gratify the taste and inform the understanding of the subscribers, consisting of the principal persons in the town and neighbourhood.

The president, an elderly gentleman, with a remarkably benevolent, and, at the same time, shrewd expression of countenance, occupied the chair. Before him was the order-book, in which were written the names of the books proposed or recommended by the different members of the society; and the gentlemen of the committee were seated round the table, ready to pronounce their judgment on the claim of each publication to be admitted into the Churchover library.

"The first book on the list," said the president, "is The Vicar of Wrexhill, by Mrs. Trollope."

"Mrs. Trollope?" said Mr. A.,-" oh, she has written a clever book on America."

"A very amusing book that," said Mr. B.
"Capital," said Mr. C.

So Mrs. Trollope's Vicar of Wrexhill was marked off to be ordered.

"The next on the list is the new novel by the author of Pelham."

"Of course we must have that," said Mr. A.; "the ladies will never forgive us if we do not order some new novels for them."

It should be observed, by the way, that whenever a novel was ordered, it was always said to be for the benefit of the ladies; which was hardly fair, because some of the gentlemen of the committee were quite as great novel-devourers as the most voracious ladyreader in the neighbourhood. However, be that as it may, the new novel by the author of Pelham was ordered for the express reading of the ladies.

"How to Observe, by Miss Martineau," said the president, continuing to read the list.

Here a pause ensued.

"Miss Martineau is a spirited writer," at last said Mr. D.

Another pause.

"I must confess," remarked the president, "that I would rather observe' with my own eyes than

with Miss Martineau's."

As no one said any thing more, or proposed that Miss Martineau's book should be ordered, it was passed over.

"The Rectory of Valehead," said the president, taking the next on the list.

No one knew any thing of The Rectory of Valehead. [Let me observe, by the way, that every one ought to be acquainted with this delightful little volume and most people probably are so by this time.] No one, however, seemed disposed to vouch for it, when it was proposed to the committee. The president was about to pass on.

"It is but a small duodecimo volume," said a young clergyman who was present, willing to give it a chance, as he knew the author by character.

"Well, suppose we try it, then," said Mr. A.; and as Mr. B., C., and D. made no objection, the book was ordered.

Many other books were passed in review before the committee. Some were approved because they were cheap, some because they had a promising title, some because they were written by amusing authors; some were ordered for the ladies, some for the gentlemen; some because the committee took a fancy for them; some because they were getting towards the end of the list, and wanted a few more to make up the number. At last the important business was over, and the meeting broke up.

Two gentlemen remained behind in the readingroom. Mr. Walton the president was engaged in writing out the list of the books which had been

ordered; and the young clergyman already mentioned was looking at the Reviews which lay on the table.

"Well, Charles," said the old gentleman, "we have finished our task of catering for the intellectual appetite of our neighbours."

"I hope we have provided the best we were able out of the bill of fare presented to us," said the young curate.

"I must confess," answered Mr. Walton, "it is rather a hard task imposed on the committee to guess at the contents of books by their titles, and to guarantee that if an author has written one good volume, the next shall be like it; and it is an office of no small responsibility to supply the reading public with food for the mind, which shall be at once palatable and wholesome. Here we have a hundred guineas or more to lay out every year in new publications, and these are read not only by the subscribers themselves, but by many of their friends, and members of their families. The contents of these volumes are more or less taken in and digested by a large number of persons, and those amongst the most intelligent and influential portion of the community. Must not the mind and feelings of these readers of necessity take their tone in some measure from all this mass of reading? Our minds, like our bodies, are naturally much affected by the character of the food they receive; opinions and sentiments are imperceptibly absorbed into the system, and contribute to form the general character."

"I have often been amused," said the clergyman, "to observe, in conversation with one's neighbours, manifest traces of our library-reading-opinions evidently adopted from some of the books which we have ordered in. A person's whole stock of conversation for an evening will sometimes be drawn from Fraser's

Magazine, or the Edinburgh Review.

Nay, you

may hear a man argue in this manner against his own principles, without being aware of it."

"It is instructive as well as amusing," continued Mr. Walton, following out his subject as he was wont, "to observe how an idea is circulated by the press, and works its way, until it obtains currency amongst the mass of society. I remember the dissenters and liberals used to say, that religion ought to be left to itself, like other things; that the supply would follow the demand; and we should soon have places of religious worship enough, if we would but let people build them when they wanted them. This notion, arising from the combined influence of dissent and political economy-a worthy child of such parents, passed current a good while, before the right answer was hit on,—namely, that religion is quite different, in this respect, from other things,—that those who want religion most are the most ignorant of their want, and consequently will not seek to have it remedied, a fact abundantly witnessed by the deficiency of places of worship in our most populous and wealthiest cities. Dr. Chalmers claims the authorship of this manifestly true and sufficient answer. I am inclined to think that it sprang up simultaneously in several quarters. Lord Brougham brought it forward as original in the House of Lords. Then it was of course reported in all the newspapers, and adopted by some of them in their leading articles. Next it ran its course through the reviews and magazines, annual, quarterly, monthly, and weekly; and formed a staple topic in every sermon for the ChurchBuilding Society. At last, it becomes embodied in some eloquent pages of Mr. Gladstone's Treatise on the Church and State; or, perhaps, in a terse couplet, or pointed stanza, of the Lyra Apostolica. And so it has passed through the round of the press in

various departments, until it has fixed itself in the mind of the public,—readers communicating it to nonreaders; and the contrary opinion is expelled, just as the poison which had been communicated through the venous or alimentary canals, is expelled by the antidote, introduced through the same means. So that now one never hears, except from very uninstructed persons indeed, the notion maintained about supply in religion following demand: the idea is obsolete, or the person who maintains it is at once met with the conclusive answer."

"You have tracked your game very successfully in this instance," said the curate; " and I have no doubt it is a just illustration of the mode in which opinions are diffused through the mass of society."

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"I wish," continued Mr. Walton, " that we could see the capabilities of the press thoroughly worked out in every department, for the promulgation of sound and profitable opinions. Look only at the wide field which is open, through the means of these libraries—a field which, I fear, is far more generally occupied by the enemies than by the maintainers of truth, or, perhaps, most of all by persons of no fixed and serious opinions. How many volumes of travels are published by persons who know absolutely nothing of the religious state of the countries through which they pass, and yet speak very confidently about it! how many, too, by persons of latitudinarian views, who care little for any religion at all! and it is the same with other publications. I remember reading a novel called Yes and No, and another called Matilda (and they are but specimens of a class), in which I was much struck with the want of right feeling, and the utter unconsciousness, on the part of the author, that he was doing mischief by his flippant and irreverent mode of writing. If he introduced a clergyman in his story, he was sure to