Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-06-15
CORNER sro.es.



Continued from Let page.
library room, one of the best and mo,
attractive and useful libraries in the St.te
A good public library in town like thi
il an educational institution Of, inestimsbl
value.
II inspires taste for reading. II in
creases the general intelligence, raises il
,andard of intellectual character and add
to its influence and power.
II will contain the be u thoughts of prea
minds of all countries, in all ageY of th
world known to history, and offer them 4
Us for our instruction, in our own Ian
gusge.
By their works we make ouf, acouaint
ance with the authors. and they becom,
our Intellectual companions, and like ,
companion, make an impression of thei
character upon us.
The more we study them, the longer IN,
companionship and the deeper the impres
sion. The young should be a. careful i,
the selection of their books a. of their com
panions. .+t.s.7. 3Ig
|. it not instructive to make scquaint
ance with such men as Homer, Socrates
Plato, Demosthenes and others amongst thu
illrstrious men Of Greece, to- hear thu
blind poet recite bis Iliad, to li.ten to ths
instructions of the philosophers and learr
how they taught their pupils to reason and
think, and to be aroused by the philippe,
Of the matchless orator of antiquity?
We can also make the acquaintance of
some of the illustrious men of the Roman
race-with Virgil who will delight Us with
bis polished verse, with Cicero, eloouen,
upon every subject touched by his prolific
pen, with julius Caesar the master miod OF
the age. -e
But no ones life can give us a more in.
structive, practical lesson than that of Cor.
nelia. the mother of the Gracehi, who de.
voted herself to train, educate and prepare
her two sonsfor their distinguished career
She comprehended the true sphere OF
woman, the grandest open to humanity
the power to mould and form the chara CITE,
OF the entire coming generation err.
The Romans erected statue to her mem
Dry. -.. .-lrYg e. -s.s, -
But our principal library acquaintance viii
be with the distinguished writer's of modern
times, and largely those of the English
speaking race---with such a. Shakespeare,
Milton, Addison, Scott, Thackeray, Dickens,
Macaulay, Carlisle and others and the
writer's of the present age upon every branch
of learning, and with our America authors
who have made their names historical, such
as Irving, Bancroft, Prescott, Morley, EN-
erson. Longfellow, Hawthorne, Abbott,
Holmes, Howell, Whittier and many others
of like ability aud with the able writer's
with whose work the press is now daily
teeming and the shelves of the library are
being filled.
II is with such an array of distinguished
men and women of ancient and modern
times, our thoughtful benefactor and his
associates offer the privilege Of an acquaint
snce to the entire community.
All honor to bi, name.
have sometimes thought that if it is per-
mitted to those who have left US for the life
beyond to know what is transporting here,
AID our friend could look into the library
room some afternoon and see the group Of
young persons sitting around the tables and
iutenty pouring over the books in the
earnest pursuit of knowledge, and the
crowd that press around the librarian for
books to take home and read, it could not
fail to lift his head with, joy to see that in
doing good here his influence still lives.
The National Home Band rendered Sc
lection entitled Northern Romance" (tuba
solo, Mr.. Winkler), AMI then followed the
presentation address by Hon. l.. C. Cornish,
who spoke as follows:
Mr.. President, Ladies' and Gentlemen: -s
When the Pilgrim Fathers established on
these shores the infant commonwealth, they
planted side by side the schoolhouse and
the church, the one representing their faith
in man, the other their faith in God. To
these two sources, coupled with the spirit
of civil and religious liberty, may be traced
the intellectual and moral progress of the
New England of today.
But different times have different needs,
and what was ample for the beginning of
the 18th century is quite insufficient for the
end of the 10th. Today a new factor has
come into our social economy, not to sup
plant, but to supplement both school and
church, and that factor is the public Ii
brary.
Such an institution was impossible in the
days Of our forefathers. Books were few
in number and practically inaccessible.
When the keel of the Msyflower first parted
the waters of plymouth bay Shakespeare
bad been dead but four years and no edi-
ton of his works had as yet been attempted.
Bacon, in the zenith of his fame, was just
putting forth bis marvellous productions,
and literature as such was mesgre in the
extreme.
The ga years that have elapsed since
that time have witnessed a constantly in
creasing supply in every branch of study.
All departments have We'd with one an
other in intellectual activity until the well
equipped library Of the present day con-
tains nearly as many thousands as its pre-
decessor of that early time could have con-
tanned single volumes. Thinking men have
come to recognize the value of these insti
tu,ions to the citizens at large, and through
out New England, where once you saw
simply the schoolhouss and the church. you
now see standing beside them and lifting
its head with equal pride, because conscious
of the equal duty it is performing, the public
library, the intellectual storehouse Of the
people.
Augusta, today, is celebrating her goot
fortune, and is about to lay the cornel
stone of her new library building. The
corner stone of the library itself was laid
MANY years 400 through the thOuphtfulreel