Page:American History Told by Contemporaries, v2.djvu/57

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No. 12]
By Readers and Libraries
29

(No. 86); Ames's college diary (No. 95); Wesley's journal (No. 99); Woolman's journal (No. 106); Colden on the fur trade (No. 111); Adair on the Indians (No. 113); Knox on Quebec (No. 129); Dod-dridge on the West (No. 136); Franklin's examination (No. 143); Andrew's account of the Tea-Party (No. 152); Sam Johnson's tory argument (No. 156) ; Scammell's love-letter (No. 162) ; Graydon on recruiting (No. 170); Chastellux's visit to Washington's camp (No. 176); Pausch's army life (No. 179); Richard Smith on the Continental Congress (No. 185); Abigail Adams on the siege of Boston (No. 192); Dr. Waldo on Valley Forge (No. 198); John Paul Jones's capture of the Serapis (No. 204); Pynchon's diary (No. 208); Gordon's retirement of Washington (No. 219).


12. Use of Sources by Libraries

THE triple object of most libraries is to entertain, to inform, and to instruct. Sources may fulfil all these objects. Boys who like Robinson Crusoe will certainly like Thomas (No. 25), Franklin (No. 81), Goelet (No. 84), Ames (No. 95), Adair (No. 113), Clark (No. 201), and Jones (No. 204). Girls who enjoy Strickland's Queens of England will like lively Eliza Lucas (Nos. 35, 83), and the steadfast Abigail Adams (No. 192). The student of German history will be glad to follow the Germans into the new world (Nos. 29, 40, 179). The colonial writers ooze with rugged, genuine human nature, interesting to those who are interested in their kind. Who can read of Oglethorpe in Georgia (No. 39), or of Daniel Boone (No. 134), or of Major Andre (No. 183), without wishing to know more of these men and their writings?

The other functions of the library—to inform and to instruct—are equally provided for by proper use of sources, which are the adjunct of the teacher, the reservoir of the pupil, and the nutritious intellectual food of the general reader. Of the extracts in this volume, those from works like Sewall's, John Adams's, and Franklin's are available in many libraries in the full text; but many of the pieces are hard to come at, and for a person whose time is limited such a selection as this may be more useful. As regular standard reading matter, the libraries may well provide some sources.