binding upon those, who are the organs for administering the funds, that are devoted to the public exigencies. The general advantage seems rather specially to require the wise and discreet administration of its resources. A lavish expenditure would rapidly impoverish. It forces an individual to humiliating condescensions or downright meannesses, and, by the operation of corresponding causes, it brings public institutions to a pinching parsimony, or,-and we have had an example in America, to a declared and hopeless bankruptcy. The unrestrained expenditure which we condemn, is twice accursed; it subverts the foundations of prosperity already laid, and it deters the benevolent from intrusting their contributions to hands which will scatter their munificence. A wise economy, on the contrary, tempts to co-operation. Men readily assist, where a little only is required for the accomplishment of a great purpose; and thus the governors of a public institution are enabled to foster and sustain every important interest intrusted to their watchfulness, to provide for unforeseen contingencies, to prepare resources against the wastes and the hazards of time. All their movements are marked by freedom and cheerfulness. Under such an administration, the prospect is constantly enlivened by the consciousness of present success and increasing improvement. There is no sinking of the heart before the darkening scowl of anticipated want.

We do not advocate that narrow saving, which chills the expanding efforts at improvement; and, like a season of drought, destroying excellence in the germ, prevents the developement of that, which, in the issue, would itself have been productive. Such saving is not economy, but a wasteful timidity, a barren poverty of judgment. The economy we commend is a wise husbandry of resources, a perpetual vigilance, admitting neither want nor waste; a constant reference to the enlarging circumstances of the country; and a resolute determination to transmit the College to the next generation in as good a situation as its present one, and, if possible, in a situation somewhat better, not abstractly only, but relatively, not merely in the aggregate of its endowments and its fixtures, but in reference to the multiplied resources and demands of the country. A sinking fund is a common idea when a nation is in debt. There must be at the College an accumulating fund, or, otherwise, the rapid progress of the rest of the nation will leave Cambridge largely in arrears.

The income of that accumu

lating fund might then be invested, and the annual proceeds of it appropriated to contingent expenses. In this way the College would, as it were, make to itself out of its own revenues a new donation annually, and as the Corporation lives forever, -may the incumbents live to a green old age!—it would eventually be placed on a basis suited to the dignity of the State, and the demands of the community. There is no danger, that the College will have too much money to appropriate, unless it is led astray to found scholarships and set a bounty on literary indolence. Heaven preserve us from such a consummation! But there will forever remain modes of appropriation consistent with the necessity of personal exertions, and directly beneficial to the sciences. Centuries and centuries will roll away, and the task of perfectly organizing a University with all its appropriate fixtures will remain incomplete. There will be enough to do, before its observatories will

-rightly spell

Of every star that Heaven doth show ;

before its garden will contain every flower that sips the dews of our northern climate, and its green-house hold specimens of all the splendid herbs of the tropics; before its cabinet will have gathered from every sea-shore, and along the margin of our streams, all the infinite varieties of shells, and have collected the minerals of every mountain and every mine. What need of many idle words? The works of God are infinite; to a perfect University belong fixtures, which will enable inquisitive minds, each in its selected branch, to learn all that Heaven has condescended to reveal, all that the powers of man permit him to acquire, all that the accumulated intelligence of previous generations has discovered, all that the keen eye of science has brought to light in any part of our globe. If the system pursued in the government of the College should steadily aim at enlarging the usefulness of the Institution, and at rendering it the great University, or one of the great Universities of the country, we venture to predict, that the other points in dispute will give rise only to transient disaffection. The increasing concentration of the sources of intelligence will confirm public confidence and claim public respect. The curious and the ambitious will necessarily throng, where there is the greatest union of abili

ties and the means of culture. It may, in this connexion and with due reverence be affirmed, that where the carcass is, thither will the young eagles gather.

Shall the Corporation, then, persevere in their efforts at perfecting the Library, which, in a University, is of all fixtures the most essential? On this subject, we quote from Mr. Gray's pamphlet, a passage in which the question is fairly stated, and the true doctrine clearly and ably enforced.

'I have just now mentioned buying books as one fit mode of spending the College funds. There is nothing, which has been more complained of, than our appropriating so much money to the Library. There is nothing, which I am more ready to defend. The Library, great as it is, is still deficient, very deficient in every department. Few of the Professors, I believe, can find in it the books necessary to enable them to perform their duties to the College.

'It has been stated, that till within three or four years, nothing has been appropriated to the Library from the general funds of the College, since the American Revolution. When, therefore, we are asked, "why spend the enormous sum of five thousand dollars in one year upon the Library? why not rather two thousand?” I ask, in turn, why not rather twenty thousand? The only answer I can give to my own question, is, that I thought five thousand the most we could appropriate to that object, with a due regard to all the other interests of the Institution. If the books bought are all good books, selected so as to be best adapted to our present and most pressing wants, highly and permanently useful, and cheap in proportion to their real value, I can hardly find any other limit than our means, to my willingness to buy them.'

But it has been gravely and repeatedly said, "what need of more books? You have more books now than any body wants to read." That is true; but not more than every body wants to read, or to consult, or to refer to. A man does not go into a Library to read the volumes in order, as they stand on the shelves, or to count them. He goes there to find all the good books, that have ever been written upon the subject, on which his mind is then engaged. To find exactly what he wants, exactly when he wants it, may save him the labor of a life, or make that life a blessing to mankind. Give to Dr. Bowditch thirty thousand volumes, and it would not compensate him or the public for the loss to him of his one La Place. In a country, where any value is attached to science or to letters, there ought to be at least one great library containing the means of excitement and improvement for talents of every kind, food for all tastes, weapons for every hand; and

wherever that Library shall be, there will be the centre of instruction for the whole country; there will be the great establishment for education. Moreover, nothing will tend so effectually to build up such an establishment and attract to it efficient teachers as a Library equal to their wants; and we must not be content to have only books, that will be constantly used, and neglect to obtain those above the common reach.

'Let me suppose, or rather let me state, for I believe it is a fact, that a most accomplished Professor wishes a particular edition of a book, which is not to be found in the country, and desires us to send for it, to enable him to explain to his pupils more fully the meaning of the author he is required to teach them, the charm of his sentiments, and the graces of his style. It is one of those classic writers, who have been regarded for more than two thousand years with admiration and delight by every man of cultivated intellect and refined taste; who have been his teachers in youth, his models perhaps in manhood, and his comforters in age, his companions at home, his guides abroad, shedding light on every path, and breathing consolation in every sorrow. Will it be a sufficient answer to tell him, that though we have not the book he wants, we have a great many that he does not want, and more than he can read, and bid him study them? If the only use of books were to teach us our letters, the argument would be a good one. Any book would do for that. But it cannot be listened to for a moment by any one, who ever entered a library for the purpose of instruction to himself or of benefit to others.'

6

The propriety of increasing the College Library is here placed upon its right basis. What is the object to be held in view in administering the College? The old fashioned mode of training young persons was doubtless a very commendable one. We approve highly of digging, construing, and parsing;' especially of digging, since nothing strengthens the mind like diligent exertion. But is this all? If it be, then it is quite useless to make great foundations of any kind; a grammar, a dictionary, and a Latin or Greek book or two, are all the instruments requisite for the very laudable purposes just mentioned. But if something more is expected, if the instructers are themselves to attain to that variety of information, which alone can lead to enlarged and comprehensive views, if the professors are themselves to rise above the mechanical portion of their occupations, and to advance the sciences which they profess, if the mass of learning, which centuries have developed, is to be kept in life and action, then something more than text

books and dictionaries may be required. Immense literary resources are not requisite for success in drilling; and a great library is demanded only for an institution, which aims at the accomplishment of higher purposes.

The governors of the College, therefore, in determining to increase the collection of books, have given an earnest of their views respecting the obligations incumbent upon them. They have decided wisely, with a just reference to the condition and rapid progress of the country, to the honor of New England, more especially to the honor of our Commonwealth and its capital, to the best interests of intelligence, to the responsibilities resulting from the accumulated respect, which nearly two centuries of usefulness have conciliated for Harvard.

The character of our free institutions naturally invites to a large and comprehensive liberality in appropriating to our use whatever of excellence has elsewhere been produced. The stranger is welcomed to our shores, from whatever portion of the world he may come; the rights of citizenship are made common to any, who will reside in the midst of us. It is the prerogative of those, who are distinguished by liberal culture, to rise in an eminent degree above the restrictions of prejudice. Let us, then, make a home in our public seminaries for whatever excellence the world may produce; and receive into our depositories whatever contributions may be offered to the general stock of human knowledge throughout the world.

If the existence of a separate class of men, as instructers, be requisite to render the foundation of libraries desirable, then we may say, that our country eminently demands them. Where will you find so many devoted to the interests of the rising generation? Our numerous colleges are well provided with instructers; schools and academies are scattered broad-cast over the land. The literary class, at least so far as it is engaged in the business of acquiring instruction for the sake of imparting it to the young, is with us, relatively, quite as numerous as in any part of the world; and if we count all the brotherhood of reviewers, and all the choir of editors, and the long list of those who have been editors, and the few writers of books, and the more numerous contributors to Souvenirs and magazines, we shall find that these United States count their thousands of writers. The sixty millions who speak the German language are said to have about ten thousand authors; our twelve or thirteen millions have more than a fifth part of that number. As we