catacombs, or like the wine-bottles in bins: the
simile is surely lawful until the use of that
commodity shall have been prohibited by the
growing movement of the time. But however
we may gild the case by a cheering
illustration, or by the remembrance that the
provision is one called for only by our excess of
wealth, it can hardly be contemplated without
a shudder at a process so repulsive applied
to the best beloved among inanimate objects.

It may be thought that the gloomy
perspective I am now opening exists for great
public libraries alone. But public libraries
are multiplying fast, and private libraries are
aspiring to the public dimensions. It may be
hoped that for a long time to come no grave
difficulties will arise in regard to private
libraries, meant for the ordinary use of that
great majority of readers who read only for
recreation or for general improvement. But
when study, research, authorship, come into
view, when the history of thought and of
inquiry in each of its branches, or in any
considerable number of them, has to be presented,
the necessities of the case are terribly
widened. Chess is a specialty and a narrow one.
But I recollect a statement in the Quarterly
Review, years back, that there might be
formed a library of twelve hundred volumes