The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1886-02-05
THE RIGHT BOOKS.
James Russell Loweils Idea of WhaS
Library Should BE.

Library Should BE.
Mr.. Lowell told at the dedication OF |
the new Public Library at Chelset,
Mass, what books such library should
contain. Among other things he said:
A public library should contain some
thing for all tastes, as well as the ma
terial for thorough grounding in sll
branches of knowledge 1t should lie
rich in books of reference, in encyclf,-
p@dias, where one may learn witho-lt |
cost of research what things are genet
ally known. For it Is far more useffil
to know these than to know those that
are not generally known. Not to know
them is the defect of those half-traincd
and therefore hasty men who find a
mare 's-nest on every branch of the tree hf
knowledge. A library should contain ant
Pile stores of history, which, il it does not
always deserve the pompous title which
Bolingbroke gave it, of philosophy
teaching by example, certainly teaches
many things profitable for us to kno~
and to lay to heart; teaches among other
things how much of the present is still
hCltl III lllOl bllstln NY blD puob1 t0dCltlS
that, if there be no controlling purpose,
there is, at least, sternly logical Sc
quence in human affairs, and that
chance has but trifling dominion over
them; teaches why things are and must
be so and not otherwise; teaches, per-
haps, more than anything else, the value
of personal character as chief factor
IN what used to be called destiny, for
that cause is strong which has not a
multitude, but one strong man behind
it. History is indeed mainly the biogra-
ply of a few imperial men, and forces
home upon us the useful lesson how
intinitesimally important our own pri-
vate affairs are to the universe in gen.
eral.
In such library the sciences should
be fully represented, that men may at
least learn to know in what marvellous
museum they live, what wonder worker
is giving them an exhibition daily for
nothing. Nor let art be forgotten in all
its many forms, not as the antthesis of
science, but as her elder or fairer sister,
whom we love all the more that her use
fulness can not be demonstrated in dol
lars and cents. / should be thankful if
every day laborer among us could have
his mind illumined, as those of Athens
and of Florence had, with some images
of what is best in architecture, painting
and sculpture, to train his crude percep-
tions and perhaps call out latent facul-
ties. l should like to see the works OF
Ruskin within the reach of every artisan
among us. For hope some day that
the delicacy of touch and accuracy of
| eye that have made our mechanics in
some departments the best in the world
may give us the same supremacy in
works of wider range and more purely
ideal scope.
Voyages and travels would also have
| good store, especially the earlier, when
the world was fresh and unhackneyed,
and men saw things invisible to the
modern eye. They are fast-sailing ships
to watt away from present trouble to the
Fortunate Isles.
To wash down the drier morsels that
every library must necessarily offer at
| its board, let its range be not too narrow
to stretch from Dante to the elder
Dumas. The world of the imagination
is not the world of abstraction and
nonentity, as some conceive, but world
formed out of chaos by the sense of the
beauty that is in man and the earth on
which he dwells. 1t is the realm of
might-be, our haven of refuge from the
shortcomings and disillusions of life. 1t
is, to quote Spenser, who knew it we'll
The worlds sweet Inn from care and weari.
some turmolS
DO we believe, then, that God gave us
in mockery this splendid faculty of sym
pathy with things that are JOY forever?
For my part, believe that the love and
study of works of imagination is OF
practical utility in country so pro-
foundly material in its leading tcnden-
cies as ours. The hunger after purely
intellectual delights, the content with
ideal possessions, can not but be good
for us IN maintaining a wholesome bal
ance OF, the character Of the faculties. j
for one shall never be persuaded that
Shakespeare left a less useful legacy to
his countrymen than Watt. Wcholl all
the deepest, all the highest satisfactions
of life as tenants of Imagination. Ma
tune will keep up the supply of what arc
called hard-hcaded people without oul
help, and if it comes to that, there are
other as good uses for heads as at thu
end of battering-rams.-M. " Exam
iner.