Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-12-02

education and have not the means to do so 2
Not if WE are public spirited citizens. Hence
public library, together with a public read
ing room free to all the citizens is necessity
for overy prosperous aud happy community.
These two, the library and the reading room,
form one institution. 1t is, indeed, the town
university, the peoples college aud profess
the majority of the citizens mutt nearly stop
when their school days end. With it, scores
Of young men will carry on their education
till they become leaders of thought and ben
eiicent action. The public library should not
be a circulating library only. 1t should also
provide conveniences for consultation in its
own rooms. 1t should give opportunity for
the citizens to come and study its volumes
with conveniences for writing, so that the
man or woman who has no place of study at
home and no books of his own, shall as far
as possible stand on a level in advantages
with the man who has private study or of
fee and well furnished library. l say moth
ing now of the value of such an institution as
a means of promoting public morality. l
speak only of its educational value. To speak
broadly, the public library is a necessity for
three classes of persons.
First, for those of whom have Just been
speaking, the citizens generally, who can
hardly have any other m cans of carrying for
ward their education.
Secondly, for the children in the public
schools. One of the most important ele-
ments of an education is the knowledge how
to use books. One reason why young people
do not carry on their education after they
leave school is because they do not learn how
to use books, except textbooks while in
school. The only way in which this is posi-
BILE is by the actual use of books in connec-
ton With their school studies Hence the
/. L. L a
auxiliary to the public schools. Teachers
learn how to use the library in connection
with their teaching, sending their pupils con-
tinually to the library to hunt up information
on the subjects of school study and of their
written essays. Thus learning to use a libra
ry while in school, they are prepared to use
the library all through life
Thirdly the library is a necessity for the
leaders of thought and popular education in q
community. No man, unless he possesses
great wealth, can afford to buy all the books
which he needs. Professional men and spe-
cial students are therefore dependent upon
public libraries for a large portion of the
books they must use. But these men are the
educators of the people. If at least they are
public spirited men, they are constantly Civ
ing to their fellow townsmen the results of
their own studies 1t is, therefore, a matter
of public interest that the students of com
munity should be provided with the books
they need A large class of books which stu
dents very much need to know are too expen-
sive for the private citizen to buy. Only a
public library can meet this necessity
Indeed the educational forces of a town are
incomplete and seriously insufficient without
a public library and the reading room, eve
ming schools, students clubs and courses of
lectures which naturally 60 with it. As 1
have said, this institution is not for the few,
but for the many. 1t is the peoples college,
the only efficient means of distributing that
knowledge which is power equally among all
the citizens. 1t is safe to say that a public
spirited community will not rest until Il has a
wel-furnished and well-endowed library. 1t
would seem to be the first thing of public in
terest to which the citizens of Brattleboro
need to attend.
But already have prolonged this discus
sion too far. My aim has been to point out
the divine source of true public spirit and
some of the lines in which it will work. 1
read the other day that Aristotle says: "The
end of the state is not simply to live, but to
live nobly." And how shall community
live nobly unless the divine law of love is the
controlling force in the hearts of the citizens?
And to what will such love lead them if not
to public action, generous and wise, for the
health of all the people, for peace and safety
in all places, for the comfort of the sick and
infrm, for all honorable industries, and for
the broadest and best education of all? The
community in which the public spirit of the
citizens obtains these results will not only
live il will live nobly.