22 MAY 1915, Page 13

LOUVAIN AND ITS LIBRARY. [To THE EDITOR Op THY •

firer...ma" J Son,—Yes, there are hundreds of solitary souls scattered up and down the British Isles—poor scholars, men and women with no money and little " gear "—who will welcome with joy and gladness this opportunity of contributing their mite towards the rebuilding of the walls and the refilling of the shelves and cases of the old-world library at Louvain. We have no "First Folios," no priceless Homers, no Mazarin Bibles, but many of us have our own treasures, mostly University prizes, books beautiful, and in some instances valuable, and these, or the choicest of these, we shall pass on gladly to help in the reconstruction and restoration of that desecrated and devastated home of learning. Many of us have been thinking of this for months, but, having so little to offer, hesitated in writing to you. Let it be known widely through many channels to whom we should send our offers. It were grievous to part with what to us is invaluable if the volumes were only to be thrown aside ; if, on the other hand, they would or could be made use of in the great work of restitution and restoration, then it will be not only a duty but a very great privilege to get passing them on ; as an act of piety, as our way of expressing our horror and indignation at what has taken place in the name of German Sutter. What a hideous, hateful creature man can become, what a wild beast, if he has nothing to guard him and guide him but a thin veneering of intellectual culture! In this darkest hour, in this most terrible day, from Highland glen and the loneliest of lonely places, we neverthe- less waft to the University authorities at Louvain our heartfelt, God-inspired suntan cords, for the day of their redemption draweth near.—I am, Sir, die., ANDREW Harman. The Manse, inverheitor, Forfarshire.