218 EDINBURGH NEWS NOTES. [Aug. 



answered in tlie first way, which was its object at its origin, by 

 a less exchisive attention to medicine and morpholoLjy. If Govern- 

 ment accepts private aid for it in the gift and continuance of its 

 library from the Botanical Society, may it not enlarge the pre- 

 cedent ? If not, Edinburgh sorely lacks a free public library. 

 Tlie taxpayers have more than once declined to take advantage 

 of the Acts of Parliament to originate such an institution. Many 

 think that with the advantages of the Advocates' and other public 

 libraries, district libraries would answer the city needs better 

 than a great' public institution. Nov/, the Botanical Society's 

 library at the Eoyal Botanic Garden already serves the purposes 

 of a free library ; another similar place of literary instruction will 

 soon be given to the public at the Museum of Science and Art ; 

 could the Museum of Forestry and Library find a local habitation 

 through the liberality of the Town Council somewhere in East 

 Princes Street Gardens, a series of such local libraries would be 

 instituted. Of course there would be no novels or poems, but 

 then foresters never stoop down to, but always lead up, the public 

 taste. The place, too, would be near such displays of horticulture 

 as the periodic flower shows, the last of which in July with its 

 gorgeous rose display I can only now note. And country 

 foresters would not experience the somewhat inconvenient distance 

 from railways involved in a visit to the Botanic Garden. 



Mr. Euskin has nobly departed from the ordinary type of things 

 by confining the St. George's IMuseum at Sheffield to a modest 

 cottage, to be visited by real students. The following is part of 

 what is printed on the notice-board : " A Museum is, be it 

 observed, primarily, not at all a place of entertainment, but a 

 place of education. And a Museum is, be it secondly observed, 

 not a place of elementary education, but for that of already far- 

 advanced scholars. And it is by no means the same thing as a 

 parish school, or a Sunday school, or a day school, or even — the 

 Brighton Aquarium," 



A resting-place like this in Princes Street, serving as a rendezvous 

 for foresters and horticulturists, would thus serve a different purpose 

 than Chambers Street Museum, whose forest gallery is at present 

 worthy of a fresh visit. Of course you ask me what of the pro- 

 fessor, and his University connection. All well, — if obtainable ; if 

 not, demonstration classes might fill meanwhile the educational 

 void. But this is only the opinion of Dixi. 



