Nature."   It continued in operation until 1891, when the proprietors gave their books to the Hingham Public Library.
   Both of these libraries were small as compared with collections of the present day, but the books were well selected for the purposes of miscellaneous reading rather than for reference.
   Other small libraries have existed in town from time to time, such as masonic, circulating, agricultural, and Sunday School libraries, and all have served to elevate the tone of Society and disseminate information.   They have been valuable aids to the general education of the community through many generations.

   But valuable as these early and smaller libraries were in their day and generation, the founding of the Hingham Public Library presents itself to our notice as a more important and permanent benefit to the town.   Its history has been told in two printed pamphlets and there is little need of extended remarks upon its usefulness beyond a record of the facts herewith presented.
   At the annual town-meeting held March 7, 1870, the following communication was presented to the town by order of the Trustees: —

   To the Inhabitants of Hingham, in Town Meeting assembled:

   The Trustees of the Hingham Public Library avail themselves of the first annual meeting for the transaction of business relating to Town