No false sentimentality regarding the memory of its former custodians, Leibnitz and Lessing, should hinder this project.
Lessing himself would have been the first to urge that the library and its utility should be considered above all things." The collection of books at Wolfenbuttel is simply magnificent, and I cannot but hope the above report was exaggerated.

Were these books to be injured for the want of a small sum spent on the roof, it would be a lasting disgrace to the nation.

There are so many genuine book-lovers in Fatherland that the commission of such a crime would seem incredible, did not bibliographical history teem with similar desecrations.[1] [1] This was written in 1879, since which time a new building has been erected.
Water in the form of vapour is a great enemy of books, the damp attacking both outside and inside.

Outside it fosters the growth of a white mould or fungus which vegetates upon the edges of the leaves, upon the sides and in the joints of the binding.

It is easily wiped off, but not without leaving a plain mark, where the mould-spots have been.