A WOMAN'S QUESTIONING. BY ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER. [1825-1864.] BEFORE I trust my fate to thee, I break all slighter bonds, nor feel Is there one link within the Past Or is thy faith as clear and free As that which I can pledge to thee? Does there within thy dimmest dreams Wherein thy life could henceforth breathe, If so, at any pain or cost, O tell me, before all is lost! Look deeper still! If thou canst feel Within thy inmost soul That thou hast kept a portion back, While I have staked the whole, Let no false pity spare the blow, Is there within thy heart a need Lives there within thy nature hid The demon spirit - Change, Shedding a passing glory still On all things new and strange? It may not be thy fault alone: Couldst thou withdraw thy hand one day, That Fate, and that to-day's mistake, Some soothe their conscience thus: but thou Nay! answer not! I dare not hear: Remember-I would risk it all. ON THE VALUE AND USE OF LIBRARIES.1 BY JAMES BALDWIN. [JAMES BALDWIN: An American editor and author; born in Hamilton county, Ind., December 15, 1841. He was educated at the district school and at a Friends' academy; taught a district school; was superintendent of schools in various places; and from 1887 to 1890 was connected with the educational department of the firm of Harper and Brothers, New York. He was an assistant editor of Harper's Magazine, 1890-1893, and since 1894 has been editor of the American Book Company. He has published: "The Story of Siegfried " (1882), "The Story of Roland" (1883), "The Book Lover" (1884), "A Story of the Golden Age" (1886), "Harper's Readers" (5 vols., 1887-1890), "Old Greek Stories" (1895), "Fairy Stories and Fables" (1895), “A Guide to Systematic Readings in the Encyclopædia Britannica" (1896), "Four Great Americans " (1896), “The Horse Fair" (1896), and “Baldwin's Readers" (8 vols., 1897).] A LIBRARY is the scholar's workshop. To the teacher or professional man, a collection of good books is as necessary as a kit of tools to a carpenter. And yet I am aware that many persons are engaged in teaching, who have neither a library of their own, nor access to any other collection of books suitable to their use. There are others who, having every opportunity to secure the best of books, — with a public library near at hand offering them the free use of works most valuable to them, yet make no effort to profit by these advantages. They care nothing for any books save the text-books indispensable to their profession, and for these only so far as necessity obliges them 1 Published by permission of A. C. McClurg and Company. to do so. The libraries of many persons calling themselves teachers consist solely of schoolbooks, many of which have been presented them by accommodating book agents, "for examination with a view to introduction." And yet we hear these teachers talk learnedly about the introduction of English literature into the common schools of the country, and the necessity of cultivating among the children a wholesome love and taste for reading. If inquiry were made, we might discover that such persons understand a study of English literature to consist simply of some memoriter exercises in Shaw's "Manual" or Brooke's "Primer," and that, as to good reading, they are oftener entertained by the cheap slops of the news stands than by the English classics. Talk not about directing and cultivating the reading tastes of your pupils until you have successfully directed and cultivated your own! And the first step towards doing this is the selection and purchase of a library for yourself, which shall be all your own. A very few books will do, if they are of the right kind; and they must be yours. A borrowed book is but a cheap pleasure, an unappreciated and unsatisfactory tool. To know the true value of books, and to derive any satisfactory benefit from them, you must first feel the sweet delight of buying them, you must know the preciousness of possession. You plead poverty, the insufficiency of your income? But do you not spend for other things, entirely unnecessary, much more every year than the cost of a few books? The immediate outlay need not be large, the returns which you will realize will be great in proportion to your good judgment and earnestness. Not only will the possession of a good library add to your means of enjoyment and increase your capacity for doing good, it may, if you are worldly-minded, - and we all are, put you in the way of occupying a more desirable position and earning a more satisfactory reward for your labors. There are two kinds of books that you will need in your library: first, those which are purely professional, and are in the strictest sense the tools of your craft; second, those which belong to your chosen department of literature, and are to be regarded as your friends, companions, and counselors. I cannot, of course, dictate to you what these books shall be. But in a library of fifty or even thirty well-chosen volumes you may possess infinite riches, and means for a lifetime of enjoyment; while, on the other hand, if your selection is injudicious, you |