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diff --git a/3426.txt b/3426.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71fa4be --- /dev/null +++ b/3426.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1002 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of On Books and the Housing of Them, by +William Ewart Gladstone + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. 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 + +Posting Date: February 15, 2009 [EBook #3426] +Release Date: September, 2002 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON BOOKS AND THE HOUSING OF THEM *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Hall + + + + + +ON BOOKS AND THE HOUSING OF THEM + + +By William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) + + +In the old age of his intellect (which at this point seemed to taste +a little of decrepitude), Strauss declared [1] 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, +[2] 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." + +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,[3] 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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[4] and Macaulay.[5] 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.[6] + +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. + +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.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10] + +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. + +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. + +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.[11] 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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[12] 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. + + --The End-- + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: In Der alte und der neue Glaube] + +[Footnote 2: xxi, 25.] + +[Footnote 3: First of all it seems to have referred to the red capital +letters placed at the head of chapters or other divisions of works.] + +[Footnote 4: Cic. Pro Archia poeta, vii.] + +[Footnote 5: Essays Critical and Historical, ii. 228.] + +[Footnote 6: 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.] + +[Footnote 7: See Libraries and the Founders of Libraries, by B. Edwards, +1864, p. 5. Hallam, Lit. Europe.] + +[Footnote 8: Hor. Ep. II. i. 270; Persius, i. 48; Martial, iv. lxxxvii. +8.] + +[Footnote 9: Edwards.] + +[Footnote 10: Rouard, Notice sur la Bibliotheque d'Aix, p. 40. Quoted in +Edwards, p. 34.] + +[Footnote 11: 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.] + +[Footnote 12: 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.] + + + + + +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.txt or 3426.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 + +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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