opinions that they
are rather ornamental than necessary or
useful; and the fact that our time-hopored
city has subsisted more than two centuries
without one, is sufficient proof that, until
within very few years, their Importance
has not been practically felt. There is per-
haps even now o disposition to claim some
superiority for what is called practical
knowledg e-knowledge gained by observa-
! ton and experience (which most certainly
the Trustees would not disparage,) and q
! kind of satisfaction felt 10 holding Up the
example of sclf.taught men, 10 supposed con-
tradistincsion from those who have got their
knowledge from books; and DO name, per-
haps, is so frequently mentioned IN this con-
nection as that OF Franklin, who, because he
bad scarce any school education, and never
went to college, has been hastily set down
as a brilliant example to show the lnatIIlty
of book.learnng. 1t has been quoted to me
10 this way, within three days.
| Now, Mr.. Mayor, | need not tell you that
there never was q greater mistake IN point
of fact. A thirst for books, which he spared
no pains to allay, is the first marked trait
disclosed in the character of Franklin his
success throughout the early period OF bis
| life, can be directly traced TO the use he
| made OF them; and his very first important
movement for the benefit of his fellow-men,
was to found a public library, which still
| hourishes;-oue of the most considerable IN
the country. Franklin not O bUok-man !.
whoever !abors under that delu5ion, shows
| that somebody else is not book-man, at least
so far as concerns the biography of our Illus
trious towusmau. We happen to have little
| information on that subject, in book written
| by Franklin himself. lie there gives very
! different account of himself, and | would ask
auy one who entertains tie idea TO which am
allud:pg. at what period Of Franklin's career
be suppOses this taste for books began TO be
manifested by him; how soon be ceased to be
selfformed man? Perhaps after he had
struggled through the years Of bis youthful
poyosty;-escaped to Philadelphia up
in business as printer, and begun to have
little money in his pocket. | need not tell
you, sir, that it was earlier than that. Was
it, then, while he was the clever apprentice
wrote articles for its columns in a disguised
hand aud tucked them under the office door,
ENJOYING the exquisite delight of setting up his
own anonymous articles, was 1t then, at the
age OF fifteen or sixteen, that this tOndness
for reading, under the stimulus Of boyi5h au-
thOrship disclosed itself? Earlier than that.
Well, then, at the grammar school and Mas
ter Brownell'5 writing school, which he al
tended from eight to ten, (tor there are boys
who show fondncsS for reading, even at
that tender age;) was little BenJamln's
taste for books developed while yet at school?
Earlier than that. Hear his own words,
which you will permit NE to read from that
exquisite piece of autobiography to which |
have already alluded: From my INFANCY
was passonately fond Of reading, and all
the money that came into my hands was
laid out III purchasing books. | was very
fond of voyages. My first acquisition was
BunyGn's works. in separate little volumes.
| afterwards sold them to enable me to buy
r. Burtou's Historical Collections. They
were small chapman's books, and cheap,
forty volumes in all. My fathers little
library consisted chiefly Of books IN pc
lemic divinity, most of which | read
| have often regretted land this is a ser
tence that might be inscribed on the lofty cor.
nices of those noble columns) that at time
when bad such thirst for knowledge, more
proper books had not fallen in my way
I There was among them PIutarch's
lives, which read abundantly, and | still
think that time spent to great advantage
There was also book of Defoe's, called an
Essay on PrQjcctS,' and another of DR.. Ma
theirs called an EsSayto do good,' which" =
did what, sir? For am now going to give
you in Frankln's own words they carry
with them the qualification Of every dollar
expended in raising these walls,) the orr
ginal secret of his ilIustrious career-whas
was the effect produced by reading these two
little books OF Defoe and Cotton Mather?
they perhaps gave me turn Of thinking,
which had an influence on some OF the prln-
cipal future events of my life Yes, sir, in
the reading Of these books was the acorn,
that sprouted into. that magnificent OAK; there
was the fountain-drOp which a fairy might
sip from buttercup from which has flowed
the Missouri and the Mis- ,issippi,-tbe broad
deep river Of Franklin's fame winding its way
through the lapse of ages, and destined to
flow on till it shall be engulphed in the ocean
of eternity. From his infancy" sir, pas
sionately fond of reading, nay with the appe
title of vulture, with the digestion of an
ostrich, attacking the great folos on polemic
divinity in his fathers library. Not dull
boy, either, sir; not a precocious little book
worm; fond of play: dosen't dislike little
mischief; sometimes, as he tells us, "led the
other boys into scrapes;" but in his intervals
of play, in his leisure moments, up IN the
lonely garrett, when the rest Of the family
were asleep, holding converse in his child
hood with the grave old ncn.conformIsts,
Howe, and Oven aud Baxter ,--communlng
with the austerest lords of thought the
demigods of puritanism -
Non sine dis animosus infans.
Franklin not book-map? Why he goes
on to tell US that it was "this booksh inciDa
ton which at length determined his father
to make him a printer" against his own in
clination, which was for the sea; and when
be had thus by constraint become printer,
bis great consolation was, as he says, that Il
now bad access to better books. An &C
quantance with the apprentices of bookse!-
lers enabled me sometimes to borrow smail
one, which | was careful TO return soon and
clean. Often satup 10 my chamber reading
the greatest part Of the night, when the book
was borrowed in the evening and to be re-
turned in the morning, lest it should be found
missing.