286 The Oxford Museum, 



Woolner ; while the statues of Aristotle, Hippocrates, Cuvier, 

 Davy, Watt, are either unassigned, or apportioned to Mr. Munro. 

 Statues are still wanted of Archimedes, Euclid, Pliny, Copernicus, 

 Franklin, Hersehel, Lagrange, Laplace, — of Black, Dalton, Ste- 

 phenson, — of Bell, Harvey, Hunter, Jussieu, and Sydenham, — and 

 what to ancient Oxford Dons must be a sad shock, a statue of 

 Priestley. 



Anatomy occupies the north, — that is, the coolest side. To 

 the south, where there is most light, is a large and airy domicile 

 for Chemistry, and an open area for experiments, — while on the 

 south-west are spacious lecture-rooms, and on the ground-floor a 

 laboratory, modelled from the Abbot's kitchen, at Glastonbury. 

 Our description of the museum is complete when we have men- 

 tioned the curator's house, — a beautiful example of Gothic, occu- 

 pying the eastern angle. 



Thus the Museum is, as Prof. Phillips describes it, — not " a 

 haphazard collection of pretty stones crowned by pretty flowers," 

 but a building at once apt and expressive. 



The little volume which has served as our text consists of a 

 Lecture delivered by Dr. Acland — two letters by Mr. Ruskin — 

 and a letter of Prof. Phillips, the Curator, each giving his opi- 

 nion on the wants or aim of the building. Mr. Raskin, who here 

 appears as the advocate of the practical, praises the beauty of the 

 windows, hints at the healthiness of physical studies, and the pro- 

 bable influence of science upon the industry of the age. The 

 general barrenness of the facade, is with him a subject of complaint 

 and the want of ornament on the windows. He dissuades from 

 the use of color at present. Sculpture finds great favour : — 



M As the building stands at present, there is a discouraging as- 

 pect of parsimony about it. One sees that the architect has done 

 the utmost he could with the means at his disposal, and that just 

 at the point of reaching what was right, he has been stopped for 

 want of funds. This is visible in almost every stone of the edifice. 

 It separates it with broad distinctiveness from all the other build- 

 ings in the University. It may be seen at once that our other 

 institutions, and all our colleges — though some of them simply 

 designed — are yet richly built, never pinchingly. Pieces of 

 princely costliness, every here and there, mingle anions the sim- 

 plicities or severities of the student's life. What practical need, 

 for instance, have we at Christ-church of the beautiful fan-vaulting 

 under which we ascend to dine ? We might have as easily 



