Library, descended to us from the hands of Franklin, Logan and Rush, "to pour forth riches for the common good is to be godlike!" And for ourselves, should we not be the chief gainers, in securing great works of art—works which, as Ruskin says, contain the greatest number of the greatest ideas. Here then are both the power and the opportunity. Shall we not with sincerity and earnestness undertake to do something which is worthy of the doing?
The wheels of the world will continue to turn, and it will be a beautiful or a commonplace world, as we, and not the Fates, make it. Fortune may not always favor us, Care will still mount with us as we ride; disappointment, disaster, death are certain, but says Gœthe, "There is no better deliverance from the world than through art." Avocations the most absorbing, pursuits the most irresistible, undertakings the most engaging, fail, lose interest and come to an end; but there remains the unconquerable mind; and as again and again we listen to the voices from the world of the ideal,
"A noble wonder in our souls awakes,
The deathless beautiful draws strangely nigh,
And we look up, and marvel how so long
We were content to toil for sordid joys that die."
20
