appreciate their convenience for their own sake.  This is a wholesome sign—the turning point of success in such an undertaking.  For though it be necessary and right to bring to bear upon an infant project all the extraneous aid that can promote its object, no factitious support will permanently avail.  To ensure a prolonged existence, it must be sustained by its own merits.  It is not till interest comes to strengthen principle that the prosperous future is secured.  But in a country constantly and triumphantly calling attention to the freedom and purity of its press, it can hardly be necessary to expatiate on the benefits accruing from its wide and impartial circulation.  From the publication of Milton’s Areopagetica, these have been acknowledged.  None can say how much the English habit of reading newspapers tends to enlarge the national views.  Men cannot see, day after day, the various problems of political and social moment, debated before them by the ablest advocates, without confessing that cogent reasons may be urged on either side.  Half an hour spent daily in perusing the current reviews and magazines is usefully employed.  By it the mind is kept informed of the events of contemporaneous history, is enabled to form an independent judgment upon measures requiring the sifting of discussion, and led to correct, modify, or expand any sentiments too carelessly adopted, too obstinately defended, or too narrowly based.

Thus silently, it may be, and unconsciously, prejudice succumbs to reason, party strife is mitigated, and argument, not force, enthroned the constituted arbiter of conflicting wills.  Hence arises the desirableness of a Newsroom in every populous place, in which each phase of opinion may be represented by its own peculiar organ.  Few private establishments enjoy this privilege—most persons confine themselves to a single journal, entertaining ideas precisely identical with their own.  They have consequently nothing but a reflection of themselves.  They lose the advantage of filtrating their notions through other minds.  Of old it was said, “beware of the man of one book.”  But the man of one paper is infinitely worse.  He usually fails to rise above the natural tendency to a contracted sphere of thought, and rapidly subsides into a state of one-sided conviction, as illiberal, as it is irrational.  This is a trial to which no sensible inquirer after truth would willingly subject himself.  On the contrary, he will concur in forwarding any plan to obviate its danger.  The Parochial Institute embodies such a plan.  Therefore, he will enrol himself upon its list of members.

It must not, however, be supposed that facility of access to the ephemeral publications is either the sole or the main intention of this Society.  For whatever necessity exists for affording to the industrial and operative bodies opportunities of consulting periodicals of approved ability, morality, and loyalty, it can only be subordinate to the study of more substantial literature.  Experience demonstrates that the habit of reading once acquired, is seldom lost.  No obstacle ought consequently to be suffered to interfere with its attainment.  The incipient student should be free to range the entire field of knowledge.  All that its ample page contains, should be unfolded for his choice.  And though his early flights be wild, his attempts discursive, he will gradually contract his circle, and settle down at last.  This has been instructively verified by some of the quarterly subscribers, whose thirst for light reading was at first excessive.  Three sets of novels per week scarcely sufficed to satisfy this eager craving.  Now all this is changed.  The catalogue of books procured from Churton’s, for 1852, shows a most remarkable diminution in works of a romantic character.  Even those demanded, are of a higher and better description.  But the staple orders consist of travels, biographies, histories, and treatises on religion.  Such facts throw light upon the probable working of free libraries.  They bear out the belief, that if judiciously selected, and kept up by successive additions of modern writers, a numerous attendance and issue might be expected.  Nor would such an enterprise be attended by any ruinous expense.  Excellent histories are now published for three shillings a volume, while the pamphlets on miscellaneous subjects, currently known under the name of Literature for the Rail, embrace some of the most interesting essays, travels, and disquisitions in the language.  The Council would bring this topic strongly before their fellow-parishioners, in the hope of inducing many to make presents in augmentation of the library that they now possess.  Its after increase can be only a question of time.  A free library is the corollary and supplement of national education.  Other parishes are beginning to understand this.  Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham are setting a good example.  Marylebone is about to follow in the same wise path.  It is too palpable an error, to give the people an appetite for reading without furnishing them with the means of satisfying it, for a long continuance, in a country so practical as England.  Only let it be admitted, and the remedy will not be withheld.  May Kensington take the initiative in its rectification by applying it to its own requirements.

But the readiest access to books, the most unwearied diligence, and the highest ability are not enough to render one man independent in a scientific inquiry of the discoveries of another.  The more the philosopher investigates the unseen causes of visible things, the more he is compelled to have recourse to a division of labour.  Human life and human memory are alike unable to grasp an universal knowledge.  Hence the acutest intellects devote their powers to master definite departments of science.  They do not aim at an impossible omniscience.  Relying on the truth and ability of their collaborators, they receive their conclusions as their own.  Nor are these communicated commonly in special treatises, but through the more familiar media of lectures.  On such occasions, he who is the teacher of to-day, is not too proud to be the pupil of to-morrow.  Faraday, Murchison, Owen, and Herschell sit alternately at each other’s feet.  But if this be true of these hierophants of nature, what shall be said of her neophytes?  It is clear that to those engaged in following their craft, their trade, or their profession, time is a main object.  But if they cannot unravel processes, they fain would know results.  These are easily attainable by the method above mentioned.  A good lecture will oftentimes simplify abstruse problems, and make intelligible the most complicated machine, when books and diagrams convey no comprehensible meaning.  Perhaps no literary association in the metropolis can bear witness to this fact with a more vivid realization of its accuracy then our own.  Since the publication of the last report, we have been familiarized with the wonders of creation in all the kingdoms of nature.  With Mantell, we have read the records of primeval worlds, traced by the finger of omnipotence in those fossilized remains, which mock the palaces of Nineveh with their recent age.  With Morris, gathered up the laws that regulate the distribution of the springs and waters of the earth, and learnt how man can call its spirit from the chalky deeps for purposes of use or ornament.  With Noad, investigated the phenomena of light.  With Wheeler, ranged from star to star throughout the immensity of space.  With Weld, explored the coasts and channels, creeks and bays of those inhospitable regions which, clustering round the Northern Pole, guard with indomitable tenacity the Western Passage, despite the energy, endurance, and perseverance of the hardiest