The Internet wins again

[come_to_think]

In his charming essay "On Catholic and Protestant Skeptics" (1928; reprinted in Why I Am Not a Christian), Bertrand Russell calls Home Life with Herbert Spencer, by Two, "one of the most delightful books in existence".  I first harkened to that recommendation some decades ago, but of course the book was way out of print.  In 2006 & 2008 I made two attempts to extract it from the Harvard library.  The first one almost succeeded --- it was in the stacks, but was falling apart, so the man at the desk would not let me check it out; it had to be repaired first.  On the second attempt, I had to have it retrieved from a depository; the retrieval failed, and the book disappeared from the catalog.

It just occurred to me to google it, and sure enough, there it is: www.archive.org/stream/homelifewithherb00unknuoft#page/n0/mode/2up, a pleasantly readable photocopy of the printed book.  I have gotten to p. 70.  Stuffy people, those Victorians, but they managed to have a lot of fun & even conceive our grandparents.

It seems to me that the only reason to keep up libraries is that the Internet may well turn out to be too good to be true.