Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-11-04
THE STATE LIBRARY.
A Valuable institution.

We spent half an hour at the capitol
yesterday among the books, paintings and
valuable collections of the State Library
To those who have visited it, it is needless
to say that the time was irstructively and
| protitahly spent. 1t is an institution of
which we should feel justly proud, and one
| which the Legislature should take and keep
under its fostering care with scrupulous,
| jealous and parental eye, looking to its III
| terest, its protection and its expansion,
with reference not only to the present and
those Immediately interested, but with the
view of bequeathing it to the generations
yet to be, into whose hands the Gus
tody of the capitol, with all its acquisitions,
archives and privileges, Is to be intrusted.
Though the collection of books IS not so
large as we have seen In more extensive in
stitutions, it is very valuable one, embracing
every topic Of law, State, national and inter-
national, and most of the standard scientific
works of the day. Encyclopedias and lexi-
cons have enriched its shelves, while the
polite literature and belle-lettres are well
represented. Biographical literature and
valuable volumes, that bring the dark past
into the light Of the present, spread before
us the big and little events carefully culled
and preserved from the far-back lumber
yards of history. Most of the books, well
bound, carefully classified and neatly pre-
served, to which the man of science, of
letters, or everyday practical politics, would
have occasion to refer, are there.
Then, too, the rooms are decorated with
paintings of statesmen and great men, in
cased in magnificent framework, that look
down upon us with all that muscularity of
mind and vigOr of intellect they exhibited
before time had dimmed 1.-THE lustre of
their eagle eyes, or age had crumbled the
stately dignity of their manly forms.
These paintings are true to life, and form n
galaxy worthy the regard of Tennesseeans,
as were the deeds of the i'm
mortal living actors, who formed
an imperishable cOronet for the historic
brow of the State. Besides these there are
other attractions and valuable collections
there. There are inventions and cUriOsities,
and the swords of dead heroes, lain as
sacred relics, idly by TO rust in their scab-
bards. that cleaned and flashed in the
van of battle, both in revolutionary and
aboriginal times There, too. are geologi-
cal and mineral specimens and the pre-
served molars of giganic monsters, unseen
10y any of the living Of to-day, departed
like the great dead of the past-gOne down
as fossilized mastadons to the future
Among the collection are mummies, the
embalmed of centuries, the very art of
which seems lost with the mightier
means that built the Pyramids. Tourists
and savans brought them from the mouldy
gates of Thebes and left them here This
mummied man lies as he has lain while
many centuries have rolled over him. We
know not who or what he may have been
He may have been honored at the
courts of the Ptolemies, or catalogued books
in the library at Alexandria. He may have
famed the beautiful Queen who made mad
Mark Antony fling a world away at her
feet. or he may have stood on the sands
and witnessed the march of Cambyses.
We know not, and refer to it as a relic of
which the library is the repository. There
are also 1889 volumes of books in the
library, embracing a wide and general
range of reading and investigation for the
scholar and the student There are also
national documents of a great variety of
public information, and innumerable State
documents, statistics and assembly reports,
etc, of every State and territory in the
country. The total expenditure of the in
stitution during the year just closed, IN
Guiding the purchase of books, furniture,
etc, footed up s., 175 90. Mr.. A. Cat
finger has been the Librarian