562 OBITUARY NOTICE OF future. This donation entitles this distinguished individual to a rank among the most liberal of benefactors to public chanties. Up to this time, the Society had no funds, no librarian, no catalogue of books, and scarcely any thing that resembled order or arrangement in its hall. This was necessarily incident to an inability to compensate services. The donation of Mr. Thomas, upon his death, in 1831, en- abled the Society to commit the library to the care of a librari- an. It required high qualifications to fill this office to accep- tance ; as the incumbent must assume responsibilities, and discharge duties, which called, in an eminent degree, for ex- tensive learning, an affable deportment, and the most toilsome labors. With reference to these considerations, Mr. Baldwin was selected ; and he, without hesitation, abandoned his profession, and accepted the trust, at the moderate salary of six hundred dollars a year. From that time, until his death, he has been a most faithful officer, surpassing any expectations entertained of his capacity antecedent to his election. Great and disheartening as the labors before him were, he overcame them. Where disorder reigned, the most perfect method now meets the eye ; where, piled in a confused state, were thousands of pamphlets and newspapers, we now see many neatly bound and well-arranged volumes, constituting a most valuable collection of periodicals and occasional publica- tions. The catalogue of books, which is nearly ready for publica- tion, is, of itself, a monument of industry. It required incred- ible labor, as it descends to a minuteness of detail, that makes it almost equal to a general index to the entire contents of the library. It consists of a folio of more than five hundred pages. During the same period, he has kept the library open to the learned and the unlearned, and, by his felicitous deportment, so commended the interests of the Society to the friendly re- gards of visiters and their friends, that the library has been augmented to about twelve thousand volumes, chiefly by gratu- ities, many of which are works of rare occurrence and singular value. Indeed, visiters, who feel much respect for such institu- tions, have seldom taken their leave without rewarding his cour- tesy, by sending to the Society some book, or manuscript, that had been treasured up as a family relic.
