Of South American libraries the largest is the National, at Rio Janeiro, Brazil, with some 240,000 volumes. The other republics of South America which passed through their wars for independence and their formative periods, not to say their internal jealousies and strifes, during the nineteenth century, have had but little opportunity or inclination to collect large libraries. Yet the spirit of education is by no means dormant, and the nuclei of many libraries have been formed, in which much pride is taken, and which bid fair to grow great in importance as scholarship expands and other fostering conditions come to prevail more generally. Even in the small and tumultuous republics of Central America there are some valuable collections of books which, in the course of time, will be greatly augmented and prove a source of literary and national pride. Notwithstanding all the ups and downs of the Mexican republic during the century, she has, since the separation of church and state in 1857, evolved a creditable educational system, and built up many excellent libraries, especially in the capital, Mexico. The largest of these is the National, which contains over 100,000 volumes. [Illustration: JOHN RUSSELL YOUNG. First Librarian of New Library of Congress.] The growth of libraries in the United States during the nineteenth century has been phenomenal. If its leading libraries have not yet matched those of the old world in extent, they are, nevertheless, unique in their freshness, exceptional in their number, original in their systems, and most effective in their uses. And what is here said of the leading libraries is still more true of the smaller, for in no country has the library system so ramified as in the United States, and come down to such close touch with the people. Not only cities, towns, and even villages have their libraries, but States, schools, and myriads of special organizations, all of which are centres of culture and sources of literary pride.