We shall fail to see the library world thus, as a world, as a whole unless, amid the mass of facts, of experiences, of needs, of adaptations involved, we can finally discern and seize upon the true center, the truly dominant thing. If we could once see the true center as the center, and the mass of detail taking ordered place about it; if we could once perceive the dominant that should surely rule, and lesser matters in due subjection to that rule, then from the obvious things ever before our eyes, and only too familiar, by that very familiarity made difficult to apprehend, the library might all at once appeal as an entity, as a clear conception. So the forest becomes visible to the artist's eyes, the forest, formed of trees, but never really seen until all at once in the vision of the forest the trees are lost to sight. Some modes of thought, some phrases of expression which have been used are those which the philosopher has weighed and clarified for his own carefully measured statements. Do not smile at my temerity, and on the other hand do not be in the least alarmed. I ventured but a little way and you will not be called to go far into the philosopher's country under my lead. Even if one be no swimmer it is an experience to venture out, with careful balance, feeling for secure foothold upon the solid bed, even a little way into a mighty stream whose full mid-current would sweep over one's head. One gets, out of even so limited an adventure, a sense of the sweep of the river, feels the embrace and pull of the current, stoops to drink a little of the clear, bright, deep waters, ever thereafter to thirst for deeper draughts and to long for strength and mastery to plunge into and breast the full stream. In trying to find warrant for my own thoughts and ordered and lucid statement for them, I have sought and consulted certain books and some of them were too hard for my full reading. I shall not further acknowledge my debt now but, once more departing from precedent, I shall list them for print at the end of the address. In the wish to find the center or dominant of the library world it would be presumptuous for me to dogmatize and say "Lo here! this is the point," or "Behold! this is the principle." In the very name of the institution which we are talking about there are two elements joined--Public, and Library--and it seems quite obviously proper to try the first as the center. Perhaps the application which follows might repel some as narrow, as exclusive of any but a single type of libraries. The principle itself may, however, be made to apply to the entire library world by recognizing as "public" all libraries which are not private, and by defining public anew as applied to each group or type of libraries, always letting it include all those individuals for whose use and pleasure the library is maintained.