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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On Books and the Housing of Them + +Author: William Ewart Gladstone + +Release Date: February 15, 2009 [EBook #3426] +Last Updated: February 4, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BOOKS AND THE HOUSING OF THEM *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Hall, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + ON BOOKS AND THE HOUSING OF THEM + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a href="#link2H_FOOT"> FOOTNOTES: </a> <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <p> + In the old age of his intellect (which at this point seemed to taste a + little of decrepitude), Strauss declared <a href="#linknote-1" + name="linknoteref-1" id="linknoteref-1"><small>1</small></a> that the + doctrine of immortality has recently lost the assistance of a passable + argument, inasmuch as it has been discovered that the stars are inhabited; + for where, he asks, could room now be found for such a multitude of souls? + Again, in view of the current estimates of prospective population for this + earth, some people have begun to entertain alarm for the probable + condition of England (if not Great Britain) when she gets (say) seventy + millions that are allotted to her against six or eight hundred millions + for the United States. We have heard in some systems of the pressure of + population upon food; but the idea of any pressure from any quarter upon + space is hardly yet familiar. Still, I suppose that many a reader must + have been struck with the naive simplicity of the hyperbole of St. John, + <a href="#linknote-2" name="linknoteref-2" id="linknoteref-2"><small>2</small></a> + perhaps a solitary unit of its kind in the New Testament: "the which if + they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself + could not contain the books that should be written." + </p> + <p> + A book, even Audubon (I believe the biggest known), is smaller than a man; + but, in relation to space, I entertain more proximate apprehension of + pressure upon available space from the book population than from the + numbers of mankind. We ought to recollect, with more of a realized + conception than we commonly attain to, that a book consists, like a man, + from whom it draws its lineage, of a body and a soul. They are not always + proportionate to each other. Nay, even the different members of the + book-body do not sing, but clash, when bindings of a profuse costliness + are imposed, as too often happens in the case of Bibles and books of + devotion, upon letter-press which is respectable journeyman's work and + nothing more. The men of the Renascence had a truer sense of adaptation; + the age of jewelled bindings was also the age of illumination and of the + beautiful miniatura, which at an earlier stage meant side or margin art,<a + href="#linknote-3" name="linknoteref-3" id="linknoteref-3"><small>3</small></a> + and then, on account of the small portraitures included in it, gradually + slid into the modern sense of miniature. There is a caution which we ought + to carry with us more and more as we get in view of the coming period of + open book trade, and of demand practically boundless. Noble works ought + not to be printed in mean and worthless forms, and cheapness ought to be + limited by an instinctive sense and law of fitness. The binding of a book + is the dress with which it walks out into the world. The paper, type and + ink are the body, in which its soul is domiciled. And these three, soul, + body, and habilament, are a triad which ought to be adjusted to one + another by the laws of harmony and good sense. + </p> + <p> + Already the increase of books is passing into geometrical progression. And + this is not a little remarkable when we bear in mind that in Great + Britain, of which I speak, while there is a vast supply of cheap works, + what are termed "new publications" issue from the press, for the most + part, at prices fabulously high, so that the class of real purchasers has + been extirpated, leaving behind as buyers only a few individuals who might + almost be counted on the fingers, while the effective circulation depends + upon middle-men through the engine of circulating libraries. These are not + so much owners as distributers of books, and they mitigate the difficulty + of dearness by subdividing the cost, and then selling such copies as are + still in decent condition at a large reduction. It is this state of + things, due, in my opinion, principally to the present form of the law of + copyright, which perhaps may have helped to make way for the satirical + (and sometimes untrue) remark that in times of distress or pressure men + make their first economies on their charities, and their second on their + books. + </p> + <p> + The annual arrivals at the Bodleian Library are, I believe, some twenty + thousand; at the British Museum, forty thousand, sheets of all kinds + included. Supposing three-fourths of these to be volumes, of one size or + another, and to require on the average an inch of shelf space, the result + will be that in every two years nearly a mile of new shelving will be + required to meet the wants of a single library. But, whatever may be the + present rate of growth, it is small in comparison with what it is likely + to become. The key of the question lies in the hands of the United Kingdom + and the United States jointly. In this matter there rests upon these two + Powers no small responsibility. They, with their vast range of inhabited + territory, and their unity of tongue, are masters of the world, which will + have to do as they do. When the Britains and America are fused into one + book market; when it is recognized that letters, which as to their + material and their aim are a high-soaring profession, as to their mere + remuneration are a trade; when artificial fetters are relaxed, and + printers, publishers, and authors obtain the reward which well-regulated + commerce would afford them, then let floors beware lest they crack, and + walls lest they bulge and burst, from the weight of books they will have + to carry and to confine. + </p> + <p> + It is plain, for one thing, that under the new state of things specialism, + in the future, must more and more abound. But specialism means subdivision + of labor; and with subdivision labor ought to be more completely, more + exactly, performed. Let us bow our heads to the inevitable; the day of + encyclopaedic learning has gone by. It may perhaps be said that that sun + set with Leibnitz. But as little learning is only dangerous when it + forgets that it is little, so specialism is only dangerous when it forgets + that it is special. When it encroaches on its betters, when it claims + exceptional certainty or honor, it is impertinent, and should be rebuked; + but it has its own honor in its own province, and is, in any case, to be + preferred to pretentious and flaunting sciolism. + </p> + <p> + A vast, even a bewildering prospect is before us, for evil or for good; + but for good, unless it be our own fault, far more than for evil. Books + require no eulogy from me; none could be permitted me, when they already + draw their testimonials from Cicero<a href="#linknote-4" + name="linknoteref-4" id="linknoteref-4"><small>4</small></a> and Macaulay.<a + href="#linknote-5" name="linknoteref-5" id="linknoteref-5"><small>5</small></a> + But books are the voices of the dead. They are a main instrument of + communion with the vast human procession of the other world. They are the + allies of the thought of man. They are in a certain sense at enmity with + the world. Their work is, at least, in the two higher compartments of our + threefold life. In a room well filled with them, no one has felt or can + feel solitary. Second to none, as friends to the individual, they are + first and foremost among the compages, the bonds and rivets of the race, + onward from that time when they were first written on the tablets of + Babylonia and Assyria, the rocks of Asia minor, and the monuments of + Egypt, down to the diamond editions of Mr. Pickering and Mr. Frowde.<a + href="#linknote-6" name="linknoteref-6" id="linknoteref-6"><small>6</small></a> + </p> + <p> + It is in truth difficult to assign dimensions for the libraries of the + future. And it is also a little touching to look back upon those of the + past. As the history of bodies cannot, in the long run, be separated from + the history of souls, I make no apology for saying a few words on the + libraries which once were, but which have passed away. + </p> + <p> + The time may be approaching when we shall be able to estimate the quantity + of book knowledge stored in the repositories of those empires which we + call prehistoric. For the present, no clear estimate even of the great + Alexandrian Libraries has been brought within the circle of popular + knowledge; but it seems pretty clear that the books they contained were + reckoned, at least in the aggregate, by hundreds of thousands.<a + href="#linknote-7" name="linknoteref-7" id="linknoteref-7"><small>7</small></a> + The form of the book, however, has gone through many variations; and we + moderns have a great advantage in the shape which the exterior has now + taken. It speaks to us symbolically by the title on its back, as the roll + of parchment could hardly do. It is established that in Roman times the + bad institution of slavery ministered to a system under which books were + multiplied by simultaneous copying in a room where a single person read + aloud in the hearing of many the volume to be reproduced, and that so + produced they were relatively cheap. Had they not been so, they would + hardly have been, as Horace represents them, among the habitual spoils of + the grocer.<a href="#linknote-8" name="linknoteref-8" id="linknoteref-8"><small>8</small></a> + It is sad, and is suggestive of many inquiries, that this abundance was + followed, at least in the West, by a famine of more than a thousand years. + And it is hard, even after all allowances, to conceive that of all the + many manuscripts of Homer which Italy must have possessed we do not know + that a single parchment or papyrus was ever read by a single individual, + even in a convent, or even by a giant such as Dante, or as Thomas + Acquinas, the first of them unquestionably master of all the knowledge + that was within the compass of his age. There were, however, libraries + even in the West, formed by Charlemagne and by others after him. We are + told that Alcuin, in writing to the great monarch, spoke with longing of + the relative wealth of England in these precious estates. Mr. Edwards, + whom I have already quoted, mentions Charles the Fifth of France, in 1365, + as a collector of manuscripts. But some ten years back the Director of the + Bibliotheque Nationale informed me that the French King John collected + twelve hundred manuscripts, at that time an enormous library, out of which + several scores were among the treasures in his care. Mary of Medicis + appears to have amassed in the sixteenth century, probably with far less + effort, 5,800 volumes.<a href="#linknote-9" name="linknoteref-9" + id="linknoteref-9"><small>9</small></a> Oxford had before that time + received noble gifts for her University Library. And we have to recollect + with shame and indignation that that institution was plundered and + destroyed by the Commissioners of the boy King Edward the Sixth, acting in + the name of the Reformation of Religion. Thus it happened that opportunity + was left to a private individual, the munificent Sir Thomas Bodley, to + attach an individual name to one of the famous libraries of the world. It + is interesting to learn that municipal bodies have a share in the honor + due to monasteries and sovereigns in the collection of books; for the + Common Council of Aix purchased books for a public library in 1419.<a + href="#linknote-10" name="linknoteref-10" id="linknoteref-10"><small>10</small></a> + </p> + <p> + Louis the Fourteenth, of evil memory, has at least this one good deed to + his credit, that he raised the Royal Library at Paris, founded two + centuries before, to 70,000 volumes. In 1791 it had 150,000 volumes. It + profited largely by the Revolution. The British Museum had only reached + 115,000 when Panizzi became keeper in 1837. Nineteen years afterward he + left it with 560,000, a number which must now have more than doubled. By + his noble design for occupying the central quadrangle, a desert of gravel + until his time, he provided additional room for 1,200,000 volumes. All + this apparently enormous space for development is being eaten up with + fearful rapidity; and such is the greed of the splendid library that it + opens its jaws like Hades, and threatens shortly to expel the antiquities + from the building, and appropriate the places they adorn. + </p> + <p> + But the proper office of hasty retrospect in a paper like this is only to + enlarge by degrees, like the pupil of an eye, the reader's contemplation + and estimate of the coming time, and to prepare him for some practical + suggestions of a very humble kind. So I take up again the thread of my + brief discourse. National libraries draw upon a purse which is bottomless. + But all public libraries are not national. And the case even of private + libraries is becoming, nay, has become, very serious for all who are + possessed by the inexorable spirit of collection, but whose ardor is + perplexed and qualified, or even baffled, by considerations springing from + the balance-sheet. + </p> + <p> + The purchase of a book is commonly supposed to end, even for the most + scrupulous customer, with the payment of the bookseller's bill. But this + is a mere popular superstition. Such payment is not the last, but the + first term in a series of goodly length. If we wish to give to the block a + lease of life equal to that of the pages, the first condition is that it + should be bound. So at least one would have said half a century ago. But, + while books are in the most instances cheaper, binding, from causes which + I do not understand, is dearer, at least in England, than it was in my + early years, so that few can afford it.<a href="#linknote-11" + name="linknoteref-11" id="linknoteref-11"><small>11</small></a> We have, + however, the tolerable and very useful expedient of cloth binding (now in + some danger, I fear, of losing its modesty through flaring ornamentation) + to console us. Well, then, bound or not, the book must of necessity be put + into a bookcase. And the bookcase must be housed. And the house must be + kept. And the library must be dusted, must be arranged, should be + catalogued. What a vista of toil, yet not unhappy toil! Unless indeed + things are to be as they now are in at least one princely mansion of this + country, where books, in thousands upon thousands, are jumbled together + with no more arrangement than a sack of coals; where not even the + sisterhood of consecutive volumes has been respected; where undoubtedly an + intending reader may at the mercy of Fortune take something from the + shelves that is a book; but where no particular book can except by the + purest accident, be found. + </p> + <p> + Such being the outlook, what are we to do with our books? Shall we be + buried under them like Tarpeia under the Sabine shields? Shall we renounce + them (many will, or will do worse, will keep to the most worthless part of + them) in our resentment against their more and more exacting demands? + Shall we sell and scatter them? as it is painful to see how often the + books of eminent men are ruthlessly, or at least unhappily, dispersed on + their decease. Without answering in detail, I shall assume that the + book-buyer is a book-lover, that his love is a tenacious, not a transitory + love, and that for him the question is how best to keep his books. + </p> + <p> + I pass over those conditions which are the most obvious, that the building + should be sound and dry, the apartment airy, and with abundant light. And + I dispose with a passing anathema of all such as would endeavour to solve + their problem, or at any rate compromise their difficulties, by setting + one row of books in front of another. I also freely admit that what we + have before us is not a choice between difficulty and no difficulty, but a + choice among difficulties. + </p> + <p> + The objects further to be contemplated in the bestowal of our books, so + far as I recollect, are three: economy, good arrangement, and + accessibility with the smallest possible expenditure of time. + </p> + <p> + In a private library, where the service of books is commonly to be + performed by the person desiring to use them, they ought to be assorted + and distributed according to subject. The case may be altogether different + where they have to be sent for and brought by an attendant. It is an + immense advantage to bring the eye in aid of the mind; to see within a + limited compass all the works that are accessible, in a given library, on + a given subject; and to have the power of dealing with them collectively + at a given spot, instead of hunting them up through an entire + accumulation. It must be admitted, however, that distribution by subjects + ought in some degree to be controlled by sizes. If everything on a given + subject, from folio down to 32mo, is to be brought locally together, there + will be an immense waste of space in the attempt to lodge objects of such + different sizes in one and the same bookcase. And this waste of space will + cripple us in the most serious manner, as will be seen with regard to the + conditions of economy and of accessibility. The three conditions are in + truth all connected together, but especially the two last named. + </p> + <p> + Even in a paper such as this the question of classification cannot + altogether be overlooked; but it is one more easy to open than to close—one + upon which I am not bold enough to hope for uniformity of opinion and of + practice. I set aside on the one hand the case of great public libraries, + which I leave to the experts of those establishments. And, at the other + end of the scale, in small private libraries the matter becomes easy or + even insignificant. In libraries of the medium scale, not too vast for + some amount of personal survey, some would multiply subdivision, and some + restrain it. An acute friend asks me under what and how many general + headings subjects should be classified in a library intended for practical + use and reading, and boldly answers by suggesting five classes only: (1) + science, (2) speculation, (3) art, (4) history, and (5) miscellaneous and + periodical literature. But this seemingly simple division at once raises + questions both of practical and of theoretic difficulty. As to the last, + periodical literature is fast attaining to such magnitude, that it may + require a classification of its own, and that the enumeration which + indexes supply, useful as it is, will not suffice. And I fear it is the + destiny of periodicals as such to carry down with them a large proportion + of what, in the phraseology of railways, would be called dead weight, as + compared with live weight. The limits of speculation would be most + difficult to draw. The diversities included under science would be so vast + as at once to make sub-classification a necessity. The ologies are by no + means well suited to rub shoulders together; and sciences must include + arts, which are but country cousins to them, or a new compartment must be + established for their accommodation. Once more, how to cope with the + everlasting difficulty of 'Works'? In what category to place Dante, + Petrarch, Swedenborg, Burke, Coleridge, Carlyle, or a hundred more? Where, + again, is Poetry to stand? I apprehend that it must take its place, the + first place without doubt, in Art; for while it is separated from Painting + and her other 'sphere-born harmonious sisters' by their greater dependence + on material forms they are all more inwardly and profoundly united in + their first and all-enfolding principle, which is to organize the + beautiful for presentation to the perceptions of man. + </p> + <p> + But underneath all particular criticism of this or that method of + classification will be found to lie a subtler question—whether the + arrangement of a library ought not in some degree to correspond with and + represent the mind of the man who forms it. For my own part, I plead + guilty, within certain limits, of favoritism in classification. I am + sensible that sympathy and its reverse have something to do with + determining in what company a book shall stand. And further, does there + not enter into the matter a principle of humanity to the authors + themselves? Ought we not to place them, so far as may be, in the + neighborhood which they would like? Their living manhoods are printed in + their works. Every reality, every tendency, endures. Eadem sequitur + tellure sepultos. + </p> + <p> + I fear that arrangement, to be good, must be troublesome. Subjects are + traversed by promiscuous assemblages of 'works;' both by sizes; and all by + languages. On the whole I conclude as follows. The mechanical perfection + of a library requires an alphabetical catalogue of the whole. But under + the shadow of this catalogue let there be as many living integers as + possible, for every well-chosen subdivision is a living integer and makes + the library more and more an organism. Among others I plead for individual + men as centres of subdivision: not only for Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, but + for Johnson, Scott, and Burns, and whatever represents a large and + manifold humanity. + </p> + <p> + The question of economy, for those who from necessity or choice consider + it at all, is a very serious one. It has been a fashion to make bookcases + highly ornamental. Now books want for and in themselves no ornament at + all. They are themselves the ornament. Just as shops need no ornament, and + no one will think of or care for any structural ornament, if the goods are + tastefully disposed in the shop-window. The man who looks for society in + his books will readily perceive that, in proportion as the face of his + bookcase is occupied by ornament, he loses that society; and conversely, + the more that face approximates to a sheet of bookbacks, the more of that + society he will enjoy. And so it is that three great advantages come hand + in hand, and, as will be seen, reach their maximum together: the + sociability of books, minimum of cost in providing for them, and ease of + access to them. + </p> + <p> + In order to attain these advantages, two conditions are fundamental. + First, the shelves must, as a rule, be fixed; secondly, the cases, or a + large part of them, should have their side against the wall, and thus, + projecting into the room for a convenient distance, they should be of + twice the depth needed for a single line of books, and should hold two + lines, one facing each way. Twelve inches is a fair and liberal depth for + two rows of octavos. The books are thus thrown into stalls, but stalls + after the manner of a stable, or of an old-fashioned coffee-room; not + after the manner of a bookstall, which, as times go, is no stall at all, + but simply a flat space made by putting some scraps of boarding together, + and covering them with books. + </p> + <p> + This method of dividing the longitudinal space by projections at right + angles to it, if not very frequently used, has long been known. A great + example of it is to be found in the noble library of Trinity College, + Cambridge, and is the work of Sir Christopher Wren. He has kept these + cases down to very moderate height, for he doubtless took into account + that great heights require long ladders, and that the fetching and use of + these greatly add to the time consumed in getting or in replacing a book. + On the other hand, the upper spaces of the walls are sacrificed, whereas + in Dublin, All Souls, and many other libraries the bookcases ascend very + high, and magnificent apartments walled with books may in this way be + constructed. Access may be had to the upper portions by galleries; but we + cannot have stairs all round the room, and even with one gallery of books + a room should not be more than from sixteen to eighteen feet high if we + are to act on the principle of bringing the largest possible number of + volumes into the smallest possible space. I am afraid it must be admitted + that we cannot have a noble and imposing spectacle, in a vast apartment, + without sacrificing economy and accessibility; and vice versa. + </p> + <p> + The projections should each have attached to them what I rudely term an + endpiece (for want of a better name), that is, a shallow and extremely + light adhering bookcase (light by reason of the shortness of the shelves), + which both increases the accommodation, and makes one short side as well + as the two long ones of the parallelopiped to present simply a face of + books with the lines of shelf, like threads, running between the rows. + </p> + <p> + The wall-spaces between the projections ought also to be turned to account + for shallow bookcases, so far as they are not occupied by windows. If the + width of the interval be two feet six, about sixteen inches of this may be + given to shallow cases placed against the wall. + </p> + <p> + Economy of space is in my view best attained by fixed shelves. This dictum + I will now endeavor to make good. If the shelves are movable, each shelf + imposes a dead weight on the structure of the bookcase, without doing + anything to support it. Hence it must be built with wood of considerable + mass, and the more considerable the mass of wood the greater are both the + space occupied and the ornament needed. When the shelf is fixed, it + contributes as a fastening to hold the parts of the bookcase together; and + a very long experience enables me to say that shelves of from half- to + three-quarters of an inch worked fast into uprights of from three-quarters + to a full inch will amply suffice for all sizes of books except large and + heavy folios, which would probably require a small, and only a small, + addition of thickness. + </p> + <p> + I have recommended that as a rule the shelves be fixed, and have given + reasons for the adoption of such a rule. I do not know whether it will + receive the sanction of authorities. And I make two admissions. First, it + requires that each person owning and arranging a library should have a + pretty accurate general knowledge of the sizes of his books. Secondly, it + may be expedient to introduce here and there, by way of exception, a + single movable shelf; and this, I believe, will be found to afford a + margin sufficient to meet occasional imperfections in the computation of + sizes. Subject to these remarks, I have considerable confidence in the + recommendation I have made. + </p> + <p> + I will now exhibit to my reader the practical effect of such arrangement, + in bringing great numbers of books within easy reach. Let each projection + be three feet long, twelve inches deep (ample for two faces of octavos), + and nine feet high, so that the upper shelf can be reached by the aid of a + wooden stool of two steps not more than twenty inches high, and portable + without the least effort in a single hand. I will suppose the wall space + available to be eight feet, and the projections, three in number, with end + pieces need only jut out three feet five, while narrow strips of bookcase + will run up the wall between the projections. Under these conditions, the + bookcases thus described will carry above 2,000 octavo volumes. + </p> + <p> + And a library forty feet long and twenty feet broad, amply lighted, having + some portion of the centre fitted with very low bookcases suited to serve + for some of the uses of tables, will receive on the floor from 18,000 to + 20,000 volumes of all sizes, without losing the appearance of a room or + assuming that of a warehouse, and while leaving portions of space + available near the windows for purposes of study. If a gallery be added, + there will be accommodation for a further number of five thousand, and the + room need be no more than sixteen feet high. But a gallery is not suitable + for works above the octavo size, on account of inconvenience in carriage + to and fro. + </p> + <p> + It has been admitted that in order to secure the vital purpose of + compression with fixed shelving, the rule of arrangement according to + subjects must be traversed partially by division into sizes. This + division, however, need not, as to the bulk of the library, be more than + threefold. The main part would be for octavos. This is becoming more and + more the classical or normal size; so that nowadays the octavo edition is + professionally called the library edition. Then there should be deeper + cases for quarto and folio, and shallower for books below octavo, each + appropriately divided into shelves. + </p> + <p> + If the economy of time by compression is great, so is the economy of cost. + I think it reasonable to take the charge of provision for books in a + gentleman's house, and in the ordinary manner, at a shilling a volume. + This may vary either way, but it moderately represents, I think, my own + experience, in London residences, of the charge of fitting up with + bookcases, which, if of any considerable size, are often unsuitable for + removal. The cost of the method which I have adopted later in life, and + have here endeavored to explain, need not exceed one penny per volume. + Each bookcase when filled represents, unless in exceptional cases, nearly + a solid mass. The intervals are so small that, as a rule, they admit a + very small portion of dust. If they are at a tolerable distance from the + fireplace, if carpeting be avoided except as to small movable carpets + easily removed for beating, and if sweeping be discreetly conducted, dust + may, at any rate in the country, be made to approach to a quantite + negligeable. + </p> + <p> + It is a great matter, in addition to other advantages, to avoid the + endless trouble and the miscarriages of movable shelves; the looseness, + and the tightness, the weary arms, the aching fingers, and the broken + fingernails. But it will be fairly asked what is to be done, when the + shelves are fixed, with volumes too large to go into them? I admit that + the dilemma, when it occurs, is formidable. I admit also that no book + ought to be squeezed or even coaxed into its place: they should move + easily both in and out. And I repeat here that the plan I have recommended + requires a pretty exact knowledge by measurement of the sizes of books and + the proportions in which the several sizes will demand accommodation. The + shelf-spacing must be reckoned beforehand, with a good deal of care and no + little time. But I can say from experience that by moderate care and use + this knowledge can be attained, and that the resulting difficulties, when + measured against the aggregate of convenience, are really insignificant. + It will be noticed that my remarks are on minute details, and that they + savor more of serious handiwork in the placing of books than of lordly + survey and direction. But what man who really loves his books delegates to + any other human being, as long as there is breath in his body, the office + of inducting them into their homes? + </p> + <p> + And now as to results. It is something to say that in this way 10,000 + volumes can be placed within a room of quite ordinary size, all visible, + all within easy reach, and without destroying the character of the + apartment as a room. But, on the strength of a case with which I am + acquainted, I will even be a little more particular. I take as before a + room of forty feet in length and twenty in breadth, thoroughly lighted by + four windows on each side; as high as you please, but with only about nine + feet of height taken for the bookcases: inasmuch as all heavy ladders, all + adminicula requiring more than one hand to carry with care, are forsworn. + And there is no gallery. In the manner I have described, there may be + placed on the floor of such a room, without converting it from a room into + a warehouse, bookcases capable of receiving, in round numbers, 20,000 + volumes. + </p> + <p> + The state of the case, however, considered as a whole, and especially with + reference to libraries exceeding say 20,000 or 30,000 volumes, and + gathering rapid accretions, has been found to require in extreme cases, + such as those of the British Museum and the Bodleian (on its limited + site), a change more revolutionary in its departure from, almost reversal + of, the ancient methods, than what has been here described. + </p> + <p> + The best description I can give of its essential aim, so far as I have + seen the processes (which were tentative and initial), is this. The masses + represented by filled bookcases are set one in front of another; and, in + order that access may be had as it is required, they are set upon trams + inserted in the floor (which must be a strong one), and wheeled off and on + as occasion requires. + </p> + <p> + The idea of the society of books is in a case of this kind abandoned. But + even on this there is something to say. Neither all men nor all books are + equally sociable. For my part I find but little sociabilty in a huge wall + of Hansards, or (though a great improvement) in the Gentleman's Magazine, + in the Annual Registers, in the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews, or in the + vast range of volumes which represent pamphlets innumerable. Yet each of + these and other like items variously present to us the admissible, or the + valuable, or the indispensable. Clearly these masses, and such as these, + ought to be selected first for what I will not scruple to call interment. + It is a burial; one, however, to which the process of cremation will never + of set purpose be applied. The word I have used is dreadful, but also + dreadful is the thing. To have our dear old friends stowed away in + 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. + </p> + <p> + 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 upon chess. I think my + deceased friend, Mr. Alfred Denison, collected between two and three + thousand upon angling. Of living Englishmen perhaps Lord Acton is the most + effective and retentive reader; and for his own purposes he has gathered a + library of not less, I believe, than 100,000 volumes. + </p> + <p> + Undoubtedly the idea of book-cemeteries such as I have supposed is very + formidable. It should be kept within the limits of the dire necessity + which has evoked it from the underworld into the haunts of living men. But + it will have to be faced, and faced perhaps oftener than might be + supposed. And the artist needed for the constructions it requires will not + be so much a librarian as a warehouseman. + </p> + <p> + But if we are to have cemeteries, they ought to receive as many bodies as + possible. The condemned will live ordinarily in pitch darkness, yet so + that when wanted, they may be called into the light. Asking myself how + this can most effectively be done, I have arrived at the conclusion that + nearly two-thirds, or say three-fifths, of the whole cubic contents of a + properly constructed apartment<a href="#linknote-12" name="linknoteref-12" + id="linknoteref-12"><small>12</small></a> may be made a nearly solid mass + of books: a vast economy which, so far as it is applied, would probably + quadruple or quintuple the efficiency of our repositories as to contents, + and prevent the population of Great Britain from being extruded some + centuries hence into the surrounding waters by the exorbitant dimensions + of their own libraries. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> —The End— <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_FOOT" id="link2H_FOOT"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + FOOTNOTES: + </h2> + <p> + <a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ In Der alte und der neue + Glaube] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ xxi, 25.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-3" id="linknote-3"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 3 (<a href="#linknoteref-3">return</a>)<br /> [ First of all it seems to + have referred to the red capital letters placed at the head of chapters or + other divisions of works.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-4" id="linknote-4"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 4 (<a href="#linknoteref-4">return</a>)<br /> [ Cic. Pro Archia poeta, + vii.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-5" id="linknote-5"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 5 (<a href="#linknoteref-5">return</a>)<br /> [ Essays Critical and + Historical, ii. 228.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-6" id="linknote-6"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 6 (<a href="#linknoteref-6">return</a>)<br /> [ The Prayer Book recently + issued by Mr. Frowde at the Clarendon Press weighs, bound in morocco, less + than an once and a quarter. I see it stated that unbound it weighs + three-quarters of an ounce. Pickering's Cattullus, Tibullus, and + Propertius in leather binding, weighs an ounce and a quarter. His Dante + weighs less than a number of the Times.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-7" id="linknote-7"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 7 (<a href="#linknoteref-7">return</a>)<br /> [ See Libraries and the + Founders of Libraries, by B. Edwards, 1864, p. 5. Hallam, Lit. Europe.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-8" id="linknote-8"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 8 (<a href="#linknoteref-8">return</a>)<br /> [ Hor. Ep. II. i. 270; + Persius, i. 48; Martial, iv. lxxxvii. 8.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-9" id="linknote-9"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 9 (<a href="#linknoteref-9">return</a>)<br /> [ Edwards.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-10" id="linknote-10"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 10 (<a href="#linknoteref-10">return</a>)<br /> [ Rouard, Notice sur la + Bibliotheque d'Aix, p. 40. Quoted in Edwards, p. 34.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-11" id="linknote-11"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 11 (<a href="#linknoteref-11">return</a>)<br /> [ The Director of the + Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, which I suppose still to be the first + library in the world, in doing for me most graciously the honors of that + noble establishment, informed me that they full-bound annually a few + scores of volumes, while they half-bound about twelve hundred. For all the + rest they had to be contented with a lower provision. And France raises + the largest revenue in the world.] + </p> + <p> + <a name="linknote-12" id="linknote-12"> + <!-- Note --></a> + </p> + <p class="foot"> + 12 (<a href="#linknoteref-12">return</a>)<br /> [ Note in illustration. Let + us suppose a room 28 feet by 10, and a little over 9 feet high. Divide + this longitudinally for a passage 4 feet wide. Let the passage project 12 + to 18 inches at each end beyond the line of the wall. Let the passage ends + be entirely given to either window or glass door. Twenty-four pairs of + trams run across the room. On them are placed 56 bookcases, divided by the + passage, reaching to the ceiling, each 3 feet broad, 12 inches deep, and + separated from its neighbors by an interval of 2 inches, and set on small + wheels, pulleys, or rollers, to work along the trams. Strong handles on + the inner side of each bookcase to draw it out into the passage. Each of + these bookcases would hold 500 octavos; and a room of 28 feet by 10 would + receive 25,000 volumes. A room of 40 feet by 20 (no great size) would + receive 60,000, It would, of course, be not properly a room, but a + warehouse.] + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On Books and the Housing of Them, by +William Ewart Gladstone + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BOOKS AND THE HOUSING OF THEM *** + +***** This file should be named 3426-h.htm or 3426-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/2/3426/ + +Produced by Charles Hall, and David Widger + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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