THE ADVANTAGES OF LIMITED MUSEUMS. 377 



supplied with books on American history, but wanting many in every 

 department ; or an archseological cabinet able to show all that can be 

 shown of the flint implements of the United States, but little else be- 

 sides, is of a higher order than one in which there are more and varied 

 specimens, but every class incomplete. What thoroughness is to the 

 intellect, completeness is to a museum ; one, an adequate knowledge of 

 whatever the mind professes specially to occupy itself with, its parts 

 and its relations ; the other, the possession of all the types, sorts, and 

 varieties in fullness, or books, that go to make up one or more classes. 

 If this view is correct, its practical acceptance may be insisted upon ; 

 for, if incorporated into a museum undertaking, not as a theory but 

 what should be realized, it would, by keeping before it a definite and 

 fixed aim, steady and direct effort into proper channels of activity, and 

 check hap-hazard collecting. 



It is the part of prudence to aim not at what may be theoretically 

 desirable or best, but at what is practicable. How feeble are the re- 

 sources, present and prospective, of any Western museum actually ex- 

 isting or likely to be foi-med ; how totally inadequate to extended 

 work ; how hopeless the prospect of their large increase ! On the other 

 hand, how numerous are the specimens in any one division of the ob- 

 jects of which a museum may be the repository ; how considerable is 

 the expense of bringing them together and of their preservation ! An 

 archaeological or a natural history collection, with its building and 

 equipments, moderately furnished with specimens, and including its 

 library, would probably represent a money value of hundreds of thou- 

 sands of dollars ; were either supplied with all that it properly includes, 

 its real value would be deemed fabulous. What hope is there in these 

 Western countries that an institution which attempted to cover the 

 whole field of archaeology, or of natural history, would ever be much 

 more than a very incomplete affair? And, if special museums are 

 practically fettered by such limitations, how much more general mu- 

 seums ! Therefore, it appears to me that no museum should attempt 

 to be more than a limited museum. 



Besides limiting the scope of a museum, whether it includes sev- 

 eral of the classes of objects that may find a place in its collections 

 or not, some subdivision of a class should be made a specialty ; for, 

 unless this be done, there is little likelihood of the museum ever pos- 

 sessing a department which will be complete. How immense, for in- 

 stance, is the number of individual objects necessary to represent, by a 

 single specimen, each of its kind, the animal kingdom, with its six 

 sub-kingdoms, their subdivisions, classes, orders, species, and varieties, 

 already known, from the dawn of animal life down to our own day, 

 besides species and varieties yet to be discovered ! It were useless to 

 compute what the formation of a complete natural history collection 

 involves. Under circumstances far more favorable than any Western 

 museum is likely to find itself in within a century, thi-ee generations 



