BOOK V. Chapter XI. When Dr. Gustav Heine visited Portugal in 1846, The Libraries of he found but three Libraries strictly to be called Public. Spain and Portugal. Heine's account of Portuguese 1846. These were at Lisbon, at Oporto, and at Evora. A fourth Public Library was in course of formation at Braga. All of them were based upon the collections of Libraries, in Monasteries. The Royal Library at Lisbon was still in course of arrangement. The Oporto Library, according to Heine, possessed about 60,000 printed volumes and 2000 MSS. Of the contents of the Library at Evora he failed to obtain satisfactory information. It was founded by Manuel do Cenaculo, Archbishop of Evora, and augmented by the collections of some Monasteries. in that diocese. The official accounts ot 1850. Of Proprietary Libraries, Heine mentions more especially the following: (1.) The Royal Library in the Palace Necessidades, containing about 36,000 volumes; (2.) That at Ajuda, containing 40,000 volumes (sent to Brazil in 1807, but brought back again, he says, in 1821); (3.) The Library of the Monastery of Mafra; (4.) The University Library at Coimbra, which at the dissolution of Monasteries received the printed works from Santa Cruz, whilst the Manuscripts were sent to Oporto.' In the Official Returns to the Foreign Office of 1850, accounts are comprised both of the four Libraries first-named by Heine, of that of Coimbra, and of a small Library at Ponta Delgada, founded in 1841. They also include information respecting the collection of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Lisbon, 1 Briefliche Mittheilung des Dr. G. Heine an Hofrath Hänel über Spanische und Portugiesische Bibliotheken (Serapeum, vii, 193-199). which, together with all the preceding, are described as Public Libraries, freely accessible. The National Library was created by a decree of the 29 February 1796; is at present governed by regulations which were established by royal authority in 1836; and was largely increased by the remnants of monastic collections in 1841. Don José Feliciano de Castilho Barreto, the Principal Librarian, has a melancholy tale to tell (in his Relatorio a cerca do Bibliotheca Nacional, published in 1844) of the confusion into which these monastic books had been suffered to fall, and of the other chaotic elements which he had to subdue, more or less completely, as he could. In 1850, the general statement of contents is "Printed volumes, whether bound or sewed, 84,073. The MSS. amount to 8075 volumes." The Library of the Royal Academy dates from 1779; received the collection of the Jesuits in 1834, and, at the same period, was opened to the Public. The number of printed volumes is stated as about 50,000, and that of MSS. about 10,000. The Oporto Library is stated to contain "48,000 printed volumes, and 1222 MS. codices." The return as to Braga is,-"the printed and manuscript volumes amount to 20,000;" as to Coimbra,-"the printed books amount to more than 52,000 [printed] volumes; the MSS. to 900;" as to Evora, "there are about 25,000 printed, and about 1800 MSS. volumes," of which latter a printed catalogue is stated to be in the press.1 1 Castilho Barreto, Relatorio a cerca do Bibliotheca nacional, i, 5-123; Foreign Office Returns of 1851, 35-39; Serapeum, ubi supra. BOOK V. Chapter XI. The Libraries of Spain and Portugal. CHAPTER XII. PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE. "As Years are running past us, let us throw some- LANDOR (Citation of Shakespeare, 1835, 146.) BOOK V. Chapter XII. and Future. In casting a retrospective glance along the path we have trodden, three things strike me as standing out Past, Present, somewhat prominently from the rest. The first, that both here in Britain, and in almost all parts of Europe, the world owes to the Clergy,-Protestant or Romanist, a majority of those literary storehouses, whose rise and growth have been narrated in these pages. The second, that the comparative inferiority of our own country (even to States of far subordinate rank), in respect of the public provision of Libraries, although it be an indubitable historical fact, is now in a fair way to become an historical fact only. The third, that recent experience in the History of Libraries, whether it be British, American, or Foreign, points, alike and unmistakeably, to the conclusion that for the Libraries of the Future we must mainly look to the local action of LIBRARIES FOUNDED BY THE CLERGY. 557 BOOK V. Chapter XII. and Future. Towns; but to that, only in constant combination with national furtherance, and with national supervision. Past, Present, Each of these three inferences from the facts which have been adduced, may claim a few words of illustration. the Libraries al due to the Clergy, either as founders or as benefactors. I. Recognition of the fact that to the great Churchmen-using the word in its broadest sense-of mediæval and of modern times, we owe most of our Libra- The majority of ries, is both honest gratitude and forecasting policy. It ready described, looks onward as well as backward. The Clergy-Roman, or Anglican; "Established", or "Dissenting",—are and must be, as a body, conservative. To err rather on the side of an overweening reverence for the past, than of a conceited elation at the present, is of the essence of the ecclesiastical spirit, but is not one whit less of the essence of the love of literature. In order to build up a worthy Library it is, above all things, needful to have a loving veneration for the good men, for the good deeds, and even for the misdirected aspirations, of ages long gone bye. Present concerns and interests need little help to make themselves sufficiently seen and felt. They contain, indeed, the germs of the Future, but only Time can separate what is vain and transitory in them, from what is real and enduring. Individually, the man to whom his span of life is an employment, which he must needs strive his best to work out, As ever in his great Taskmaster's eye, cannot but live much with the dead. He will share their hopes and their fears, their struggles and their consolations, until at times they will seem to him the realities, (as the figures of Da Vinci seemed to the old BOOK V. Chapter XII. and Future. Monk who had gazed on them from his youth), whilst Past, Present, himself and those about him are but shadows. Nor will that companionship be likely at any time to unnerve a man for the true work which lies before him. Just what such an one, favoured by culture and by circumstance, can do for himself, it should be one of the great objects of our new Libraries to do for an ever-widening circle of less fortunate men. Whilst rightly forwarding their immediate pursuits, interests, and amusements, Public Libraries will be little worthy of the name, if they are not so formed as also to store up the lore of past ages, and the wisdom of an eternity to come. Here will be work in which the Clergy have an appointed share marked out for them, none the less plainly in the days of Tait and Trench, than in those of Odo of Clugni, or Richard of Bury; of Thomas Scott, or of Daniel Williams. Improving position of Great Britain as compared with II. That the relative position of our own country, in the matter of Public Libraries, is fast improving, has other States, in been shewn, as well by the recent progress of our older lic Libraries. and greater institutions, as by the establishment of respect of Pub new ones in towns heretofore ill-provided. In both directions, so much has been done, as must needs have modified the grounds of international comparison, even had the Continental Libraries, generally, maintained their usual course. But, as we all know, recent events and complications have, in many instances, checked the progress that might otherwise have been made. And it has come to be perceived that something may be advantageously learnt from Britain. |