I have been informed, that in Oxford (where the most famous Librarie now exstant amongst Protestant-Christians is kept,) the setled maintenance of the Librarie-keeper is not above fiftie or sixtie pound per annum; but that it is accidentally, viis & modis somtimes worth an hundred pound:  what the accidents are, and the waies by which they com, I have not been curious to search after; but I have thought, that if the proper emploiments of Librarie-keepers were taken into consideration as they are, or may bee made useful to the advancement of Learning; and were ordered and mainteined proportionally to the ends, which ought to bee intended thereby; they would bee of exceeding great use to all sorts of Scholars, and have an universal influence upon all the parts of Learning, to produce and propagate the same unto perfection.  For if Librarie-keepers did understand themselvs in the nature of their work, and would make themselvs, as they ought to bee, useful in their places in a publick waie; they ought to becom Agents for the advancement of universal Learning:  and to this effect I could wish, that their places might not bee made, as everie where they are, Mercenarie, but rather Honorarie; and that with the competent allowance of two hundred pounds a year; som emploiments should bee put upon them further then a bare keeping of the Books.  It is true that a fair Librarie, is not onely an ornament and credit to the place where it is; but an useful commoditie by it self to the publick; yet in effect it is no more then a dead Bodie as now it is constituted, in comparison of what it might bee, if it were animated with a publick Spirit to keep and use it, and ordered as it might bee for publick service.  For if such an allowance were setled upon the emploiment as might maintain a man of parts and generous thoughts, then a condition might bee annexed to the bestowing of the Place; that none should bee called thereunto but such as had approved themselvs zealous and profitable in som publick waies of Learning to advance the same, or that should bee bound to certain tasks to bee prosecuted towards that end, whereof a List might bee made, and the waie to trie their Abilities in prosecuting the same should bee described, least in after times, unprofitable men creep into the place, to frustrate the publick of the benefit intended by the Doners towards posteritie.  The proper charge then of the Honorarie Librarie-Keeper in a Universitie should bee thought upon, and the end of that Imploiment, in my conception, is to keep the publick stock of Learning, which is in Books and Manuscripts to increas it, and to propose it to others in the waie which may bee most useful unto all; his work then is to bee a Factor and Trader for helps to Learning, and a Treasurer to keep them, and a dispenser to applie them to use, or to see them well used, or at least not abused; And to do all this, First a Catalogue, of the Treasurie committed unto his charge is to bee