LIBRARIES, A PUBLIC BENEFACTION
A library is not a luxury; it is not for the cultured few; it is not merely for the scientific; it is not for any intellectual cult or exclusive literary set. It is a great, broad, universal public benefaction. It lifts the entire community; it is the right arm of the intellectual development of the people, ministering to the wants of those who are already educated and spreading a universal desire for education. It is the upper story of the public school system, while it is a broad field wherein ripe scholars may find a fuller training for their already highly developed faculties. It is above all a splendid instrument for the education and culture of those vast masses of boys and girls that are denied the high privileges of the systematic training of the schools.
C. C. THACH.
The function of the library as an institution of society, is the development and enrichment of human life in the entire community by bringing to all the people the books that belong to them.
SALOME CUTLER FAIRCHILD.