Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1900-09-28
COLLEGE LIBRARIES.
INSTRUMENTS OF MIGHTY USEFUL
NESS TO MANKIND.

man-President Thwing's Glowing Trib-
ute to such Institutions.
President Charles F. Thwing, d. D.,
t. L. D., of Western Reserve university,
soon will publish through the Century
Co., New York, a volume on college
Administration" In view of the opening
of Middlebury's new library, what Dr.
Thwing will say about libraries is of
especial interest and is as follows:
The university represents a unique
combination of the library and of the
scholar. A library without a scholar Is
a pile of bricks without an architect, use
less, meaningless; scholar without
library is an architect without bricks,
helpless, worthless. A scholar in libra
ry, library for scholar, and both con-
stltuent parts of the university represent
the alluence, the power, and the progress
of learning.
The library also represents the high
est relation of the work of the college to
the work of the world. 1t embodies the
purest thought. it receives the finest gold
of human aspiration and achievement.
Above all other collections of books, ii
should keep out all dross. Most books,
as they fall from the press, fall into the
ocean of forge tfulness, and sink by their
own weight. The college receives the
books which have life, the books which,
as Lowell says of Gray. ''mav have little
fuel but real fire 1t wishes to possess
all the books which are an unquenchable
flame. President Low has defined the
university as "the highest organized eX-
ponent of the intellectual needs of man.
The library may be called the highest
organized exponent of the supply of the
organized needs of man. He also says
that the university sis an oranized expo
nent of the questioning spirit in man.
We may still further define the library as
an organized exponent of the answering
of the questioning spirit in man.
1t is through the library that the col
lege comes into relations with life uni
versal, vital, human. The library APP
peals to humanity of every range. The
chemical labratory to many is condi-
ton which appeals to only part of the
human sense and senses. Laboratories Of
other departments are likewise as mean
ingless. But a great collection of books
awakens in even the most stupid wonder,
and in all other persons emotions higher
than wonder, according as the intelec-
tual receptivities are nobler. Most vital,
too, are these relations. How many
have interpreted in their own lives Mil
tons definition of a book as the "precous
life-blood of a master spirit" Cold and
remote often seems the college. 1t is
do
lege in 'The Princess" But into the
library has flowed the blood of humanity
The college man drinks deep of this
innowing life and gives himself in deeper
devotion to humanity. Is it too much to
say that whatever of the universal may
belong to the university belongs to the
library more than TO any other part?
The American college, therefore, has
in its library an instrument of mighty
usefulness for serving mankind. No
wisdom is too practical, no conservation
too hearty, no endowment too rich, to be
devoted to its development No house Is
too fair or too fine for holding its books,
only provided the house facilitates their
use. No administrative expense is too
costly for making its resources more ac-
cessibe. The library is worthy of the
best, for it helps to make the best in the
student and the teacher.
The significance given to a library is
symptomatic of the richness of the intel
lectual culture which it helps the stu
dents to secure. As the public library is
to a degree the cause and the result OF
the intelligence of the community, so the
college library bears relations no less
broad and intimate to the work of the
college itself. For every element and
condition of the library have a peculiar
value at once TO the student. 70 the teach
er, and to the college executive. The
breadth of the work of a college library
is indicated by the fact that the library
of Harvard College received in the year
lS74-1j four funds from sources quite
diverse. One of these consisted of the
proceeds of one-half Of the residue of the
estate of Charles sumner, S2J, 00J
Another fund was the bequest of Sl5,0 UC
from James Walker. a former president
of the college. Upon these gifts and
others the president in his annual report
for lS14-75. says: 1.-The philanthropist
and orator whose life was spent in Il
fierce struggle with monstous public
wrong. the strong preacher, and the phi
lanthropic student whose heightened
days were spent in academic retirement
the venerable women full of years and OF
the graces, all. with a touching consent
come bringing the same gift-good books
for the use of successive generations OF
students"
SO long as colleges exist and so long
as education Is fostered, and so long as
the pursuit of knowledge, either as a dis
cipline or for the purpose of its enrich
ment, is observed, so long the book must
play large part IN the organization and
administration of the college. Therefore
the gift of money to a college for the
purchase of books is ever, and in every
respect, to receive hearty commenda
ton.