Page:The Duties and Qualifications of a Librarian (1780).djvu/41

Rh world, in the person of its librarian, none other than one of those privileged men, capable of proving himself, upon occasion, instructed to the same degree in profane as in sacred learning,—familiar with the researches of the highest erudition, and with the productions of a more ephemeral and less elevated literature.

Your librarian, gentlemen, is in some sort your official representative. To him is remitted the deposit of your glory. To him is intrusted, as a duty, the important mission of maintaining, and even of increasing, if that be possible, and as far as his ability will admit,—of increasing, I repeat, your brilliant reputation