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 REFOEMED CHURCH SEMINARY PUBLICATIONS. NO. 1. 
 
 i 
 
 ITHE SAGE LIBRARY. 
 
 Tf 
 
 u:
 
 NOTi;S ON 
 
 THE SAGE LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Theological Seminary at New Brunswick, 
 
 
 
 J » •. J . « * 
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 » U I. 
 
 
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 3 
 
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 ) -1 i 1 1 t > , 
 
 
 
 JOHN 
 
 C. VAN 
 
 Librarian. 
 
 DYKE, 
 
 
 [Reprinted from t/ie '' Vhriniinn Tnldligencer"' of July Alh. llM and 
 
 \Wi, 1888.] 
 
 184& iteRARY 
 
 UmVERSlT'Y Of CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS AMCELES
 
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 • • 
 
 etc 
 
 • • • act 
 
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 • • «
 
 
 ^ 
 
 THE SAGE LIBEARY 
 
 Collected Sets, Eake Books, Incunabula 
 Manuscripts, Scrolls. 
 
 It is with uo little satisfaction and pride that the 
 Dutch domines who make occasional pilgrimages to 
 the Haram of the Church at New Brunswick, con- 
 template that fine collection of books known as the 
 Sage Library. The mental comparison between 
 the few volumes that formed the Seminary library 
 in their student days and the library of to-daj' 
 shows them, better than anj^ statistics, the growth 
 of the Church and the rank of scholarship now- 
 required of those who would be* her ministers, 
 cv^ The pride of the domine is honest and with a sub- 
 "^ stantial basis to rest upon ; for in its books, as in 
 ' its history, the Theological Seminary at New 
 ,j^ Brunswick stands second to none. Indeed, it is 
 1 the constant comment of students and scholars 
 "^ throughout the country that " the Sage Library- is 
 ^ tlie best working seminary library in the United 
 A States"; yet, as is often the case, the appreciation of 
 that fact has come to our own people last. The rec- 
 ognition from without has been hearty, and perhaps 
 a few descriptive notes regarding the chief trf asnres 
 of the collection may lead to a more intelligent 
 appreciation from within. 
 
 403776 
 
 \
 
 4 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 
 
 The history of the library is short, for the col- 
 lection is almost entirely of modei-n <^rowtli. Prior 
 to 1863, there was an omnium gdtJierwn of those 
 books without which no cleroyman's library was 
 complete. There were numerous copies of Marck, 
 Lampe, Van Til, Witsius, Ernesti, Rosenmviller, 
 Voet, in fact quite a number of the orthodox writers 
 of the seventeenth and ei^'hteeuth centuines, but 
 little besides. In 1863 the library received by 
 bequest 3,500 volumes from the library of Dr. 
 George W. Bethune — a most valuable accession. 
 For Dr. Bethune was a ripe scholar with a pen- 
 chant for rare books, and some of the volumes from 
 his library are to day among the most valuable in 
 the present collection. With the Bethune books the 
 library, at this time, numbered about 8,000 volumes 
 In 1870, Dr. James A. H. Cornell, as the agent of 
 the General Synod, succeeded in raising st)me 
 $55,000 for the immediate use of the library in the 
 purchase of bocjks. The expenditure of tliis sum 
 was placed in the hands of a committee of eight, 
 including the Samiaary Fa3ulty with Drs. Cham- 
 bers, Hartranft, Cooper, and Coi'win, and the careful 
 parchase of the best books was bagun and caiTied 
 on over a period of seven years. In 1873, Colonel 
 Gardner A. Sage, of New York, erected the tine 
 library bailding which now bears his name, and 
 eadL)wed it with funds not only for the necessary 
 expenses of the institution, but for the yearly pur- 
 chase of books. To-day the collection numbers 
 40,000 carefully selected volumes and something- 
 like 7,000 pamphlets, and is increasing, by purchase
 
 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 5 
 
 and donation, at the rate of nearly a thousand vol- 
 umes a year. 
 
 The committee on the selection of books very 
 wisely decided not to make the character of the 
 library exclusively theological, though they gave 
 theological and Biblical literature the first place. 
 Everything in that department that was considered 
 worth the ha\dng was promptly bought from the 
 book shops of Eui-ope, and especial cai'e was given 
 to securing the large collected editions of writings 
 which are yearly becoming harder to find in the 
 book markets. At the same time secular literature 
 in history, philosophy, philology, science, archaeol- 
 ogy, and the arts was not neglected. The best 
 books on every subject, whatever their point of view 
 and m whatever language written, were secured 
 with the central idea of making the institution a 
 thoroughly equipped working library for any man- 
 ner of man who might choose to use it. It was 
 fully recognized at the start that one branch of 
 knowledge cannot be advantageously studied with- 
 out many cross-references to entirely different 
 branches of knowledge, and for that purj)0se it was 
 tliought best to make the library strong in all 
 branches. Such was the design and such the ac- 
 com])lishn!ent. 
 
 In the large sets of collected writings the library 
 lias a notable gathering in many departments, be- 
 ginning- with the Migne edition of the Greek and 
 Latin Father.s, 381 vols.; the Scriptui'ae Sacrae 
 Cursus Com]iletus, 28 vols ; the Theologiae Cursus 
 Conipletus, 28 vols., and including many works like
 
 6 THE SACiE LIBRARY. 
 
 the Benedictiue edition of the Fathers, Gallandius 
 Bibliotheca Veteram Patrum, 14 fols.; Ugoliuus 
 Thesaurus, 34 fols.; BibHotheca Fratrum Polono- 
 rum, 10 fols.; Magnum Bullarium Romanum, 19 
 fols.; Acta Sanctorum, 62 fols.; the collections of 
 Marteae et Durand, Mabillon, D'Achery, Pezius, 
 Maio, and others ; the Corpus Inscriptionum Latin- 
 arum, 15 fols.; Muratorius Rerum Italicarum Scrip- 
 tores, 2 > fols.; Bibliotheca Classica Latina, 150 vols.; 
 Teubner edition of the Greek and Latin Classics, 
 220 vols.; Bohn's translations, 100 vols.; Didot 
 edition, 50 vols.; Corpus Scriptorum Historiae, By- 
 zantinae, 50 vols.; The British Poets, 130 vols ; 
 Oncken Allgemeine Weltgeschichte, 26 vols.; Early 
 English Text Society publications, 70 vols. Of the 
 collected writings of individual Latin authors of 
 mediaeval and modern times there are fine folio 
 editions of Albertus Magnus, Aquinas, S. Ephraem 
 Syri, Cardanus, Labbeus et Cossartius, Harduinus> 
 Cujacius, Picas, Gronovius, Graevius, Baronius- 
 Raynal, Ei'asmus, Cocceius, Fabricius, Gersonius, 
 Grotius, Calvin, Melancthon, Meursius, Zancbius 
 and others. In French literature the entire works 
 of writers run out almost indefinitely, including 
 Bonald, Bonnet, Bourdaloue, Cjndorcet, Condillac, 
 Diderot, Descartes, D'Alembert, Fenelon, Helvetius, 
 Lamennais, Malebranche, Massillon, Moliere, Mon- 
 tesquieu, Pascal, St. Pierre, Racine, Rousseau, Tur- 
 got, Volney, Voltaire, Cousin, Delambre, Laplace. 
 In the German the range of the library is even 
 wider, with collected sets of such writers as Baader, 
 Gellert, Feuerbach, Hei'bart, Herder, Goethe, Les-
 
 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 7 
 
 sing, Meudelssolm, the Miillers, Schleiermacher, 
 Schelling, Schiller, the Schlegels, Ruge, Schopen- 
 hauer, Tholuck, Fischer, Kant, Ritter, Hegel, Fichte, 
 and the long line of German philosophers. In Ital- 
 ian, Borghesi, Galileo, Bnfibn, Vigo, Tiraboschi, 
 and the Italian poets Dante, Ariosto, Boiardo, and 
 others of their time. 
 
 In Dutch literature the library is possibly bead 
 and shoulders over all the other libraries in the 
 country put together, the number of the volumes 
 running up into the thousands. Many of these 
 works have been collected from the Knickei'bocker 
 families througlK)ut the Middle States, and many 
 others have been purchased in Holland. There are 
 probably live hundred volumes that relate to the 
 history of the Church in the Netherlands, two hun- 
 dred that touch upon the Synod of Dort, and as 
 many more that deal with the Heidelberg Catechism. 
 The Dutch literature of a historical, theological, and 
 miscellaneous character is too extensive to admit of 
 description here. It cont.ains both modern and 
 ancient works and among them may be found many 
 volumes of rarity and value on account of their 
 engravings. 
 
 Of Oriental literature there is a goodly array of 
 Arabic books, l)y reason of that language being 
 taught in the Seminary. Many of them deal with 
 the Kuran in commentaries and with the history of 
 Mahomet ; many treat of Sufism and the Sufic poets> 
 the legends of Tamerlane, and Arabic astrononiy ' 
 many again are histories of various tribes, accounts 
 of ni;iiin(;rs ■•md customs, volumes of |)oetrv and
 
 8 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 
 
 stories. lu this department are some tweuty-five or 
 thirty Arabic and Coptic manuscripts, dating hack 
 some seven or eight hundred years, and giving the 
 forms of worship, the liturgies, hymns and ceremo- 
 nies of the Coptic churches of Egypt. In Hebrevs^ 
 such works as the Tahnuds, the Mischnah, the Tar- 
 gums, and all the ancient books of the Jewish peo- 
 ple are to be found in many forms, as well as the 
 Kabbalistic treatises like the Sohar and the Sefer 
 Jetsira. The Middle Ago writers, Kimchi, Eben 
 Ezra, Maimonides, and the philologists from Reuch- 
 lin all the way down to the Hitzigs, Fiirsts, and 
 Delitzchs. of today are, of course, fully represented, 
 as the Hebrew language and literature is an import- 
 ant feature of seminary study. The Syriac, Assy- 
 rian, Hieroglyphic and the Indian literatures are 
 mainly represented by the sacred books and the 
 texts prepared by contemporary scholars, of which 
 there are plenty and to spare. 
 
 The curious in manuscripts and innnnahula has 
 not been especially sought after by the libraiw book 
 committee, but much of it has come in in odd ways 
 and at different times. The oldest manuscript the 
 library j)ossesses is the Egyptian Book of the Dead, 
 written in the time of Moses. It was found in exca- 
 vating at Sakkara, on the Lower Nile, a few years 
 ago and secured to the librai-y by Dr. Gulian Lan- 
 sing, the missionary" in Egypt. It came, like all the 
 Egyptian papyri, rolled up in cylindrical form, and 
 measures forty-two feet in lengtli by seventeen inches 
 in width. It has been unrolled and " backed up " 
 on eighteen sheets of cardboard in order to preserve
 
 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 9 
 
 it. The ink of the writing and the colors employed 
 in some of the vignettes that accompany the text, 
 are as bright and fresh as though done yesterday. 
 Green is the only color that has proved destructive. 
 Wherever it has been used the papyrus is eaten 
 through. The nature and the purpose of the Book 
 of the Dead ava still mattei-.s of dispute among 
 Egyptologists, but sufficient is known of it to place 
 it among the mystical books of the Egyptian relig- 
 ion, endowed with supposed supernatural power. 
 Some chapters of it were always buried with the 
 mummy, evidently with the belief that it possessed 
 talismanic qualities in the warding olf of evil spirits. 
 Next in point of age to the papyrus come the Arabic- 
 Coptic manuscripts with their illuminated tests, and 
 then a cui-ious scroll of the Pentateuch written in 
 the unpointed Hebrew, dating back probably six or 
 seven hundred years. It is written on goat skins 
 stitched together and rolled on (cylinders, the whole 
 measuring one hundred and fifty feet in length. It 
 was purchased from a Jewish Rabbi in one of the 
 synagogues of Cairo by Dr. J. G. Lansing, of the 
 Seminary. 
 
 Of early printed books there are quite a number 
 that may be ranked as iiieu.aahala and perhaps a 
 half dozen that date back to 1480. The examples 
 of fine printing from the celebrated presses of Ko- 
 berger, Aldus, Froben, Elzevir, Stephen, and others 
 could not be counted cm one's fingers, nor tlie curious 
 history that accompanies them t ild in these few 
 pages. Several of them came from the lii)rary of 
 ^lelancthon and contain his marginal ncjtes; others
 
 10 THE SAGE LIBRAKY. 
 
 are still bound in their ancient bindings and are 
 blazoned with strange coats of arms ; and others 
 bear the library stamps and plates of Capuchin con- 
 vents and Jesuit colleges, their covers still clasped 
 .with brass and bearing upon a flaming circle sup- 
 ported by cherubs the name, " Jesus." 
 
 II. 
 
 The Theological and Religious Books. 
 
 In place of a long display of titles the statement 
 may be accepted that the Sage Library contains in 
 modern books almost everything of value in the dif- 
 ferent branches of study, and if these notes speak 
 of little known volumes, it is fo]' the very reason that 
 they are little known. One object of this publication 
 is to intimate to students where many of the origi 
 nal sources of knowledge may be found, and perhaps 
 the best waj of indicating what the library possesses 
 is to recite the titles of some of the rare books in 
 the various departments. 
 
 The field of ecclesiastical history is a large one. 
 The average student of to-day usually contents him- 
 self with the modern writers, Mosheim, Neander, 
 Hagenbach, Schaff ; but those v. ho seek the early 
 writers for reference and confirmati(m maj^ find the 
 necessary volumes in the Sage Libraiy. • Here one 
 may see the Greek historians, Eusebius, Socrates, 
 Theoderet, Sozemeu, and Evagrius, in many editions, 
 including the rare Stephens' edition (Paris, 1544:) ; 
 and also the later Greek historian, Nicephorus Cal- 
 listus, (2 fols., Paris, 1630,) known as "The Ecclesi-
 
 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 11 
 
 i 
 
 astical Thuc^ydides," from his elegance of style, and 
 also as " The Theological Pliny," because of the 
 strange stories that he tells. Among the medireval 
 historians are Cassiodorus, Bede, Gregory of Tours 
 Haimo, Anastasius, and of the Roman Catholic 
 writers who were stirred into activity by the Counter- 
 Reformation, Barouius with the continuations of 
 Raynal et al, the refutations of Causabon, Spanheim, 
 Basnage, and the collections of the Italian scholars, 
 Muratori, Gallandi, Zaccaria, Assemani, and Mai. 
 The French Catholic historians, many of theui noted 
 for their erudition and brilliancy of style, like Bos- 
 suet, Fleury, Natalis Alexander, Tillemont, Dupiu, 
 appear in the early editions, and beside these indi 
 vidual works there are the collections of the Bene 
 dictine editors, Mabillon, Montfaucon, D'Achery, 
 Martene, Durand, Fez. 
 
 Protestant Church history' properly begins with 
 the great work of Flaccius Illyricus and others, 
 called " The Magdeburg Centuries," of which the 
 original edition in thirteen folios (Basle, 1559,) is in 
 the librar}'. It is the great fountain-head from 
 which modern historians have filtered out special 
 treatises, and was the raison d'etre of the Barouius 
 Annales which was offered as a refutation of it. It 
 comprises thirteen centuries of church history, 
 devoting a volume to each century on the same plan 
 that Mosheim afterward adopted. Hottinger, 
 Spanheim, Ai'iiold, Schrockh, Venema, Henke, 
 Neander, and the more modern historians are, of 
 course, well represented. Upon general church 
 history the hbrary probably contains over two
 
 12 , THE SAGE LIBRARY. 
 
 tbousaucl volumes, and in special brandies as many 
 more. There are upwards of a hundred and fifty 
 church histories of England alone, and of France, 
 Germany, and America in the same relative propor- 
 tion. All the side branches, such as the history of 
 the councils (Labbe, Harduin, Hefele and others), 
 church discipline, heresies, controversies, sects, 
 denominations, are well supplied with the original 
 editions ; and, in fact, in this department of ecclesi- 
 astical history, the library is so rich that it would 
 require a special student to point out what few 
 books it may lack in completeness. 
 
 Exegesis and hermeneutics in their comprehen- 
 sive scope make up the largest department of the 
 library, several thousand volumes being devoted to 
 them. The Jewish, Patristic and Mediaeval exegetes 
 may be pa<-sed over without comment, though here 
 there are some rare editions of Augustine, Ambrose, 
 Jerome, Theophylactus, Aquinas, and others. Ex- 
 egesis took a new start in the sixteenth century 
 with the reformers Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, 
 Zwingli, Beza. It increased in the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries with Grotius, Vitringa, Poole, 
 Henry, and in the present century the commentators 
 and commentaries are almost beyond numbering. 
 The library possesses probably twenty-five hundred 
 volumes of exegetical and practical expositions on 
 the whole or the separate books of the Bible. 
 Hermeneutics, the science of interpretation or the 
 theory of exegesis, is of comparatively modern 
 origin. The founders of the science were Flacius, 
 Franz, Glassius, who were followed by Grotius,
 
 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 13 
 
 Bengel, Ei'uesti, Semler, Beck. In this century the 
 literature of the subject has expanded enormously, 
 especially in the hands of the Gei'maus, the great 
 modern book makers. These subjects, in connection 
 with Biblical introductions, Jewish antiquities, and 
 Biblical theolog}-, have attracted so much attention 
 of late, both in discovery and controversy, that 
 special care has been given to them, with the result 
 of having a complement of the best authorities. 
 
 To the esegetical <lepartment belongs a notable 
 collection of different versions and translations of 
 the Bible with the ftie similes and autotype repro 
 ductions of the principal codices such as the Alex- 
 andrian, Sinaitic, Vatican, and the Tischendorf texts 
 The priuted versions of the Bible in Greek, Hebrew, 
 Latin, Coptic, Arabic, Syriac and in almost all the 
 modern languages, fill an entire alcove and include 
 ever^-thing of critical value and many editions of 
 great rarity. Here also may be found the different 
 polyglot Bibles, the London, the Pai'is, the Beza, 
 the Bielefeld, the Bagster, the hexai^las, and the 
 more recent poh'glots of separate books. Of the 
 huge brass clas])ed folios in Dutch, without whicli 
 in the ancient days no Dutch family could properly 
 keep track of itself, the library lias a formidable 
 array, including several Elzevirs that have been 
 handed down from the Knickerbockers of Kew York 
 in whose families the Dutch ns a language has long- 
 since expired. The rare and the curious in printing 
 and binding appear here again in the Koburgcr 
 Latin Bibles with their illuminated initials iuid 
 hog skin covers; in the Widnianstadt edilicn <if
 
 14 
 
 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 
 
 the Peschito with the Svriac portion of the title 
 printed in black with red -vowel points ; in the 
 Anselni edition of the Greek (1521), in the rare 
 duodecimo of the ancient and modern Greek 
 (Hale-Saxon, 1710,) printed at the expense of 
 Sophia Louisa, Queen of Prussia ; in the Miinster 
 Hebrew Bible printed b}' Froben and prohibited by 
 the Papacy, the covers of which still bear the gold 
 lettering-, " S. H. M., 1561 " ; in the Bomberg He- 
 brew Bible (Venice, 1521.) with its curiously orna- 
 mented borders and capitals ; and in the scarce 
 Hebrew Bible of Hutter (Hamburg, 1588,) with the 
 radicals printed in black and the serviles hollow. 
 
 To the exegetical department also belongs a large 
 collection of dictionaries upon which the library 
 plumes itself somewhat. From the Hierogh'phic, 
 the Assyrian, the Sanskrit, the Chinese, the Hebrew, 
 and the Arabic, down to the English, the French, the 
 German, the Icelandic, the Russian, even the Vola- 
 piik of to-day, the list is very complete. Then there 
 are the pohglot lexicons, like that of Meninski in 
 Arabic, Persian and Turkish, Canes in Spanish, 
 Latin and Arabic, and the well-known heptaglot of 
 Castell. Many of the early dictionaries, those of 
 Reuchlin, Hesychius, Calepinus, may be found in 
 the original editions, and the Hebrew-Chaldee and 
 Greek lexicons would make a small library of them- 
 selves. The collecting of these volumes has taken 
 much time and patience, some of them having been 
 sought after for years before finding them. Only a 
 short time ago one of the important dictionaries, 
 an order for which had been sent out ten years
 
 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 15 
 
 ago, was picked up in China, thanks to our Dr. 
 Talmage of missionary fame. The grammars, like 
 the dictionaries, embrace almost every language 
 that possesses a literature. There are over two 
 hundred and fifty works on the Hebrew and the 
 Greek grammars alone, aside from the exegetical 
 and philological works that incidentally treat of 
 them, and in the other languages probably double 
 that number. The necessary text books to study 
 almost any language are at hand, and though, 
 as yet, there has been no student of the Romaic, the 
 Armenian, or the Tungalee inquiring for books, yet 
 when such a student does appear the library will be 
 prepared to supply his wants 
 
 The oldest volumes in the department of docti'inal 
 theology are the Sententiarum Libri of Peter Lom- 
 bard and the Summa Theologica of Alexander de 
 Ales, both works having been printed about 1480. 
 Lombard was the first of the scholastics to treat 
 dogmatics in a scientific way, though before him 
 Anselm, Eoscellin and Abelard had given- a new life 
 to theology by trying to reconcile it with philosophy. 
 Following him came Alexander de Ales, Albertus 
 Magnus, Aquinas, Bonaventura, Gabriel Biel, and 
 the mystics Eckart, Tauler. Gerson. The scholastic 
 theologians are well represented in fine editions, 
 some of them quite rare, but their works are little 
 referred to in these days except occasionally by some 
 special student or collector of rare printing. 
 
 Modern evangelical theology did not properly 
 begin until the time of Melancthon. All the works 
 of the writers of the Refoiination period, Luther,
 
 16 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 
 
 Calvin, Chemnitz, Himnius, Hutter, Gerhaidt, Qiien- 
 stedt, Calov, Halloz, Zwiugli, Bulliuger, Musculus, 
 may be found in fine copies, as well as the works of 
 the later writers, Keckerinan, Alsted, Altiug-, Bur- 
 mann, Heidanus, Heidegoer, Buddeus, Carzov, Eam- 
 bach, Michaelis, Doderlein, Morus, and, in opposition, 
 the Eoman Catholic writers, Bellarmin, Canisiiis, 
 Maldonat, Becan. It would be quite impossible to 
 enumerate the books of the moflern theok)giaus, 
 especially those of the Germans who write as though 
 time were of no consequence to either writer or 
 reader. This is also true of the svibjects of ethics, 
 historical theology, polemics, apologetics, confes- 
 sions, and the many sej^arate branches of systematic 
 theology. In this department of dogmatics more 
 than in any other shine the long rows of vellum, 
 especially among the Dutch books, and many of th.e 
 bindings, fresh and perfect as when first made, still 
 bear coats of arms, devices and inscriptions some- 
 what like a folio copy of Calvin's Institutes, which 
 has around* a ducal crown the motto in gold letters : 
 " ILrni soit qui mal y pense." 
 
 Of the large library of books devoted to pastoral 
 theologv and homiletics the majority are of modern 
 oi'igin. The Fathers treated these subjects slightly, 
 and not until after the Reformaticm were there 
 books of consequence put forth upon them. Eras- 
 mus, IMelancthon, and principally Hyperius founded 
 the science of homiletics. These, with such authors 
 as Chemnitz, Bamhach, Gaussen, Claude, Vitringa, 
 Fenelon, and all the modern writers, from both the 
 German and the Anglo American jDoint of view, fur-
 
 THE SAGE LIBEAKY. 
 
 17 
 
 iiish a department which is probabty more faithfully 
 studied in the Seminar}- than any other. The ser- 
 mons of the famous preachers number nearly fifteen 
 hundred volumes, and in this connection it is worth 
 while to mention some four hundred sermons in 
 pamphlet form, all dating- back in the seventeenth 
 and eighteenth centuries, from the library, of Dr. 
 Bethune : and a collection of about one hundred and 
 eighty sermons preached throughout the United 
 States on the death of President Garfield, presented 
 to the library by Dr. T. W. Chambers. The litera- 
 ture of liturgies, worship and hymnology is very 
 extensive, but has not a great many rare or scarce 
 volumes, with the exception of Goar, Assemani, 
 Clichtoveo, Daniel, and some few others. The libra- 
 r}" is very thoroughly equipped in this department, 
 especially in that which relates to Dutch church ser- 
 vice, h^'mns and prayer books. In Reformation 
 days, .when the persecutors terrorized the Nether- 
 lands, spies listened at doors and windows, and to 
 sing the Eeformation music at evening worship was 
 pretty sure to be attended by direful consequences ; 
 but the wily Dutchman set the Psalms of David to 
 popular airs, and the spies hearing only the latter 
 passed on thinking all was well. These hymn 
 books, with tlieir popular music and sacred words, 
 stand upon the shelves of the Sage Library to-day, 
 as silent witnesses to the strong faith of the Dutch 
 during that fierce hail of persecution which culmina- 
 ted with Alva.
 
 18 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 
 
 III. 
 
 Philological, Historical, Scikntific and 
 Art Books. 
 
 Tliis last paper has been resei'ved for a i-amble 
 among- the books in the secuLir department of the 
 library, though the attempt to describe them in so 
 short a space mast of necessity be attended by in- 
 complete results. 
 
 When it is said that there are upwards of two 
 hundred histories of England, and that the histori- 
 cal works of other connti'ies are in proportion, it will 
 be understood that the library possesses about all the 
 historical treatises of a general nature worth possess- 
 ing, from Herodotus and Diodorus to Bancroft and 
 Freeman. And these deal not with Europe and 
 America alone, but with Egypt, Assyria, India, 
 Japan. All modei-n books that in any way throw 
 light upon Bible lands or Bible times are obtained 
 as soon as issue;!. Egyptology is a special branch, 
 for the Hierogh'phic is an optional stud}' in the 
 Seminary. All the dictionaries, grammars, texts, 
 inscriptions, fac similes ; all the works of the great 
 Egyptologists, ChamiDolion, Lepsius, Erugsch, Eiich, 
 Duemichen, Mariette, Sayce ; all the histories, trav- 
 els, and explorations, have been gathered together 
 fr.)m the book markets of Europe, and it is only in 
 special treatises and exhibits that this department 
 lacks completeness The alcove devoted to inscrip- 
 tions is well tilled, embracing as it does fac similes 
 and readings of the Assj'rian, Arabic, Cufic, Coptic, 
 Greek and Latin, with many photographic and col-
 
 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 19 
 
 ored pliites bound in huge elephant folios requir- 
 ing sejj.arate cases to hold them. 
 
 The subject of travels is another extensive one, 
 the tours in Palestine alone embracing several hun- 
 dred volumes. And here may be found some rare 
 publications, the black letter edition of Hakluyt's 
 Voyaoes (1599), the Cook voyages, Denon, Forbes, 
 Harris, Pocock, Clarke, Bruce, Pennant, Kerr, Dib- 
 din, Maundevile, Irby and Mangles, Kaempfer, Mar- 
 co Polo, etc. By the side of the early volumes of 
 travel from which Moore culled the data of Lalla 
 Rookh aud Beckford his Vathek, stand the more 
 reliable modern works of Burton, Burckhardt, Pal- 
 mer, Niebuhr, and the Schlagenweits The books 
 of travel relating to America comprise many of the 
 pioueer narratives, the Jesuit Relations, the Margry 
 Meiiioires, the Memoires D'Amerique, the Kalm 
 Travels, and the Dutch accounts of the early settle- 
 ments in this country. 
 
 There are over three thousand volumes of biogra- 
 phy and letters, embracing the lives of all kinds and 
 luanners of men, without including the collected sets 
 of works like the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. 
 Here again are books seldom met with, such as the 
 Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum attributed to Hutten, 
 tlie Icones Virorum IlUistrium of Beza, and the 
 Vitae Eruditorum of Adam, from which Bayle, Bail- 
 let, and others compiled so many of their encyclopedic 
 articles. Of ccnirse modern biography is well cared 
 for. for there is no more entertaining, instructive 
 and well-read branch of literature than that which 
 relates tlie experiences of men.
 
 20 THE SAGE LIBKARY. 
 
 la works on macbauics the libraiT is intentionally 
 weak, that subject not being at all in the line of 
 study pursued in the Seminary. In all that relates 
 to natural science it is, on the contrary, quite strong, 
 especially in matters trenching upon evolution, eth- 
 nology, geology, and the relations of science and 
 religion. The Huxley s, Darwins, Tyndales, Clif- 
 fords, whatever may be their views, are kept on the 
 shelves and opposite to them stand the apologetic 
 works, of Avhich there are hundreds, that cross 
 swords with science, especially on the evolution 
 theory. Zoology, botany, ornithology, and natural 
 history in general are fairly complete with some i-are 
 volumes, such as the original double elephant folio 
 edition of Audubon's Birds of America (a presenta- 
 tion copy from the author to the father-in-law of 
 Col. Sage, through whom it came to the library), 
 Bufiton complete in 40 vols., Paxton's Magazine of 
 Botany illustrated with colored plates, and Wilson's 
 Birds. 
 
 The department of the fine arts is well stocked 
 with many valuable and beautifully bound volumes, 
 embracing all the works that any student could rea- 
 sonably desire. There are nearly a thousand vol- 
 umes of poetry and the drama, including rare edi- 
 tions- of Sidney, Milton, Akenside, Spenser, and 
 others. English poetry predominates, though not 
 exclusively so. Almost all the German, French, 
 Italian, Latin, and Dutch poets appear in the differ- 
 ent languages, and there are fine copies of Herdfr, 
 Klopstock, Marot, Villon, Hugo, Vidae. Painting 
 and sculpture form a conspicuous department by
 
 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 21 
 
 reason of the lari^e illustrated volmnes and their 
 artistic bindings. It is quite complete, especially in 
 the modern French and German writers on art, 
 such as Perrot and Chipiez, Gavard, Gautier, Mantz. 
 Veron, Schnasse. Ltibke, Kiig-ler, Wincklemann, 
 Miiller. The great history of Early Christian Art, 
 with several volumes of plates by Garruci, the work 
 on the Catacombs by De Rossi, the folios of Japan- 
 ese Art by Anderson, the volumes of Paul Lacroix, 
 and those of D'Agincourt, Wincklemann, and Champ- 
 lin are worthy of special mention. The English 
 writers on art of the Ruskin school are also repre- 
 sented, but unfortunately they are more remarkable 
 for their brilliant rhetoric than for their sound ideas. 
 The books on architecture are extensive and valu- 
 able fi'ora their illustrations, especially in those vol- 
 umes which attempt the restoration of ancient cities 
 and buildings, such as Place's Ninive et L'Assyrie, 
 Botta's Monument de Ninive, Lepsius Denkmiiler, 
 Gailhabaud, Dugdale, Viollet le Due, Stuart, Dart, 
 Britton, Pugin. The subject is closely related to 
 that of excavations and archaeological researches, re- 
 garding which there are many publications of scien- 
 tific expeditions, such as those of Oppert, Uenan, 
 Mover, Conze, Reiss andStiibel, and others, with tin; 
 older w(n"ks of Montfaucon, Ciampini, Spence Gro- 
 novius, Graevius, Gell, Layard, Schliemann. Nu- 
 mismatics, engraved gems and stones form a library 
 (jf themselves, and here may be found a com])leto 
 copy of that rare set of books, Mioimet'sDescri|)tion 
 de Medailles Antiques, valued at several hundred 
 dollars, two copies of Visconti's Iconographie
 
 22 THE SAGE LIBRARY, 
 
 Grecque et Romain with the plates, beside the other 
 well-known authorities such as Bockh, Cavedoni, 
 King, Saulcy, Eckhel. 
 
 Thanks in great part to the generosity of a New 
 York lady, the library possesses some hundred or 
 more volumes on Music, its theory and practice ; 
 and thanks to the liberal views of its committee on 
 selection, it also possesses a number of the complete 
 sets of the best novelists, — De Foe, Scott, Thackeray, 
 Hawthorne, Dickens, George Eliot, Kingsley, Ebers, 
 Wallace, George Sand, Hugo, Jean Paal. The es- 
 sa^dsts and writers of what, for lack of a better 
 name, is called general literature, baffle all descrip- 
 tion None of the works is very rare, yet all of 
 them go to make up a much-read and undoubtedly 
 profitable class of books. The historians of litera- 
 ture are again innumerable and again their books 
 are not very rare, except in the Arabic department, 
 where such works as those of Al-Makkari and Ham- 
 mer-Purgstall, with some manuscript histories of the 
 Arabian poets, are of more than ordinary worth* 
 Tiraboschi's Storia della Letteratura Italiana and 
 Schoell's Histoire de la Grecque Profane, though 
 iuvalualile to the student of literature, are not rare 
 from a bookseller's point of view. 
 
 The philosojDhical department (not including the 
 classical writings, of which there are over two thous- 
 and volumes) is well supplied with the works of all 
 the German, French, and English philosophers, and 
 thf*re are interesting groups of books on side sub- 
 jects, such as theosophy and mysticism. Here are 
 the works of those ancients of which one sees so
 
 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 28 
 
 much iu vague reference and knows so little about 
 in reality, — Arnold. Tauler, Gerson, Bulnue, Galen, 
 Molinos, Madame Guyon. Another step brings us 
 before the writings of those still more famous men 
 who taught the kabbala and practiced alchemy and 
 magic, Paracelsus, John Pico Count of Mirandula, 
 Reuchlin, Cornelius Agrippa. The literature of the 
 uncanny, the history- of oracles, witchcraft, demo- 
 nology, and mediaeval wonders, if not of much prac- 
 tical worth, is at least interesting and the library 
 has plenty of it. Metaphysics, mental science, logic, 
 and b loks of that class are for the mcin of modern 
 origin, and it is only necessary to state that the 
 library has a complement of them. There are sev- 
 eral hundred volinnes on civil and ecclesiastical law, 
 including such works as Cujacius (13 fols.), Justel, 
 Bracton, the Corpus Juris Civilis, and the Corpus 
 Juris Canonici, works which, it may be safely said, are 
 not consulted hiuch by the average Americnn law 
 student. In this department, as in merliciiie, the 
 attempt has not been to make a complete library, 
 but only to obtain those general works and treatises 
 on the literature of the subjects which serve as in 
 troductions to speci;)l study. 
 
 In reference books it lias Ijeen the aim to secure 
 almost everything of value. Encyclopedic knowl- 
 edge is [irimarily the demand of the age, ami posi 
 five knowledge about sine one thing is perlia])s not 
 so useful as general knowledge of where things may 
 be fiiuiid ill l)o()ks. The encyclopedia is in<lis]^ensa 
 blf if for no otlua" reason than tliat it jioints (Uit the 
 literature of a sul)ject. It is tlic starting jioiiit from
 
 24 
 
 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 
 
 which the study of a subject begius. The library 
 has a fine group of them iu English, German, 
 French, Dutch, and Latin, including the Bayle, the 
 Bi-ockhaus, the Hertzog-Phtt, the Eotteck-Welcker, 
 the Van der Aa, the Larousse, the Diderot (35 fols.), 
 the Moreri, not to mention the hundreds of encyclo- 
 pedias on special branches. Bibliography is quite 
 as well maintained, for this is the index of any libra- 
 ry', the mariner's compass of all literature. Without 
 it one is entirely at sea. By its aid any branch of 
 knowledge may be traced to its source and all the 
 literature of it opened before one. It not only tells 
 what has been written upon certain subjects ; it 
 gives the value of books, the best editions, and 
 where obtainable ; and in the pui'chase, as well as 
 the practical use of a library, it is quite indispensa- 
 ble. 
 
 Periodical literature, now that it has been prop- 
 erty indexed by Dr. Poole, is becoming a great work- 
 ing department for those who want an epitome of 
 facts and not an encyclopedia of rhetoric. Here 
 again the library is strong with about seventy of the 
 leading periodicals of America, England, France, 
 and Germany. They are kept on file until the vol- 
 umes are completed and are then bound and placed 
 upon the shelves. Many of the famous reviews are 
 complete from their beginning, notabl}' the Gentle- 
 rnait's 3faf/fiziti e'daiing back to 1731. 
 
 The whole library is catalogued upon cards ar- 
 ranged in long trays and the entries are under auth- 
 or, title, subject, and class, so that one has little 
 difficulty in finding what he wants provided he has
 
 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 25 
 
 the remotest idea of his subject. A great many 
 callers have not this "remotest idea," lut str.'ugely 
 enough fancy the librarian a mind rerder vvho cnn 
 tell them what thev want by looking at them. 
 Sometimes a librarian is able to do this, but he ch es 
 not find the rule a good one for universal applica- 
 tion. The shelf arrangement is entirely by sub- 
 jects, and in the theological department is designed 
 to supplement the course of instruction in the Semi 
 narv, the literature of each chair being bv itself. 
 There are forty two alcoves, each one having a nura- 
 bex", and the reference is made from the catalogues 
 to the numbers. Within the alcove the subjects are 
 indicated by labels, and as there are not more than 
 half a dozen subjects in each alcove, there is little 
 difiSculty in finding what is desired. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Needs of the Library. 
 
 In this place it may not be inappropriate to sug- 
 gest in what way those pei'sons who are interested 
 in the Church and her institutions may aid in still 
 further strengthening this fine collection of books. 
 The needs of the library are briefly these : 
 
 First : The publications, whether in book or 
 pamphlet form, of the ministers and members of the 
 Church. As a matter of record copies of publica- 
 tions by our own men should be in the Sage Library 
 
 40377G
 
 26 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 
 
 and it is confident!}' hoped that each alumnus will take 
 S'lfficient interest in the library to forward to it a 
 complete set of his publications, if the}' be not there 
 already. 
 
 Second: All publications relating to the history 
 of the Dutch Cluu'ch in general or the individual 
 churches, such as historical sermons, biographical 
 sketches, funeral discourses, year-books, inaugural 
 addresses, and monographs of ever}' kind. Here 
 again the genercjsity of the author is appealed to. 
 
 Third : Books in the Dutch language. The only 
 considerable collection of Dutch literature in Ameri- 
 ca is with this institution, where it forms a special 
 feature The families of Dutch extraction wherein 
 the language has been lost but the books preserved 
 could easily afford to add such volumes to the main 
 collection here. It is not desirable to have duplicate 
 copies of general works, and it would therefore be 
 advisable to write to the Librarian stating what 
 could be given before forwarding the books. 
 
 FoDRTH : Rare, old, out of print, and little used 
 books. There are some of these in almost every 
 household which, because of their being printed in 
 foreign or dead languages, are perhaps of no practi- 
 cal value to their possessors. The Sage Library is 
 the proper place for them. It is impossible to say 
 at what moment some scholar will find himself in 
 great need of just such works and he would naturally 
 seek them in such an institution as this. 
 
 Fifth : Money for the purchase of books. The 
 endowments of the hbrary are not sufficient to keep
 
 THE SAGE LIBRARY. 27 
 
 it as fully abreast of the times iu contemporary lit 
 eratare as could be wished for, and there are many 
 desirable books of ancient date too costh' to be pur- 
 chased out of the present income. A fund that 
 would yield one thousand dollars a year would be of 
 great benefit. 
 
 . Sixth : Ten thousand dollars for a wing to the 
 present building to accommodate the increase of the 
 library. Some of the departments are already un- 
 comfortably crowded and, in a very few years at the 
 outside, books will have to be heaped upon the floor 
 unless additional accommodations are furnished. 
 For the sum named an annex capable of holding 
 twenty-five thousand volumes could be built. It is 
 hoped that some genei'ous friend of the Chvu-ch will 
 in this way facilitate the growth and prosperity of 
 what promises to be one of the finest theological 
 libraries in America.
 
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