J. N. LARNED.
GOOD BOOKS
The library offers the advantages of good society to many who could not otherwise enjoy them. This is one of the most important influences that tells on individual character. A man is not only known by the company he keeps, but to a great extent he is made or unmade by his associates. A great part of what we learn and much of what we are is absorbed unconsciously from our environment.
Now books are written—at least the good books—by men and women of the better sort. They are people of marked intelligence and refinement. They have just views of truth and duty and are able to reveal to us many secrets respecting the life that is being lived around us. They are interpreters and guides in all lines of human activity and service. To be intimate with them is good society. If then we can bring all these choice spirits by their books into our village and introduce them to our children and our neighbors, even to the poorest, and let them talk to all who will listen, we have done something, we have done much to raise the tone of general intelligence and refinement.
Here is the great opportunity to reach the homes of the poor and the careless and even of the baser sort with new light. The books will interest and meet the craving for knowledge which everybody has, and then will come into confidential relations with many a reader, starting new trains of thought, suggesting new ideas, offering sympathy and kindling faith. The friendless will gain friends and these friends will do them good.
In such ways, this institution, the public library, is calculated to enlarge and enrich the community's life.
WILLIAM R. EASTMAN.
PLACE AND PURPOSE OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY
The place now assigned the public library, by very general consent, is that of an integral part of our system of public and free education. On no other theory has it sure and lasting foundation; on no other theory may it be supported by general taxation; on no other theory can it be wisely and consistently administered. A public tax can be levied for the maintenance of a public library only upon the principle which underlies all righteous public taxation, not that the taxpayer wants something and will receive it in proportion to the amount of his contribution, but that the public wants something of such general interest and value that all property-owners may be asked and required to contribute towards its cost.
The demand for intelligent and effective citizenship is increasing daily, for two reasons: First—The problems of public life and of public service, of communal existence, are daily becoming more complex, more difficult of satisfactory solution. Second—We are recognizing more clearly than ever before that our present success and prestige are due to the fact that more than any other people in the world's history have we succeeded in securing that active participation and practical co-operation of the whole people in all public affairs. In the whole people are we finding and are we to find wholesomeness and strength.