The Function of a Public Library and Its Value to a Community: A Paper Read Before "The Round Table," at St. Louis Club, Saturday, Nov. 8, 1884

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Nixon-Jones Printing Company, 1884 - 22 pages
 

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Page 22 - Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown Of thee from the hill-top looking down; The heifer that lows in the upland farm, Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm; The sexton, tolling his bell at noon, Deems not that great Napoleon Stops his horse, and lists with delight, Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height; Nor knowest thou what argument Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent.
Page 4 - I must declare and avow, that, in all my reading and observation, — and it has been my favorite study : I have read Thucydides, and have ' studied and admired the master states of the world, — that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the general congress at Philadelphia.
Page 22 - Deems not that great Napoleon Stops his horse, and lists with delight, Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height; Nor knowest thou what argument Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. All are needed by each one; Nothing is fair or good alone.
Page 21 - OOK love, my friends, is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures. It lasts when all other pleasures fade. It will support you when all other recreations are gone. It will last you until your death. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live.
Page 4 - Thucydides and have studied and admired the master states of the world — that for solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the general congress at Philadelphia.
Page 18 - The figures already given seem to show that there is probably no mode of expending public money which gives a more extraordinary and immediate return in utility and innocent enjoyment.
Page 14 - The libraries were augmented by donations ; reading became fashionable ; and our people, having no public amusements to divert their attention from study, became better acquainted with books, and in a few years were observed by strangers to be better instructed and" more intelligent than people of the same rank generally are in other countries.
Page 20 - It is the Thought of man ; the true thaumaturgic virtue ; by which man works all things whatsoever. All that he does, and brings to pass, is the vesture of a Thought.
Page 18 - Libraries," 1869, p. 5. not amount to more than about one hundred thousand pounds per annum ; say, one-fifth part of the cost of a single firstclass iron-clad. Now, this small cost is not only repaid many times over by the multiplication of utility of the books, newspapers, and magazines on which it is expended, but it is likely, after the lapse of years, to come back fully in the reduction of poor-rates and Government expenditure on crime.
Page 21 - On all sides, are we not driven to the conclusion that, of the things which man can do or make here below, by far the most momentous, wonderful and worthy are the things we call Books...

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