OPENING OF ST ALBAN’S DISTRICT LIBRARY.

Globe, Volume II, Issue 142, 17 November 1874, Page 2

OPENING OF ST ALBAN’S DISTRICT LIBRARY.

The new district library at St Albans, which has recently been completed, was formally opened last evening by his Honor the Superintendent. The building, which ia fitted with every convenience, is very creditable to the district, and will no doubt be largely taken advantage of by the residents. His Honor the Superintendent arrived shortly after seven o’clock, apd was received by several members of the local committee. After inspecting the library, an adjournment was made to the school room, where a public meeting, which was largely attended, was held, his Honor the Superintendent occupying the chair. His Honor the Superintendent said—lt ia not so very long ago that the establishment of institutes and libraries such as this was looked upon with considerable misgiving, if not jealousy, by what were then, in respect of education, the privileged classes in the old country. The extension of the advantages of libraries and reading rooms to the working classes was thought to be fraught with considerable danger, both to the Church and State. Infidelity would spread, monarchy was in danger, Chartism and Communistic principles would gain ground in a most perilous manner. Many of ns remember how, in Brighton, at a time when Europe was convulsed with revolutions, an English clergyman was held up to execration as a teacher of strange doctrines, because he entered into the asj r ations and sympathised with the wrongs of the working men, because he thought that the working men had as much right to a library and reading room, as the gentlemen at Folthorp’s or the tradesmen at the Athenaeum. He, Mr Robertson, lived and died before his time, but bis works are read and his memory honored by tens of thousands of his countrymen in libraries and reading rooms throughout the world. The days of martyrdom in such a cause are happily gone bj. The principles of association and co-operation arc fostered in every fresh centre of population with the rise and growth of institutions such as this ; and in this province I am glad that their importance has been so far recognised by the State that a portion of public funds has been devoted to promote their initiation. The question is no longer whether knowledge shall be diffused, or education be the heritage of a few ; but there is a keen contest as to what is the best form of education, and as to the best means of extending it to the largest number of people. As might be expected, the consideration of this question takes its colouring from the prevailing spirit of the age in which ws live It is peculiarly an age of material progress ; practical utility is the gauge by which everything is tested. It has been very forcibly pointed out by Mr Greg, in a book replete with earnest thought (“ Enigmas of Life”), that in philosophy, poetry, sculpture, and painting, little if any advance is being made in the present age—that in these matters the world is almost at a standstill, No greater man than Homer, Plato, and Phidias have arisen, since their time, but in light, locomotion, and means of communication, progress has been concentrated and rapid in the in tbejast fifty years. Fifty years ago light was no more brilliant than in the days of Belshazzar’s feast, and of the pyramids or the Pharoahs. Thomas Assheton Smith travelled no faster than Noah and Nimrod. The chariots of the Olympian games went just as fast as those that carried our nobles to the Derby when George the Third was King, For means of communication Mr Pitt was no better off than Pericles or Agamemnon. If Ruth had wished to write to Naomi, or David to send a word of love to Jonathan when he was a hundred miles away, they could not possibly have done it under twelve hours, Nor could we to our friends fifty years ago. In 1870 the humblest citizen of Great Britain can send such a message not a hundred miles but a thousand in twelve minutes.” Practical utility is the watchword of the present day. It is a day'of small profits and quick returns. Nothing, if I may use the expression, will “go down” that cannot be turned to immediate account. It would not be unnatural that in such a period the practical bearing of education upon the prevailing ideas and propensities of the time should assume large if not undue proportions. It would be only natural that at such a time literature, philosophy and what are known as the branches of a liberal education, should have a hard struggle to maintain their supremacy with physical science, and the arts which have a more direct practical bearing on every day life. It is well that it should be so. It is only by the vigorous and enthusiastic assertion of extreme views that the truth which lies between (hose extremes is arrived at. It is the Luthers, Xaviers, and Loyolas, who leave their mark on the history of the world, not those who would sit OU the heights.” Turning to scorn with lips divine The falsehood of extremes. If the present movement in favor of physical science as a means of education and cultivation, assumes an undue violence, sqd. goes

to too great lengths, it is because it is the natural reaction against tbe neglect of the practical and the useful in the system which previously obtained, and which attempted to force on all minds alike a, form of cultivation which all were not alike capable of receiving. It is the assertion, moreover, of a principle which has been prominently put forward by the writer I have previously quoted that material victories and achievements make intellectual and moral achievements more readily attainable. The danger is that the ultimate object may be forgotten in the pursuit of the means, that education may be sought as a means of pursuing material prosperity, or mercenary gain ; that facts may be crammed to the neglect of the. cultivation of powers of thought, and that the highest order of cultivation may still be a class matter. It is not probable that greater or more cultivated minds will be produced now than have been in past ages. We can only hope to produce more of them. We shall not do this by educating for the particular market of the day and neglecting the higher culture which is the peculiar heritage of no age or country. New knowledge and new facts are being crowded u pon usin every newspaper and at every turn of our daily life. The history of the world is being daily crushed into bewildering telegrams. The necessity for careful mental training was never so great as now, when the growth of mental power is imperilled by confusion of innumerable facts and ideas. The discipline of connected thought is liable to be sacrificed to the cramming of facts. There is an old saying, 11 Beware of a man of one book (cave hominem vnius libri') A man who knows one thing well, who has mastered one subject thoroughly, will always hold an important place in any society. There is no teacher worthy of the name who would not rccognisethebeautyandsuperiority of aproposition of Buclidasa meansof mental trainingas compared with pages of dates or scientific primers. He knows that as a rule mere memory is cultivated at the expense of the reasoning faculties—and his art and his pleasure is to draw out and exercise the powers of thought of his pupils. I trust that in these observations 1 have not gone beyond what may be fairly considered within the scope of an opening address to a institution such as this. I look upon these libraries and reading rooms rather as the complements of our Education system than as furnishing the means of mental training. If they provide rational recreation after the days toil, if they supply the current history of what is going on in the world through the newspapers, if they form a counter attraction to pleasures of a sensual character, they will play no unimportant part in the social economy of a young community. In other colonies, I have been given to understand, that too ambitious programmes have failed. The social advantage arising out of the association of members of the community for purposes of this kind is to my mind, for the present at least, the most important consideration. Our reading rooms should be made comfortable and attractive. They should contain a considerable proportion of what is called lighter literature, and periodical entertainments should be held in connection with them. I observe that the questions I have lightly touched upon as chairman are to form the subject of separate addresses by other gentlemen I will not trespass further on your patience, and only thank you for the compliment you have paid me in asking me to preside, and for the attention you have paid to my observations. The following programme was then gone through :—Glee, “ Carnivale address by Professor Bickerton on “ The value of the Study of Natural Science;” song, ‘‘The Bridge address by the Rev A. R. Fitchett, on “ Libraries as a help to public education quartette, “ The Power of Love address by the RevF. Knowles on “ Mind Culture glee, “ An Old Romance.” On the motion of the Hon J, T. Peacock, votes of thanks were passed to the speakers, to the choir, and the chairman, and the proceedings terminated.