The growth of the Astor library has been very slow, the annual income from what was left of Mr. Astor's $400,000 bequest, after defraying the cost of the library building, and the $100,000 expended for books at its foundation in 1848, having been so small as to necessitate a pinching economy, both in salaries of the library staff, and in the annual purchase of books. It was an example of a generous act performed in a niggardly way. But after the lapse of half a century, enlightened public policy, building upon the Astor foundation, and on the Lenox and Tilden bequests for founding public libraries in New York city, is about to equip that long neglected city with a library worthy of the name. There has already been gathered from these three united benefactions, a collection of no less than 450,000 volumes, making the New York Public Library take rank as the fourth, numerically, in the United States. While no library in America has yet reached one million volumes, there are five libraries in Europe, which have passed the million mark. Some of these, it is true, are repositories of ancient and mediaeval literature, chiefly, with a considerable representation of the books of the last century, and but few accessions from the more modern press. Such, for the most part, are the numerous libraries of Italy, while others, like the Library of the British Museum, in London, and the National Library, at Paris, are about equally rich in ancient and modern literature. The one great advantage which European libraries possess over American consists in the stores of ancient literature which the accumulations of the past have given them. This advantage, so far as manuscripts and early printed books are concerned, can never be overcome. With one or two hundred thousand volumes as a basis, what but utter neglect can prevent a library from becoming a great and useful institution? The most moderate share of discrimination, applied to the selection of current literature, will keep up the character of the collection as a progressive one. But with nothing at all as a basis, as most of our large American libraries have started, it will take generations for us to overtake some of the vast collections of Europe--even numerically.