"'I have sometimes seen on library walls placards sent in with the demand, 'Please display this prominently,' that have exercised upon me an immediate deterrent effect. Still,' said the reader, with his superior air, 'do not think me ill-natured. The best thing we can do is to keep our temper, stamp down as we can what becomes too outrageous and indecent, and labor and pray for the refinement of the world's taste. This no doubt will come very slowly.'
"'Can we help the thing forward at all?' said I, falling in for the moment with his humor.
"'Only as we can promote in general the diffusion of sweetness and light,' said the reader. 'If a man should be aroused to attack directly I believe he might strike a more effective blow through ridicule than through denunciation. Keep denunciation for the more weighty and ghastly evils that beset us; a mere annoyance it is better to laugh away if we can do it.'"
Adjourned at 3.30 p.m.
[FIFTH SESSION.]
(Fountain Spring House, Tuesday morning, July 9.)
The meeting was called to order by President Carr at 10.20 a.m.
The president announced the receipt in pamphlet form of the
[ REPORT ON GIFTS AND BEQUESTS.]
(See [ p. 87.])