BOOK I.

Chapter I. Rudiments of

Book-Collecting.

of this century at all events,-would ever think of "reading," are precisely those which it is most important that a national collection should possess. However excellent the old advice that the student should aim to master thoroughly a few books, rather than to dip into a great many, it would fare ill with the man who has to use books as his daily tools, were that principle to govern the formation of Libraries. For the useful and honourable craft of "book-makers," we must continue to have.vast miscellaneous store-houses, and the more extensive these are, the larger will be the proportion borne by the mere books of reference to the aggregate numbers, and the larger also will be the proportion of the "trash," or as Mr. Carlyle is fond of calling them (although few men are more skilled than he is, in their transmutation into gold), of the "rubbish-heaps" of days departed.

But besides those great repositories, for whose enrichment nets of all sorts must be continually cast into the rivulets as well as the deep seas of learning, we need Libraries of narrower aims and more specific character. Of these some will be professional-as Law Libraries, Divinity Libraries, Medical Libraries, and the like, and their formation cannot be better provided for than by entrusting it to some one professional man of known and eminent skill in his department. Many, too, and of easy access are the appliances which lie ready to his hand for facilitating the task. Far more difficult will be the labour of planning, advisedly and with forecast, those Provincial and Town Libraries. Town Libraries, having a distinctly popular and edu

PRIVA'

cational character, yet aiming to meet the requirements

BOOK 1.

Chapter I.

Book-Collecting.

as storehouses of local topo

graphy.

and to subserve the uses of all classes of the population, Rudiments of
in which hitherto the United Kingdom has been so con-
fessedly deficient. Here the combined forethought and
the joint labour of many minds will be requisite.
Elsewhere I have cited, at length, the words in which County Libraries
Bishop Bale expressed his earnest desire that in every
shire of England there were at least one Library, "for
the preservation of noble works, and the preferment of
good learning." Had effect been given to that desire
in his own day, not only would many of the choicest
treasures of the old monastic Libraries have been saved
from destruction, but an excellent foundation would, in
all probability, have been laid for special collections on
the local topography of each county, and much valuable
material of that kind would have been preserved which
is now irrecoverably lost. This, I think, should be one
of the first departments to receive attention, in the form-
ation of new Libraries for the Public. Every thing
that is procurable, whether printed or MS., that bears
on the history and antiquities, the fauna and flora, the
trade and politics, the worthies and notabilities, and,
generally, on the local affairs of whatever kind, of the
parish, town and county in which the Library may
be placed, and of the adjacent district, should be care-
fully collected. Wherever unprinted materials of this
sort are known to exist in other Libraries, whether
public or private, transcripts should be obtained. If the
town or district have any great staple trade, every
book and pamphlet relating to that trade—generally as
well as locally-should be procured, as opportunity

BOOK I.

Chapter I.

Book-Collecting.

may offer. It will also be of advantage-often in more Rudiments of ways than one-to collect the productions of local printers on whatever subject, however trivial, especially if the town or city have been the seat of an early press.

Advantages of making Town

Libraries well

In the next place, it will be well to fix upon some and Provincial main subjects of a general kind in which the Library provided on shall be especially well-provided. What this subsubjects. ject or these subjects shall be, must, of course, depend

some special

upon circumstances which will vary in different places. The preferences of the promoters of the Library which is to be formed;-the character and extent of any Library that may already exist in or near the same locality;—the amount of the funds available for purchases;-these, and many other particulars, will have to be taken into account. But, be such circumstances what they may, some one important subject, at all events, should be chosen, upon which the Library shall have, as early as possible, a systematic Collection, not a mere chance aggregation, of books. If, for instance, there be no Library in the vicinity thoroughly stored with works on British History, such a class will be worthy of a special preference. Even if the funds for purchases should amount to so goodly a sum as £8000 or £10,000, they would prove utterly insufficient for the formation of a really valuable Library on all subjects, or even on a large number of subjects. But a much smaller sum, if appropriated on the principle of allotting a large portion of it to the purchase of books on some leading topic, and the remainder to that of only the best and most indispensable books on other subjects, will

BOOK I.

Chapter I.

Book-Collecting.

lay the foundation of a Library which, from the very beginning, will tend as well to make students as to help Rudiments of them. It will inevitably act, to some extent, as an incitement to systematic rather than to desultory reading. It will, in course of time, attract the attention of those who are both able and willing to add to it; and if the well-laid foundation of one generation have the good fortune to be well built upon by another, it is no mere fancy to anticipate that such an institution must, in many ways, elevate and honour the entire community to which it belongs.

Classification of

are collected.

In order to deal clearly and usefully with the many the modes by points of detail which group themselves round this which Libraries question of the practical building-up of a good Library, it is needful to take with them the course which has to be taken with the books themselves, namely, to classify them. Practically, most good books, like other good things, have to be paid for. Libraries, however, have often, to a great extent, been formed by gifts, and by taxation, as well as by purchase. In some instances, the method of exacting copies of books, by way of tax upon their producers, seems to have preceded the method of acquiring them by purchase. Of late years, another method of increasing the stores of Libraries has come into vogue somewhat prominently,-that of "International Exchange". I proceed, therefore, to arrange what remains to be said respecting the collection of books for public use, under these four heads: (1) Legal TAX, (2) DONATION, (3) EXCHANGE, (4) PURCHASE. "Purchase" I put last, because, obviously, the cha

BOOK I. Chapter I.

Book Collecting.

racter of the purchases which have to be made for a Rudiments of Library, will greatly depend on the degree to which it possesses other means of acquisition. In some countries-and, as we have seen, to a very noticeable extent in Russia-a fifth mode of acquiring books has been employed, that of red-handed spoliation; but on this method there is no need to dwell, as it is obviously uncertain in operation, and likely to be attended, sooner or later, with inconvenient consequences.