PUBLIC LIBRARY AND POPULAR EDUCATION. The Growth of the Demo cratic Idea in Public Libraries.—Historically, the library has always been an adjunct to edu cation. The temple libraries of thetians and Assyrians, the public libraries of the Ro mans, the monastery and cathedral libraries and the libraries of the medieval universities kept the educational purposes of the library consciously in the foreground.
Cassiodorus and Saint Benedict in the 6th century emphasized the spiritual benefit to be received from copying and studying the Holy Scriptures. Alcuin (ca. 735-804) was a librarian and a user of libraries as well as a great teacher. The early universities at Troves, Con stantinople, Bagdad, Cairo, Cordova, to say nothing of later universities, were noted for their libraries no less than their teaching fac ulties.
Cathedral, monastery and other libraries for the clergy, founded in the early centuries of the Christian era, have persisted to our own time. In September 1537 an °injunction" pro vided that Bibles should be put at public ex pense into every parish church in England for the free use of the parishioners. In 1651 Humphrey Chetham bequeathed several collections of books to different parishes to serve as parish libraries. Other similar bene factions led Dr. Thomas Bray, the founder of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, to secure the passage by Parliament of °An act for the better preservation of parochial libraries in that part of Great Britain called England.* The idea was not confined to Eng land. Johannes Megapolensis, the first pastor at 'Albany, had a library of 25 volumes fur nished by Patroon Van Rensselaer for pastoral use. The Rev. Thomas Etray in 1697 proposed the purchase of °Lending libraries in all the deaneries of England and parochial libraries for Maryland, Virginia and other of the foreign plantations." A number of these parochial libraries were sent to Annapolis, Albany, Bos ton, New York, Philadelphia, Williamsburg and elsewhere. The provincial library at An napolis, which was sent there in 1697, numbered nearly 1,100 volumes, and was the first free circulating library in the United States." Bray at first intended the parochial libraries to be for the use of the clergy. He soon changed their purpose to lending libraries" open to all, the local collections to be supple mented by the larger provincial libraries. He says: 9 hope, though the design seems more immediately directed to the service of the clergy, yet gentlemen, physicians and lawyers will perceive they are not neglected in it . . . And indeed those persons of quality whose eldest sons being commonly brought up to no employment have a great deal of time lying upon their hands, seem to me to be as nearly concerned as any to favor it. For many of
these young gentlemen, when removed from the universities . . . residing all their life time in countries where they can meet with no books to employ themselves in reading and whereby they may be able to improve the talent they have there gained; they do therefore too commonly become not so conspicuous for their excellent knowledge and morals as will ever be expected from men of rank and station in their country.* Bray here emphasizes the value of the library as a continuation school for the laity as well as its vocational value to the clergy. Nevertheless, broad as his ideas were, they were essentially aristocratic as well became a period almost devoid of any appreciation of the need of universal education and in which lit erary culture was a class distinction, not a rec ognized public need. This is doubtless the chief reason why Bray's libraries failed, for the most part, to accomplish what he expected of them, and why most of them became not only inactive but actually extinct.
A more significant movement in the educa tional purpose of the library was the founda tion by Benjamin Franklin in 1731 of the li brary of the Junto. Both club and library were deliberately planned for the self-improve ment of the members. The library, which after ward developed into the Library Company of Philadelphia, was the first of the subscription libraries which under the name of Mechanics', Athenmum or Society libraries, Young Men's Institutes, etc., soon spread throughout the United States and England. Though this was a proprietary library, it was a collection for tradesmen and mechanics as well as for the gentry. Within a few weeks after the first books arrived the directors agreed that the li brarian °may permit any civil gentleman to pe ruse the books of the Library in the Library room." Franklin's democratic purpose is shown by the reference, in his (Chap. V) to this library: This was the mother of all North American subscription libraries, now so numerous. These libraries have improved the general conversation of the Americans, made the common tradesmen and farmers as intelli gent as most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps have contributed in some degree to the stand so generally made throughout the col onies in defense of their privileges.) Libraries of this type were really more nearly free than their names imply. They were open to practi cally everyone, their fees were usually small and entirely free use of their reading-rooms was a fairly general practice. Together with the small local °lyceum" libraries which became very common in the fifth to the seventh decade of the 19th century, they did much to promote the reading of American literature and to shape American popular opinion.