"The youth replies, I can"
and goes forth.
The library is haunted with visions of beauty that Plato, that Michael Angelo, that Shelley saw—the youth exclaims "I see!" and follows his lure.
Here Clotho sits twirling her "thread-running spindle" and the youth, catching the clue, fares forth whither the fateful thread leads.
The library is almost never the goal but to many it may be the starting point whence they go forth "to strength and endeavor, love and sacrifice, the making and achievement of souls."
The public for whom the library exists has little conception or comprehension of its power. How shall such publicity as will give this knowledge of it be given?
Such publicity should make clear the larger aspects of the library's service, showing that the life of any society is "an indivisible inheritance" and the welfare of all made or marred by the condition and service of each one, therefore the library should be equipped to be universal in its appeal and service, a public necessity for individual use.
The public for whom the library exists gives it support insufficient for the task it should perform. If the library commanded respect would it not receive funds?
Books are the treasure to be gathered for its work. What shall be the principles of buying? How create the "leaven'd and preparéd choice?"
Books are the medium of appeal, the stuff of human knowledge, experience and wisdom stored by means of the printed leaf. The extent to which each individual shares in the stored treasure of the race-mind, is, in its sum, the measure of public safety and happiness and the starting-point for service. How show, how make known the attraction and stored power of books?