[p. 79] that a Committee should now be chosen to decide on the admissibility of such books as may be offered, and that, that Committee shall have the power to receive or reject them as they shall think proper.
All the subscribers to the Library ought, in the opinion of your Committee, to have a voice in the disposal and management of it.
They therefore say nothing at present of rules and regulations for its government.
This can be done much more properly and with equal convenience when a competent number of subscribers shall be obtained for the purpose.
August 20, 1825.
For the Committee,
J. Porter, Chrm.
Some amiable discussion took place among the brethren after the reading of this report.
It was thought by some that the committee had construed too liberally their powers, the plan of a religious library having been submitted by their pastor and already approved by a unanimous vote of the church, and that the committee had proposed a material enlargement of that design, and that their propositions required consideration.
Some were for adhering to the original scheme, and apprehended that on the plan newly proposed too wide a door would be opened for the admission of books to the library, and that a taste for speculative, perhaps unprofitable and polemic reading would be encouraged.
The pastor, however, expressed himself satisfied with the alteration, or more properly the enlargement, of the plan of the library; and left it optional with the brethren whether to confine his donation to the founding a religious library, as first contemplated, or to apply it for the purpose of setting on foot one of a more general character.
The discussion resulted in the postponement of a further consideration of the report until the next Friday (September 2) after the lecture.
Sept. 2, 1825.
The brethren met by adjournment, when the committee who reported on the 28th ult.
