As to the motive which prompts this effort, some call it love of fame, but it is, in truth, love of the work. But if it were for fame? It must be good and conscientious work to bring fame. A man has a just right to take to himself credit for having carried to successful completion a noble enterprise; for having done something which in the nature of things must benefit others. His love of approbation is his point d'appui, in undertaking at his own risk that which if he failed in doing would involve him in heavy loss of money arid reputation. It is a sort of highwayman's spirit which says to a man who is doing all that is possible to earn the praise of his fellow-men, that he shall renounce the pleasure of fame or the profits of his investment, whether it be in money, or the approbation of the public, or both.
If any man in California who is worth a million of dollars should devote half of it at his death to the establishment of an institution for the development of special talents in the people, the promotion of useful research, the preservation of charities, or the founding of manufactories which should give employment where it is needed, no one would doubt the justice of giving that institution the name of the founder, or of writing him into fame in elaborate biographies; for these things address themselves at once to the selfishness of people.
In a work like that for which the Bancroft Library was created—itself a monument to the intellectual qualities of its founder—there can only be success. The material, talent, culture, and will power are combined to produce the results aimed at. The same good judgment, foresight, and determination which have enabled him to make the handsome fortune that has been invested in the work are important factors in the work itself. The day has gone past when to produce good literary work a man must be only a book-worm, or live in a garret. "Attic salt" does not always come from an attic; and if Mr. Bancroft has shown us, at his own cost, how to do the work of two or three life-times in one, he has certainly done us an important service.
But it is not the "History of the Pacific States" alone which will be evolved out of the Bancroft collection. If it is desired by any one hereafter to write a book on any one of a hundred different topics, here is the material, with the references already made, the subject indexed, ready to the writer's hand. What a splendid arrangement for a journalist! Do you wish to know about government, soils, climates, agriculture, manufactures, races of man, railroads, routes, Indian affairs, antiquities, church matters, discoveries, explorations, surveys, and a hundred other things—nothing is easier than to get it by the method pursued here. And with every month hundreds of books are being added, which will contribute their share to the mass of matter already annotated.
I have said nothing about a large number of miscellaneous books of travel, adventure, and even fiction, which, because they contain some item of use to the library, are accorded a place on its shelves; but the general reader would find plenty of entertainment without troubling his brain with statistics, or vexing his soul with undertaking to solve a knotty question as to the rights of nations. He may find photographs of celebrated places, and likenesses of California pioneers, with other pictures, and a few curios, accidental adjuncts of the library; but being a working institution, there is not a great deal about it to amuse the idler.
Such as I have described it, a special historical collection, for a special purpose, it is remarkable, and highly creditable to the State which contains it, as a proof of the vigor and intellectuality of its leading citizens, eminent among whom will always be the name of the founder of the Bancroft Library.
Frances Fuller Victor.
