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Excerpt from Systematic Catalogue of Books in the Collection of the Mercantile Library Association of the City of New York: With a General Index, and One of Dramatic Pieces; Together With an Appendix Library Association, its directors think it well to prefix a succinct account of the origin, progress, and present state of the institution. The persuasion, that to liberalize the minds of that great body of young men who form the rising hope of our active and varied coma merce; to enlarge and invigorate their capacity by solid knowledge; to elevate their spirits and their morals by familiarizing their uro ments of leisure with whatever is fair in the actions of Other times or excellent in science, was the truest method of advancing, not only their individual respectability, but their utility to others and their own ultimate success, led the clerks in general, of new-york, to set on foot, in the year 1820, the existing association. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.