tion in the Commonwealth Fund, was then requested to visit the Library as the first Research Associate, to study its contents and possibilities, and to prepare an effective scheme of procedure. Some extracts from his report, which has recently been presented and approved, will best express his views.

After stating his conviction that the collections are admirably adapted "for the study of the manifold aspects of the growth of civilization in Great Britain and America," he points out that the subject is too complex for a single mind and should not be left to isolated individuals. As a tentative working plan he then groups the chief lines of approach in three

velopment, involving the application of science to human needs and culminating in the complex industrial and financial structure of modern times. In this economic and social investigation habits, customs, manners, etc., must be taken into account, and for this purpose such unworked manuscript material as is found in the Battle Abbey, Stowe, and Huntingdon collections will be invaluable.

The intellectual and spiritual phase of civilization begins with religion and continues with education and the development of science. "The invention of printing opened the realm of learning to the multitude, and is perhaps the greatest factor in the rise of democracy. Its only

In the field of literature and the drama, the Library is admirably equipped to begin immediate and extensive research. This incidentally offers one of the most effective means of studying the transfer of civilization to the New World. In the realm of the fine arts the Huntington collections of paintings, statuary, tapestries, prints, illuminated manuscripts, and seals will also serve for investigations on another aspect of intellectual and spiritual progress.

"The third group includes the whole series of interests and activities manifested in government, law, and politics, and in international relations.

side the collections range from the Pizarro papers and the records of the Dutch West India Company through every phase of national activity until the end of the nineteenth century, including a remarkable Civil War library.

"The conventional histories of the past have devoted themselves rather exclusively to governmental and political history, but students are learning to recognize that economic and social activities, that spiritual and intellectual interests, are controlling factors in the actions of the individuals who make up the State. The Huntington Library is now placing itself in the forefront of the new move

ment in history by adopting a policy of comprehensive study of Anglo-American civilization."

Doctor Farrand finds the present staff of the Library, under the direction of Mr. Leslie E. Bliss, Librarian, to be well chosen for the customary requirements of a library. As for the research staff, he recommends the appointment of from six to eight distinguished scholars, representing the various phases of the general problem. Associated with them there should be a number of Research Assistants, Associates, and Fellows.

This plan has been approved, and Mr. Huntington has undertaken to provide the necessary endowment, which will also cover various other needs, such as the cost of publication. Doctor Farrand will begin work in October as Director of Research, with Doctor Frederick J. Turner, formerly Professor of History at Harvard, as a Research Associate. Other Research Associates will be added, and the permanent staff will be gradually organized during the next few years.

OLD LIBRARIES AND THEIR SOURCES

In his purchases Mr. Huntington has profited by the exceptional circumstances under which the libraries he has acquired were formed in earlier times.

A century and more ago, when Paris could be reached from London in five days via the Dover Mail and a swift packet, the English book collector looked longingly across the Channel to the quais of the Seine. The tumbrils and the guillotines had done their work, and the loot of châteaux and palaces choked the stalls. The mobs of Revolutionists did not hanker after intellectual fare, and the best products of ancient presses and binderies, long preserved by the lettered gentry of the old régime, had been tossed to the rubbish-heap or sold to the street hawker for a song. William Beckford of Fonthill, the romantic author of "Vathek," and the second Earl Spencer, when amassing the richest private libraries of the day during their collecting tours on the Continent, were among those who profited from this ruthless dispersion of great possessions.

Rich beyond easy estimate were the libraries of old France, The long succes

sion of collectors, sometimes traced to the Medicis of Florence through the book passions of Catherine, was of much earlier origin. "France, mère des armes, des arts, et des lois," had long been at work amassing treasures for the bibliophile. Dante speaks feelingly of "the art that is called illuminating in Paris," and Richard de Bury, Chancellor of Edward III, exclaims in his "Philobiblon": "Oh God of Gods in Zion! what a rushing river of joy gladdens my heart as often as I have a chance of going to Paris! There the days seem always short; there are the goodly collections on the delicate fragrant book-shelves." The art of fine binding, illustrated at the Royal Library in Venice in its early Byzantine stages by covers ornamented with silver and gold and incrusted with gems, was transmitted to France with the added genius of Italian craftsmen. Henri II, urged by Diane de Poitiers, decreed that beautifully bound vellum copies of all their books must be sent by the publishers to the libraries of Blois and Fontainebleau, and these very volumes, bearing the monogram of Diane, occasionally reach the modern collector.

The French Revolution was not the sole disperser of old books and manuscripts. At a much earlier period the book collector had saved many a rare volume in England, following the dissolution of the monasteries in the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward VI. Archbishop Parker, the Earl of Arundel, and Sir Robert Cotton were prominent among the "lovers of ancient learning" who saved priceless manuscripts from the common uses of the gold-beater, the tailor and the grocer. The Battle Abbey manuscripts, collected in one hundred large volumes and reaching back to the founding of the Abbey by William the Conqueror, are similar treasures acquired by Mr. Huntington. But at what a difference in cost!

In fact, the day of the bargain seems to have passed with the advent of dealers of the type of the learned Quaritch and the sagacious Rosenbach. A. Edward Newton, after his long experience as a collector, says he has "found it wise not to try to beat the expert; it is like trying to beat Wall Street-it cannot be done.

How can an outsider with the corner of his mind compete with one who is playing the game ever and always? The answer is simple he can't; and he will do well not to try."

of American history. In early English literature the Church library was very rich, its Shakespeare volumes (including the finest Folios and Quartos of the Locker-Lampson collection) being surpassed only by those of a few English libraries.

CAP. II.

A4

AB

is needed now, where a great gallery or a long suite of rooms was once required. The book has become, as it were, a jewel, and is kept in a kind of jewel-case."

GROWTH OF THE HUNTINGTON LIBRARY

There are exceptions to most rules, and the Huntington Library widely oversteps the narrow limits set by the bibliophile Jacob. Profiting by the labors of early collectors, it gathers into a single group books and manuscripts slowly acquired during centuries. A glance at its history will show how it was built up.

In 1907 Mr. Huntington was not counted as a collector. Four years later he made his first large purchase, the entire library of Mr. E. Dwight Church of New York, especially known for its early works

Huntington purchased the entire collection of Mr. Beverly Chew and many of Mr. Robert Hoe's books, thus adding greatly to his rare specimens of early English literature. The library of Judge Russell Benedict, largely augmenting the Church collection of colonial laws and filling an important gap in the history of the French and Indian and Revolutionary Wars, was next acquired. But the most notable acquisition of this period was the drama and Caxtons from the library of the Duke of Devonshire.

John Philip Kemble, the actor, brother of Mrs. Siddons, collected some 9,000 English plays, a large number of play-bills, and many books on the English stage. In 1821 he sold the whole collection to the sixth Duke of Devonshire, who added them to the library at Chatsworth, his country-seat in Derbyshire. From the library of the Duke of Roxburghe and other sources the Duke acquired many First Folios and Quartos of Shakespeare and much other early English dramatic literature. Among these volumes were twenty-five works of Caxton, England's first printer, including such scarce specimens as the "Parvus Catho or Distichs of Cato" (the only known copy) and Lydgate's "Stans Puer ad Mensem," of which only one other copy is known. Several of the other Caxtons exist in only five or six copies. "The Mirrour of the World," originally purchased from the Louvain Jesuits, bears the autograph inscription, "This is the lady anne ffortescuys boke, 1532." "The