The Portland daily press., 1863-10-24
COMMUNICATIONS.
Private Libraries of Portland.
SIXTH PAPER.
To the Editor Qfthe Press:

To othe Editor Of the Press:
The Library of Mr.. OLIVER GERgIsH con-
tains above 1200 volumes of a very useful and
attractive character The books are arranged
In cases in room set apart for the purpose,
and here the student, the seeker after truth
and information, may retire from the world
and commune with the master spirits of the
past and present generations.
The chief feature of Mr.. Gerrish's Library
Is the collection of works illustrating the doc
trnes of the New Jerusalem Church. or Swe-
denborgianism. Ii is very complete in this
particular and may be said to be without an
equal In addition to the various English and
American editions of the writings of Emanuel
Swedenborg, there are the complete works of
many able writers on kindred subjects. Among
the most eminent expounders of the New
Church doctrines whose works find place
In Mr.. G.'s Library, are John Cloves, Robert
Hindmarsh, Samuel Noble, I. Goyder, n. Sib-
ley, A. Clissold, w. Bruce, o. L. Hitler, L. ID
Kendel, DIR. Bayley, DeCharms Les Boys de
Guays, B. I. Barrett, VIM. b. Hayden, Abiel
Silver, Sampson Reed, Theoph. Parsons and
q. Bush. There are complete sets of the New
Church periodicals in this Library the most
prominent among them being the New Jeru-
salem Magazine, Of which Mr.. Sampson Reed
was for many years the editor. THE very
able and lucid article on the New Jerusalem
Church in the New American Cyclopedia is
from the pen OF this gentleman.
There are many valuable scientific works
and books of reference in this Library among
them may be mentioned Tominson's Cyclic
peda, Byrne's Dictionary of Mechanics, Rich
ardson's quarto Dictionary, published by Pick
ering, Ure's Dictionary, the Cyclopedia Amer
icana and the New American Cyclopedia,
Guthrie's Grammar of Geography and History,
Agassiz's Contributions, Browne sSylva Amer
icana, Newmans Botany, Sweet on the Gera-
MIA Pelargoniums, ) vols, Lindley's Vegetable
Kingdom. ct cetera.
In glancing over the shelves. ones eye
meets the titles of such scarce books as these:
Deaths Doings, TrumbulPs Poems, 1st edition.
Darwin's Botanic Garden, Marshall's Life of
Washington, Sanderson's Biography of the
Signers, The Fool of Quality, in vols, l176,
Tacitus' works in vols, edited by Gordon,
1877, Halcyon Luminary, and the American
Comic Annual for 1881, edited by II. j. Finn,
illustrations by Johnston. There are also
some works on Free Masonry which are now
extremely difficult to procure.
The standard histories are at home here
Gibbon, Hume, Rolin and Macauley There
are several valuable illustrated works, as Halls
British Ballads, Historic Illustrations of the
Bible with engrayings after the old masters,
and Hogarths works in 4to. form. Mr.. Ger
IRISH has taste for fine bindings and most of
his layorite authors are elegantly clothed in
full russia, turkey morocco and calf The
writer's attention has been called to some rus
sa bindings executed by Mr.. George Colman,
who was resident of this city some fifteen or
twenty years ago. Such accurate and taste
fu finish in the binding of these books is rare
ly seen nowadays. To tool book correctly
and well requires a firm and steady hanG
lSome ofthe books of our modern book bind
ers show their nerves to be 'little shaky")
We think that the trade of book binding is
akin to that of the architect aud builder, mas
much as.the latter designs and erects buildings
which endure many years, while specimens of
the handieralt Of the former exist for centuries
as monuments to attest their skill and indus
try. B.