=180.= Attempts have been made at various times by different authorities to lay down the proportions of every class of literature which should be represented in public libraries. The following figures are given for what they are worth, and not by any means as a hard and fast guide to be followed:-- PERCENTAGES OF CLASSES OF LITERATURE REPRESENTED IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES, ETC. Class 000 General Works 3 100 Philosophy 4 200 Religion 5 300 Sociology 7 400 Philology 4 500 Science 9 600 Useful Arts 9 700 Fine and Recreative Arts 7 800 Literature 28 900 History 8 Biography 8 Travel 8 --- 100 There are one or two changes which modern practice will make probable in these percentages, such as increases in the percentages of classes 5-7 and a decrease in class 8. The attention now bestowed upon technical education and the universal provision of music texts will almost inevitably increase these classes at the expense of some other classes. =181.= Imaginative literature rightly takes first place in the representation of classes, and when made up of Prose Fiction, Poetry, Music and Painting, accounts for about 33 per cent. of the whole. Although Bacon in his classification of human knowledge places Imagination as represented by Poetry at the end of his scheme, thereby, perhaps, indicating his opinion of its comparative importance, there can be no doubt that as regards popularity, importance and longevity it easily maintains first place in the minds and hearts of a majority of the human race. Whose are the great names in literature? The philosophers, or historians, or scientists? None of these. The story-teller, the song-writer, the singer and the artist completely overshadow all other kinds of literary and scientific genius, and monopolize a foremost position of honour among mankind, because, after all, they are the greatest teachers as well as the most capable entertainers. Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe, Cervantes, Molière, Balzac, Hugo, Scott, Dickens, Fielding, Thackeray, Burns, Byron, Milton, Beethoven, Handel, Wagner, Titian, Raphael, Turner, Rembrandt, and so on in endless variety, are infinitely greater and more treasured names to thousands of human beings than any of the exponents of more formal and exact knowledge. The story-teller and the singer will be remembered long after philosophies, and systems of history and science are as mouldering and forgotten as the ruins of ancient Babylon. The great majority of the people of all nations will much rather sing with the singers than chop