currently known under the name of Literature for the Rail, embrace some of the most interesting essays, travels, and disquisitions in the language. The Council would bring this topic strongly before their fellow-parishioners, in the hope of inducing many to make presents in augmentation of the library that they now possess. Its after increase can be only a question of time. A free library is the corollary and supplement of national education. Other parishes are beginning to understand this. Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham are setting a good example. Marylebone is about to follow in the same wise path. It is too palpable an error, to give the people an appetite for reading without furnishing them with the means of satisfying it, for a long continuance, in a country so practical as England. Only let it be admitted, and the remedy will not be withheld. May Kensington take the initiative in its rectification by applying it to its own requirements. But the readiest access to books, the most unwearied diligence, and the highest ability are not enough to render one man independent in a scientific inquiry of the discoveries of another. The more the philosopher investigates the unseen causes of visible things, the more he is compelled to have recourse to a division of labour. Human life and human memory are alike unable to grasp an universal knowledge. Hence the acutest intellects devote their powers to master definite departments of science. They do not aim at an impossible omniscience. Relying on the truth and ability of their collaborators, they receive their conclusions as their own. Nor are these communicated commonly in special treatises, but through the more familiar media of lectures. On such occasions, he who is the teacher of to-day, is not too proud to be the pupil of to-morrow. Faraday, Murchison, Owen, and Herschell sit alternately at each other’s feet. But if this be true of these hierophants of nature, what shall be said of her neophytes? It is clear that to those engaged in following their craft, their trade, or their profession, time is a main object. But if they cannot unravel processes, they fain would know results. These are easily attainable by the method above mentioned. A good lecture will oftentimes simplify abstruse problems, and make intelligible the most complicated machine, when books and diagrams convey no comprehensible meaning. Perhaps no literary association in the metropolis can bear witness to this fact with a more vivid realization of its accuracy then our own. Since the publication of the last report, we have been familiarized with the wonders of creation in all the kingdoms of nature. With Mantell, we have read the records of primeval worlds, traced by the finger of omnipotence in those fossilized remains, which mock the palaces of Nineveh with their recent age. With Morris, gathered up the laws that regulate the distribution of the springs and waters of