...the role that the library has played. Any city that has had a great impact on learning has had a great library behind it, fueling that learning. Libraries date back to 1900 BC in the Sumerian city of Nippur. Nippur’s library held tens of thousands of inscribed clay tablets. These tablets themselves dated as far back as 2600 BC and included mathematical tables and alma...

...he next door. He had an immense collection of second hand books. Circulating libraries were not then in use; but we agreed that, on certain reasonable... ...d to one hundred: this was the mother of all the North American subscription libraries, now so numer ous. It is become a great thing itself, and cont... ... ous. It is become a great thing itself, and continually in creasing. These libraries have improved the general conver sation of the Americans, made... ...fested its utility, was imitated by other towns, and in other provinces. The libraries were augmented by donations; reading became fash ionable; and ... ... the government of neighbor ing states, and even on the conduct of our best national allies, which may be attended with the most pernicious con sequ...

...t of these men re-created Scotland, and the second is its most essentially national production. T o treat fitly of Hugo and Villon would involve yet w... ...foreshadowed on the horizon; the fatality of distant events, the stream of national tendency, the salient framework of causation. And all this thrown ... ... done in a play-book: Tom and Molly retire into a practicable wood. As for nationality and public sentiment, it is curious enough to think that T om J... ...nculcates and parades. He thinks very ill of the atmosphere of parlours or libraries. Wisdom keeps school outdoors. And he has the art to recommend th... ... would have been difficult to select for a start in life. Not even a man’s nationality was certain; for the people of Paris there was no such thing as... ...ry way. There must certainly be some mistake. Had not he himself made anti-national treaties almost before he was out of his nonage? And for the matte...