We interpret these remarks in terms of genius, without giving the average mind credit for such opinions, just because they are left unrecorded. Every child has his night fears and his day dreams, however regulated they may be by his social environment. These vary in degree according to the intellectual energy and spiritual refinement fostered in each one of us. The librarian’s problem is based upon an acknowledgment of this potential energy and refinement; she reckons with the child’s voluntary interest. For all childhood is seeking to find expression in numberless ways; its eye for the first time sees the outline of life, its voice expresses for the first time the rhythm of its nature in song. Its compass in all things is small, but its timbre is pure. FOOTNOTES: [47] The general complaint among librarians is that these picture-books of the best type are too rare and too expensive to purchase in large quantities for general circulation. [48] Read Stevenson’s “A Penny Plain” in Memories and Portraits; also “The Dime Novel in American Life,” by Charles M. Harvey, _Atlantic_, 100:37 (July, 1907). [49] By Archdeacon Wilberforce, Hannah More’s friend. [50] _Vide_ “Reading for Boys and Girls,” by Everett T. Tomlinson. _Atlantic_, 86:693 (Nov., 1900). [51] Article on Children’s Books. Reprinted in _Living Age_, Aug. 10, 1844, 2:1. [52] There was the Elliptical Questioning--a form of “drawing out” and “injecting” knowledge and information. [53] In a letter to the author, Mr. C. G. Leland, Superintendent of the Bureau of Libraries, New York Board of Education, plainly states the province and the mission of the school library. He writes: “Nearly all of our educational institutions nowadays are very busily engaged in supplying _useful information_. The practical is crowding everything else out of their courses of study. The kind of knowledge that will help in the future struggle for existence and material betterment is being demanded more and more and is being taught to the exclusion of much that is only ethical or cultural. “As a continual protest against this materialistic tendency the school library takes its position and marshals its books. Its first purpose is to create a love for good literature and beautiful pictures as soon as the child has mastered the mechanics of reading; its ultimate aim is culture. “In the elementary school the library should reach to every class-room and offer there a few very attractive and very carefully selected books, so attractive and so well graded that the most indifferent boy or girl will be led by easy stages into the green fields of literature. “The class-room is still the strategic point, for even homes of refinement are wont to delegate the work of directing the children’s reading to the school, and the teacher with her case of well-known books has every day opportunities denied to public librarian and to the majority of parents.