match itself in my lifetime. Only 't is pathetic and remorseful
to me that any purpose of yours, especially, a purpose so
inspired, should find me imbecile.

Heartily I delight in your proposed disposition of the books. It
has every charm of surprise, and nobleness, and large affection.
The act will deeply gratify a multitude of good men, who will see
in it your real sympathy with the welfare of the country. I hate
that there should be a moment of delay in the completing of your
provisions,--and that I of all men should be the cause! Norton's
letter is perfect on his part, and needs no addition, I believe,
from me. You had not in your first letter named _Cambridge,_ and
I had been meditating that he would probably have divided your
attention between Harvard and the Boston Public Library,--now the
richest in the country, at first founded by the gifts of Joshua
Bates (of London), and since enriched by the city and private
donors, Theodore Parker among them. But after conversation with
two or three friends, I had decided that Harvard College was the
right beneficiary, as being the mother real or adoptive of a
great number of your lovers and readers in America, and because a
College is a seat of sentiment and cosmical relations. The
Library is outgrown by other libraries in the Country, counts
only 119,000 bound volumes in 1868; the several departments of
Divinity, Law, Medicine, and Natural Science in the University
having special libraries, that together add some 40,000 more.
The College is newly active (with its new President Eliot, a
cousin of Norton's) and expansive in all directions. And the
Library will be relieved through subscriptions now being
collected among the Alumni with the special purpose of securing
to it an adequate fund for annual increase.