UCSB LIBRARY
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 ALUMNI OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE, 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE COLLEGE CHAPEL, 
 MARCH 16, 1844. 
 
 BV 
 
 N. F. MOORE, LL.D. 
 
 N E W - Y O R K : 
 PRINTED FOR COLUMBIA COLLEGE LIBRARY. 
 
 1848.
 
 COLUMBTA COLLEGE, March 16th, 1848. 
 SIR : 
 
 THE Address which I now lay before you, in a 
 printed form, was delivered four years ago in our Col- 
 lege Chapel, before a small number, chiefly of my own 
 family and friends, who were not to be deterred by bad 
 weather from favoring me with their countenance on 
 that occasion. 
 
 A very unpropitious evening, as also, I fear, the little 
 interest taken in my subject, caused me to fail, in great 
 measure, of the audience I had counted on, and wholly 
 of the object which I had in view. But, thinking, as I do, 
 that object the improvement of our College Library 
 to be one of great importance, I have felt unwilling any 
 longer to rest as in the belief that my fellow-alumni 
 will do nothing in a case where they might so easily do 
 much for the advantage, present and future, of our com- 
 mon Alma-Mater. 
 
 It were easy for me to point out, from among my 
 former pupils here, alumni of the College, who, without 
 painful sacrifice, could make its Library all that its 
 warmest friends would wish to see it. But, not to speak 
 just now of any such munificence, I confine myself, at 
 present, to asking of you, Sir, and each alumnus of the
 
 College, some small contribution to her Library ; if it be 
 of a single volume only, or a bundle of pamphlets; yet 
 something, in token of kindly feeling towards a place 
 where you, in youth, received a valuable portion of 
 your mental training ; and, further, that you will, at 
 your convenience, pay the College a visit, and see in its 
 present state that department of it, in which, especially, 
 I would have you take an interest. You will find the 
 Librarian or his assistant very happy to wait upon you ; 
 or, in their absence, myself. 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 NATH'L F. MOORE. 
 
 P. S. If you, or any of your friends, should have 
 books or pamphlets for the Library, and will obligingly 
 intimate the fact to me through Boyd's Express Post, 
 they shall be sent for. N. F. M.
 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 GENTLEMEN, MY FELLOW-ALUMNI : 
 
 I have invited your attendance here this 
 evening, with a view to lay before you, and 
 to ask your aid in carrying out a plan which 
 has been thought of for improving in an es- 
 sential point the condition of our common 
 Alma-Mater. 
 
 Although her library has, within the last 
 few years, received valuable additions, and 
 been rendered somewhat more accessible than 
 formerly, yet is it still very far from being what 
 she would desire to have it ; or such as we 
 may hope to see it become, if her alumni can 
 be persuaded to take the interest in it, which, 
 in that character, they ought to feel. 
 
 And do not, 1 entreat you, close your ears 
 against me, here at the very outset, from ap- 
 prehension that I am about to importune you 
 with appeals to your liberality. I certainly
 
 6 
 
 shall be glad, whenever the occasion arrives, 
 to see that manifested in a manner worthy both 
 of you and of its object ; but all I ask at 
 present is your kind attention for a while. I 
 desire, in the first place, to convince you that 
 not our college only but this great city, and 
 our country at large are lamentably unprovided 
 with those means of instruction and sources 
 of rational enjoyment which, in their ample 
 and well ordered libraries, almost every civil- 
 ized people but ourselves can boast. 
 
 No one will make endeavors to supply a 
 want of which he is unconscious ; but, to be 
 rendered sensible how very destitute we are 
 of books, or, at least, of any collection that 
 may merit to be called a library, we need only 
 to compare the state, in this respect, of other 
 civilized communities,, whether ancient or 
 modern, with our own. 
 
 What the printing press has now rendered 
 comparatively easy, was in earlier ages so dif- 
 ficult that none but princes a Rhamses, a 
 Pisistratus, a Ptolemy, an Eumenes or else 
 such private individuals as, for power and 
 wealth, might rival with princes, could found
 
 and build up libraries ; nevertheless we read 
 of such in those ancient times, as far surpassed 
 in their extent, even all that these United 
 States are able to show, not to say any that 
 this city owns. For I acknowledge .with 
 shame, that in our poorly furnished country, 
 this our own city, great as its population its 
 prosperity and its resources are, does not rank 
 even second as regards its literary wealth. 
 
 The earliest library of which we find in 
 history any mention, was that of Osymandyas, 
 as he is styled by Diodorus Siculus, or, as 
 recent historians have styled him, Rhamses the 
 Great, who reigned in Thebes above three 
 thousand years ago, and of whose palace the 
 remains, though less stupendous than some 
 other ruins within the vast circuit which his 
 capital once occupied, are nevertheless still 
 gazed upon with admiration, and sufficiently 
 attest the greatness of this victorious monarch's 
 power. We see remaining even to this day 
 the entrance to that very library which the 
 Greek historian describes, and we see it 
 adorned with emblems so significant of its 
 destination that we cannot hesitate as to what
 
 8 
 
 that may have been. Upon the left hand 
 stands the God of Sciences and Arts, the In- 
 ventor of Letters, Thoth; and on the other 
 side his companion, Saf, Lady of Letters, 
 Presiding Divinity of the Hall of Books, as 
 she is there most significantly styled. The 
 God is accompanied by a figure emblematic 
 of the sense of Sight, and the Goddess by 
 another, which personifies the Hearing, and 
 is provided moreover with all the implements 
 of writing, by means of which what is de- 
 livered to the ear may be preserved from 
 oblivion and loss. But over the entrance to 
 this "sacred library," as Diodorus terms it, 
 we no longer find the remarkable inscrip- 
 tion which he mentions tyvyji- iarQtiov 
 an inscription that deserves notice, as furnish- 
 ing; a true and philosophical designation of a 
 repository of good books.* 
 
 In this library of Rhamses were treasured, 
 it is reasonable to suppose, all the various 
 monuments and written evidences of that 
 
 * This inscription, which has been mistranslated medicine of 
 the soul, signifies more properly tit" soul's healing-place a place 
 
 tlic smij is
 
 wisdom for which Egypt was anciently re- 
 nowned the wisdom in which Moses, we are 
 told, was learned and which afterwards, Py- 
 thagoras, Thales, Plato, and other Grecian 
 sages resorted thither to seek. 
 
 A circumstance which, even at the early 
 period when Rhamses reigned, may have fa- 
 cilitated as in a much later age it did the 
 formation of a library in Egypt, was that 
 country's possessing, in papyrus, the most 
 convenient material for books. This greatly 
 aided the first three Ptolemies in the execu- 
 tion of their munificent design the establish- 
 ment of that famous Alexandrean library. 
 And it was their prohibiting the exportation 
 of papyrus in order to prevent the kings of 
 Pergamus from rivaling them in their patron- 
 age of letters, that caused such improvements 
 to be made at Pergamus in the manufacture of 
 the other, at that time, chief material of books, 
 as that it thence derived its name ; being called, 
 because made at Pergamus better or in greater 
 quantity than elsewhere, carta pergamena^ 
 parchment. 
 
 The library which the kings of Pergamus, 
 1*
 
 10 
 
 iii spite of the jealous prohibition of the Ptol- 
 emies, succeeded in forming, was afterwards, to 
 the number of 200,000 volumes, bestowed by 
 Mark Anthony on Cleopatra, and so, by a 
 strange destiny, became incorporated with 
 that portion of the great Alexandrean collec- 
 tion which had escaped the conflagration by 
 which it suffered in Julius Caesar's time. 
 
 At Athens Pisistratus was the first of whom 
 we hear as having applied himself to collect a 
 library ; and, at a later period, Aristotle was, 
 among private individuals, distinguished in 
 like manner. After the fall of Greece, and 
 in proportion as she in turn " subdued her 
 barbarous conqueror," did noble Romans show 
 their love for letters and extend to them a 
 liberal encouragement, by forming libraries 
 which were freely opened to their countrymen. 
 Paulus ^Emilius, Sylla, Crassus, and Lucullus 
 W 7 ere the first to enrich Rome with books 
 among other Eastern spoils $ and the valuable 
 library of this last named Lucullus though 
 not regarded as a public one, was, neverthe- 
 less, together with its walks and spacious halls, 
 generously thrown open to his friends, and to
 
 it 
 
 all learned Greeks who visited Rome ; and 
 who were there received, says Plutarch, as in 
 a guest-house of the Muses ; gladly betaking 
 themselves thither from the occupations of the 
 world ; and often joined there in their walks 
 and conversations by Lucullus himself, their 
 princely entertainer. 
 
 Cicero, as he himself informs us, often, 
 when residing at his Tusculan villa, which 
 was near that of Lucullus, had recourse to 
 this library even after its founder was no 
 more; and in his third book De Finibus he 
 gives a pleasing picture of his accidental meet- 
 ing there with Cato,' who was guardian of the 
 young Lucullus, and whom he finds seated 
 amidst a pile of books, the writings of his fa- 
 vorite authors of the Stoic school. 
 
 In the beginning of Augustus' reign Asi- 
 nius Pollio first established that also from the 
 spoils of war a public library in the city of 
 Rome. For the library which Julius Caesar 
 had previously formed, and with the arrange- 
 ment and the care of which he charged his 
 late unequal antagonist in arms, Varro, " the 
 most learned of the Romans," does not appear
 
 12 
 
 to have been public. Of the Emperors, Au- 
 gustus, Tiberius, and Trajan were among the 
 most remarkable for the pains they took in 
 founding and extending public libraries ; of 
 which there were at one period, we are told, 
 no less than eight and twenty in the city of 
 Rome. But all these, of course, and probably 
 most other collections every where, like that 
 of Alexandrea, must have perished in the long 
 and violent convulsions which attended the 
 decline and downfall of the Roman power, 
 and during which there was scarce any portion 
 of the empire that escaped the fate of being 
 in its turn laid waste ; and we are indebted, 
 no doubt, to religious houses alone for the 
 preservation of even that small portion of 
 books that has survived to us from ancient 
 times not that any particular care was always 
 taken in such houses to preserve them ; but in 
 many instances they owed their safety to their 
 having been forgotten where they had been 
 thrown aside, and lay mouldering, perhaps, in 
 some neglected corner, half buried under dust. 
 It may be doubted, however, if any portion of 
 the history, philosophy, eloquence, or poetry
 
 13 
 
 of the ancients would, but for such asylums, 
 have reached our day across the dark and agi- 
 tated gulf of ages in which by far the greater 
 part was lost previous to the discovery of the 
 art of printing. 
 
 In times comparatively modern have been 
 formed, in all civilized countries, libraries more 
 or less extensive ; which, in many instances, 
 consist in part, at least, of manuscripts, 
 become since the invention of printing even 
 more precious than before, but chiefly of 
 printed books. 
 
 In Italy the libraries of Rome, of Florence, 
 and of Ferrara, were among the earliest of 
 note. That of the Vatican, begun by Nicho- 
 las V, about the year 1450, has acquired great 
 celebrity. All that its founder, though a 
 zealous patron of letters, accomplished during 
 the eight years of his pontificate, was the col- 
 lection of about five thousand volumes. Many 
 of his successors have contributed towards the 
 making it what it now is, but the magnifi- 
 cent repository in which it is contained was 
 the work of Sixtus V. 
 
 Soon after the death of Nicholas V, Mat-
 
 u 
 
 thias Corvinus, king of Hungary, began the 
 formation at Buda of a library which, during 
 the subsequent thirty-two years of his reign, 
 was through his exertions increased to sucli 
 an extent and value, that, it is thought, no 
 heavier loss was ever sustained by science 
 and letters-^no, not even by the Saracens' 
 burning of the Alexandrean library if that 
 ever occurred than when in 1527 Buda, with 
 all its literary and artistic treasures, became 
 the prey of the Turks. 
 
 The Laurentian library, which still con- 
 sists wholly of manuscripts founded by 
 Cosmo, and enlarged by his son, Pietro de 
 Medici owes, however, its name, as well as 
 its largest increase, to Lorenzo the Magnifi- 
 cent, who bestowed so wisely in accumulating 
 these richer treasures of genius and the mind, 
 that princely wealth which was derived from 
 his extended commerce. After the fall of the 
 Medici in 1494, this library came into the pos- 
 session of a monastery in Florence, from 
 which it was purchased by Leo X, before his 
 accession to the Papacy, and Clement VII, 
 another Pontiff of the same illustrious family,
 
 15 
 
 placed it in the then newly erected building 
 where it still remains. 
 
 The Ambrosian library of Milan owes its 
 formation to the Cardinal FredericoBorromeo, 
 who during thirty-seven years from 1595 was 
 archbishop of that city, and, by means of 
 agents sent through various countries, suc- 
 ceeded in collecting about ten thousand man- 
 uscripts and very many printed books. Living 
 himself in great simplicity a very frugal life, 
 he devoted the. chief part of his large revenues 
 to this noble end. 
 
 Charles V, of France, began the first royal 
 library in that country ; but this such as it 
 then was ; not exceeding nine hundred vol- 
 umes fell into the hands of the Duke of Bed- 
 ford, ajid was removed by him to England. 
 The foundation of the present Royal Library 
 of France, which contains 700,000 volumes, 
 including 80,000 manuscripts, and which, 
 for extent and value, ranks before all others 
 in the world, was laid by Charles the Vllth. 
 
 In Spain the library of the Escurial was 
 founded by Philip II, about the year 1580, but
 
 16 
 
 there existed at the time libraries more an- 
 cient in Salamanca and Alcala. 
 
 In Germany the libraries of Vienna and 
 Heidelberg, which were begun in the loth 
 century, ranked for a long period much above 
 all others. Vienna still continues to be re- 
 markable, but Munich has become yet more 
 so for its wealth in books. This city, which 
 the reigning king of Bavaria, by his classic 
 taste and his munificent patronage of art, has 
 rendered one of the most attractive in the 
 world, possesses a library second in extent 
 only to that of Paris. As Paris is distin- 
 guished above all cities in the world ; so is 
 Germany, if we regard it as a whole, above 
 all other countries, for its literary treasures. 
 An American traveller in that country several 
 years ago, comparing its condition in this re- 
 spect with that of the United States, found 
 there thirty-one libraries within a few days' 
 journey of each other, which contained col- 
 lectively 3,300,000 volumes, while the thirty- 
 one largest collections in the United Stales 
 amounted in all to but 250,000 volumes. The
 
 17 
 
 comparison probably, would be as little favor- 
 able to us at the present day. 
 
 It may be objected, and in many cases 
 truly, that these European libraries have been 
 accumulated during a succession of several 
 centuries. That of the University of Got- 
 tingen, however, the best arranged, perhaps, of 
 any in the world, and as large as would be those 
 of all the colleges of the United States col- 
 lected into one, dates from but nineteen years 
 before the foundation of this our college ; and 
 the city of which it forms a chief ornament 
 contains less than one thirtieth of the numbers 
 of New-York. In making the comparison, 
 too, which has been suggested between the 
 collective number of books belonging to sev- 
 eral small libraries; such as are the only ones 
 that we can show ; and the number which 
 such a library as that of Gottingen, one and 
 entire in itself, may contain, there is an im- 
 portant circumstance which must be kept in 
 view, if we desire to see the full extent of 
 our deficiency. These several small libraries 
 are for the most part repetitions of each other. 
 In everyone of then), it is probable, we should
 
 18 
 
 ; 
 
 find copies of Shakspeare and Milton ; of 
 Pope and Dryden ; of Swift, Addison, and 
 Johnson ; of Hume and Gibbon ; of Words- 
 worth, Southev, Byron, and Scott. Within 
 such beaten round there would be duplicate, 
 triplicate, quadruplicate, and many more-fold 
 reiterations of the same work, according to 
 the number of libraries gathered into one ; 
 but their cumulative value would not be pro- 
 portionately increased. It forms part of the 
 system of every well managed library, that is 
 not meant chiefly for circulation, to exchange 
 its duplicates, to diversify as far as possible its 
 contents, and so to enlarge its sphere in the 
 universe of books. 
 
 In speaking of foreign libraries, it were 
 unjust to omit that of Leyden, for although it 
 does not reckon above 80,000 volumes includ- 
 ing 14,000 manuscripts, yet is its value far 
 greater than might seem proportionate to its 
 extent. It became, shortly after its estab- 
 lishment, one of the best in Europe, and its 
 foundation by the first Prince of Orange was 
 laid under circumstances which entitle it to an 
 especial notice. With a view to recompense
 
 19 
 
 the inhabitants of the city for their heroic re- 
 sistance of the Spaniards under Valdez, and 
 their sufferings during that protracted siege, 
 so miraculously raised, the Prince proposed to 
 grant them either an exemption from certain 
 taxes, or an University, and they wisely chose 
 the latter. Leyden became in consequence 
 such a renowned seat of learning as to be 
 styled the Athens of the West, and the names 
 of Grotius, Descartes, Salmasius, Scaliger, 
 Boerhaave, and other great men bear witness to 
 the far-sighted wisdom of the choice she made. 
 You would be little instructed, and still 
 less entertained by any longer list of places 
 where libraries sufficiently large to deserve 
 mention have been formed. It will be suffi- 
 cient, perhaps, to have stated such facts as 
 may serve to show how greatly wanting our 
 country is as yet in this respect. The best 
 collections it can boast those of Harvard, of 
 the Boston Atheneeum, of Andover, of the 
 Philadelphia Library Company, of Charleston, 
 S. C., of the N. Y. Society Library, and 
 our Mercantile Library are greatly inferior, 
 even in number, and still more so in value, to
 
 many private libraries in England and on the 
 continent of Europe. The most extensive 
 and valuable library as yet to be found on the 
 American continent, is that of Buenos Ayres, 
 as 1 am informed. It is said to contain as 
 many as 150,000 volumes, and is freely opened 
 to all who wish to use it. 
 
 England, though less distinguished in this 
 respect than several countries which are not 
 to be compared with her for wealth, possesses, 
 nevertheless, libraries of great value ; as that 
 of the British Museum, and the Bodleian, which 
 latter was founded about the year 1600 by Sir 
 Thomas Bodley, "with a munificence," says 
 Hallam, " which has rendered his name more 
 immortal than the foundation of a family could 
 have done." 
 
 It is commonly understood that an emi- 
 
 J 
 
 nent and wealthy merchant has made a mu- 
 nificent provision for enriching this his adopted 
 city with a similar foundation, which will 
 hand down his name in a most honorable con- 
 nection as associated with the establishment 
 of a library, such as our country does not 
 yet possess. May we not reasonably hope
 
 21 
 
 that some son of our own soil, and of this our 
 Alma-Mater, will be found willing to do for 
 her the comparatively little that she asks 
 towards the extension and reorganization of her 
 library ? She acknowledges her recent obli- 
 gation to another munificent stranger; who, 
 though he never had derived instruction from 
 her owed her no filial reverence, nor debt of 
 gratitude, has, notwithstanding, by his liberal 
 bequest, enabled her to dispense to others 
 through all time to come, a boon which he 
 neither needed nor received from her himself. 
 Cheaply, in comparison with the price at 
 which men sometimes buy renown, has he, 
 by the endowment of the Gebhard-Professor- 
 ship, secured a perpetual memory of his hon- 
 ored name. 
 
 How many and how great the dangers 
 which man braves ! What arduous toils is he 
 not willing to endure, in his ambitious endeavor 
 to become the founder of a family ! through 
 anxious desire to perpetuate his name ! Yet, 
 who is able to assure him that those who bear 
 this name will always do it honor? that it 
 shall not, even within a generation, be pur-
 
 ' > 
 
 - - 
 
 sued, in the person of his descendant, with 
 curses and contempt ? How much more 
 surely might he count upon a lasting, an ever- 
 enduring and fair fame, as founder of a library 
 of an establishment which should continue, 
 to the latest posterity, a bright centre of in- 
 tellectual light, diffusing, in his name, its 
 salutary influence long after all memory of his 
 coevals had become extinct ? 
 
 We might with greater reason hope to see 
 examples, such as those just now alluded to, 
 followed by our own alumni, and some portion 
 of the much that is required, done by them for 
 our library, if it had ever been for them a place 
 of agreeable resort; furnishing associations 
 with the college of a pleasing kind links 
 which, according to our system, are too often 
 wanting. For, with a college constituted as is 
 ours, such associations are less likely to exist, 
 than with one which has been the student's 
 dwelling place and home during his college 
 course. As regards our own college, it must 
 be confessed that while many of her alumni 
 are ready to acknowledge themselves indebted 
 to her will admit that their success in after
 
 23 
 
 life is due in great measure to the training 
 which they here received yet do they re- 
 member this chiefly as a place where they pur- 
 sued distasteful studies, and recited weary 
 tasks. Not having lived within the college 
 walls, their hearts do not turn back to it with 
 affectionate regard, as the scene of joys, and 
 hopes, and sports, and youthful friendships, 
 during four of the brightest years of their ex- 
 istence. We hear, indeed, the name of Alma- 
 Mater repeated in Commencement declama- 
 tions with respectful professions of gratitude 
 and attachment ; but these are nothing more 
 than cold acknowledgments which reason and 
 not feeling dictates. It is therefore, in our 
 case, so especially desirable that we should 
 possess, in a well furnished and well ordered 
 library, ever open to our alumni, a new and 
 pleasing bond of union between us and them 
 a place to which they may at pleasure 
 resort for information wanted on any subject 
 of science or of art to verify a citation from 
 an ancient author to ascertain some half re- 
 membered fact to resolve, from time to time, 
 the doubts that are continually arising in an
 
 21 
 
 inquiring mind to pursue, with the multi- 
 plied and various aids which such a library 
 and its librarian would afford, whatever inves- 
 tigation they may be engaged in following out. 
 
 The idea of a library, as a universal teacher, 
 should comprehend its possession of a learned 
 librarian, as its interpreter its living index 
 the soul that is to animate and give activity 
 to what would, but for it, be a comparatively 
 inert mass. Such a librarian was Varro to 
 Julius Caesar. Such to Ptolemy Soter was 
 Demetrius Phalereus, the first superintend- 
 ent of the Alexandrean library. And his suc- 
 cessors, during a long period, in that charge, 
 Zenodotus, Callimachus, Eratosthenes, and 
 Apollonius Rhodius, show by the lustre of their 
 names the high importance then rightly at- 
 tached to the office which they held. 
 
 It might, perhaps, at first sight, seem that 
 libraries are less needed in our day, because 
 of the oral instruction upon all manner of 
 subjects now so freely offered, and the flood of 
 cheap books with which the reading world is 
 absolutely deluged by the press. But these 
 numerous lectures no new invention of the
 
 25 
 
 present time, as some imagine are far from 
 superseding the necessity of books ; and, as 
 for the cheap abundance of the latter now, we 
 have reason to be thankful that there remains, 
 here and there, the firm ground of an ancient. 
 library to save true learning from being wholly 
 swept away by such a frothy inundation. 
 
 Anciently, when books were exceeding 
 rare were regarded as almost too precious to 
 be used and comparatively few persons were 
 able to read them, even where they might have 
 been obtained almost all instruction was oral- 
 ly delivered. It was by hearing only that men 
 became acquainted even with the laws which 
 they were required to obey. Moses, on de- 
 livering to the priests the law, commanded 
 that at certain seasons they should read it 
 " before all Israel, in their hearing, that they 
 might hear and learn, and fear the Lord their 
 God, and observe to do all the works of his 
 law." The laws (at yqrgcci) of Lycurgus 
 were not committed to writing. Those of 
 Solon and of other eminent legislators were, 
 like many proverbs, (the brief laws which 
 popular experience lays down,) expressed con- 
 2
 
 cisely in verse, to the end that they might be 
 the more easily remembered. The m6de in 
 which the poet commonly made known his 
 works was public recitation. The historian 
 read his narrative in the hearing of an assem- 
 bled people. The philosopher taught his dog- 
 mas chiefly by word of mouth. 
 
 A comparative indifference, as regards oral 
 teaching, might in our days be expected from 
 the more wide-spread knowledge of the art of 
 reading, and the ready access,' now enjoyed, 
 to books, and such indifference, if it in fact 
 exist, is, no doubt, owing, in a great measure, 
 to those causes. But we still see lectures on 
 all sides, attracting crowds of hearers, who 
 find therein an easy method of acquiring that 
 general acquaintance with a subject which 
 contents them ; one of those royal roads to 
 knowledge which the fashion of the day pre- 
 fers to follow. If such lectures are but rightly 
 view r ed, and made use of for the ends to which 
 they are adapted, they must, by awakening 
 the liberal curiosity of those who hear them, 
 and giving expansion to their views, create an 
 additional demand for libraries and for books.
 
 27 
 
 But whether required or not, for such purpose 
 as this the gaining something more than a 
 popular acquaintance with the subject taught 
 in lectures a good library ought to be regarded 
 as a main foundation and essential part of every 
 seat of learning. 
 
 Some of my audience may, perhaps, have 
 heard a saying of a learned judge of the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States, that he 
 regarded it as a misfortune for a man who 
 would be great in his profession to have free 
 access to an extensive library; and such, no 
 doubt, in certain cases, it may prove. But 
 it may be said with equal truth, that it is 
 dangerous for a man who wfiuld enjoy good 
 health to be daily seated at a well-spread 
 ' board to have free access to a great abun- 
 dance and tempting variety of food. If in 
 either case he want the moderation rightly to 
 enjoy the varied banquet set before him if he 
 indulge himself without restraint partake of 
 every thing, and in greater quantity than he 
 can well digest he must undoubtedly, whether 
 in body or mind, experience the ill effects of 
 such excess.
 
 28 
 
 \Ve should distinguish, as regards the use 
 of books, between the discipline and the in- 
 struction of the mind. To develope and to 
 train its powers, some single work, well studied 
 and thoroughly digested, may accomplish more 
 than the desultory reading of a thousand books ; 
 but to furnish it with the knowledge of all 
 useful facts with the various results of ob- 
 servation and experience the deductions of 
 science, and the unnumbered curious discover- 
 ies of man, in all the walks of nature and of 
 art it were hard to say how many volumes 
 are required. The books which a man habitu- 
 ally reads ought to be few and choice " Non 
 refert quam multos sed quam bonos habeas 
 libros," saith Seneca ; and again," Satius enim 
 est paucis te tradere quam errare per mul- 
 tos." 
 
 There have been many instances of self- 
 taught men, who, in their earlier years, were, 
 from poverty, their social position, their seclu- 
 ded situation, or some other cause, confined 
 to some few volumes, which they consequently 
 read and read again, so often as to make the
 
 contents part and parcel of their minds. And 
 these men have, some of them, no doubt, been 
 indebted for their subsequent distinction to 
 this very cause ; but we find them, when en- 
 joying this distinction at a later period of their 
 lives, showing such acquaintance with so many 
 and so various matters, as could no otherwise 
 have been obtained than from a vast number 
 and variety of books. For the discipline of 
 his mind and the regulation of his life each 
 individual should possess at least a few volumes 
 of his own his daily companions, monitors, 
 and friends but libraries should be regarded 
 as a means chiefly of instruction ; and because 
 of the diversity of men's pursuits, and the 
 necessity that a library which would be re- 
 garded as complete, should contain all books 
 that are capable of throwing light on any part 
 of human knowledge, it seems scarcely possible 
 to limit its extent. There are few books so 
 worthless that they may not, for some purpose 
 or other, furnish something useful. As the 
 bee lights on every flower, and gathers honey 
 even from poisonous plants, so may the mind 
 2*
 
 \vell disciplined by moral and religious culture, 
 and matured by years, expatiate freely and 
 unharmed among all sorts of books, and de- 
 rive instruction from them all. 
 
 A well furnished college library, such as 
 we will not despair of seeing here, should 
 differ from a private collection in various res- 
 pects. There are many books which should 
 be found in it that might be regarded as in- 
 cumbrances upon the shelves of an individual 
 works of very disproportionate bulk the 
 voluminous transactions of learned societies, 
 with other cumbrous books of reference, rarely 
 opened perhaps ; but the want of which, on 
 some particular occasions, might be seriously 
 felt. And, so in the department of belles- 
 lettres, though the student of ancient classic 
 literature may perhaps content himself, on or- 
 dinary occasions, with the simple text of Greek 
 and Latin authors, according to the most ap- 
 proved edition of each ; and will do best to 
 read them in this form ; yet he should have it 
 in his power to consult, in such a library, the 
 editions from which this text has been derived,
 
 31 
 
 and which, in many cases, are rendered bulky 
 and expensive by prefaces and disquisitions, 
 translations, commentaries, scholia, various 
 readings, indices, and other such appen- 
 dages. 
 
 The value of editions of ancient authors, 
 in the estimation of bibliographs and scholars, 
 depends on a variety of circumstances. Some 
 have nothing to recommend them except a 
 rarity which they owe to time and various ac- 
 cidents. Of this edition, for example, a few 
 copies only, were preserved from a conflaga- 
 tion of that, the greater part was lost at sea 
 of another, suppressed by public authority, only 
 some rare copies found their way abroad. 
 Sometimes, as has been well observed, "the 
 want of value renders them scarce, and their 
 rarity renders them valuable." 
 
 The first editions frequently possess great 
 value in the eyes of critics, because derived 
 by learned printers, such as Aldus Manutius, 
 Henry Stephens and his sons, from manu- 
 scripts which in many cases have not been 
 preserved. Of other editions, one will be
 
 prized for its beauty, another for its accuracy, 
 a third for an eloquent preface or dedication 
 this one for an able translation that for a 
 learned commentary, or a copious and useful 
 index and in some are found united several 
 of these recommendations. It is therefore that 
 a well furnished .library is expected to contain 
 various editions of the chief Greek and Latin 
 authors; and that some acquaintance with the 
 respective merits of editions is demanded in a 
 scholar. 
 
 But to return. Although our College Li- 
 brary forms no exception in the general picture 
 of our country's destitute condition, and is, of 
 course, very far from being what its friends 
 would wish to see it, yet, in comparison with 
 others around us, it is not without its worth ; 
 being, indeed, in some departments, a better 
 one than any other that our city owns, and 
 furnishing at least a good foundation whereon 
 to build. 
 
 What, and in what way its friends desire 
 to build on this foundation, I will now ex- 
 plain.
 
 33 
 
 The Trustees of the College have lately 
 given its library into the immediate charge of 
 a committee who have already made some ar- 
 rangements for placing it on a better footing 
 than before ; and mean to spare no pains in 
 their endeavor to render it both useful and 
 attractive, not only to the officers and students 
 of the College, but to her alumni also. The 
 committee wish, especially, that these should 
 enjoy the freest access to the library, and be 
 induced to resort thither for the purpose of re- 
 ference and consultation, whenever it is open, 
 and that it shall, if possible, be kept so, daily, 
 during term time, for several hours. To fol- 
 low out these views, however, are required 
 funds, which the College, I am sorry to say, 
 is not at present in a condition to supply. 
 The services of a suitable librarian must be 
 secured by payment of an adequate salary. 
 Many great deficiencies in the library need to 
 be supplied, and permanent arrangements and 
 provision must be made for keeping it in some 
 measure on a level with the age as regards 
 science, literature, and art. The object which
 
 the committee have especially at heart, is to 
 make the library a valuable one for reference 
 to collect within it books of a class superior 
 to those which are commonly in demand for cir- 
 culation ; and, therefore, less likely to be found 
 in other libraries of our city. 
 
 I know not what inducement I can offer 
 to the ladies, who have honored this occasion 
 with their presence, to take an interest in the 
 cause which I am pleading, except that it is a 
 good one, and that it stands in need of all the 
 aid which their gentle but powerful influence 
 could so effectually give. They have no per- 
 sonal concern in this matter, nor is the subject 
 one which, as treated by me, is very likely to 
 engage their sympathy or satisfy their taste ; 
 but, if convinced of its importance to those of 
 the other sex, in whose welfare they are in- 
 terested, they will not look upon it with indif- 
 ference. And certainly, they cannot but be 
 glad to see multiplied, in a city where there 
 are so many of a different sort, attractive, 
 and, at the same time, improving places of 
 resort for their fathers, their husbands, their 
 brothers, and their sons.
 
 35 
 
 As for you, my fellow alumni, I will not 
 conceal the hope in which I have invited your 
 attention to this subject the hope that you 
 may be persuaded to look on it as one in 
 which the honor and welfare of your College, 
 your city, and your country at large are so 
 much concerned, that you cannot well refuse 
 to take an interest in it. I have even flattered 
 myself that some one among you, rendered 
 sensible of its importance, and possessing the 
 means, may be led to feel the inclination also, 
 while conferring on science and letters a great 
 and lasting benefit, to secure for himself, in 
 the manner that has been suggested, an hon- 
 orable name through all. after time. There 
 are, T feel assured, some of you, my hearers, 
 who could without any painful sacrifice who 
 might even from your superfluity do this 
 who lack nothing needful for the attaining of 
 this highly important end, unless it be perhaps 
 the inclination, and I will not despair of find- 
 ing among you, or of awakening even that, 
 I cherish a sort of hope that some one of those 
 who now hear me will yet thank me for
 
 36 
 
 having suggested an occasion of associating 
 with so beneficial and so noble a work as 
 that proposed, his then certainly enduring 
 name.
 
 UCSB LIBRARY
 
 A Arlri ''"'''''' III'' illll III (III