25^) Memorial of George Brow7i Goode. 



enable him to teach his pupils. School days last, at the most, only from 

 five to fifteen 5^ears, and they end with the majority of mankind before 

 their minds have reached the stage of growth most favorable for the 

 reception and assimilation of the best and most useful thought. Why 

 should we be crannned in the times of infancy and kept in a state of 

 mental starvation during the period which follows, from maturity to old 

 age, a state which is disheartening and unnatural, all the more because 

 of the intellectual tastes which have been stimulated and partially 

 formed by school life. 



The boundary line between the library and the museum is neither 

 straight nor plain. The former, if its scope be rightly indicated by its 

 name, is primarily a place for books. The latter is a depository for 

 objects of ev.ery kind, books not excepted. 



The British Museum, with its libraries, its pictures, its archaeological 

 galleries, its anthropological, geological, botanical, and zoological col- 

 lections, is an example of the most comprehensive interpretation of the 

 term. 



Professor Huxley has described the musevim as " a consultative librarj^ 

 of objects." This definition is suggestive but unsatisfactory. It relates 

 only to the contents of the museum, as distinguished from those of the 

 library, and makes no reference to the differences in the methods of their 

 administration. The treasures of the library must be examined one at 

 a time and by one person at a time ; their use requires long-continued 

 attention and their removal from their proper places in the system of 

 arrangement. Those of the museum are displayed to public view, in 

 groups, in systematic sequence, so that they have a collective as well as 

 an individual significance. Furthermore, much of their meaning may 

 be read at a glance. 



The museum cultivates the powers of observation, and the casual 

 visitor even makes discoveries for himself and under the guidance of 

 the labels forms his own impressions. In the library one studies the 

 impressions of others. The library is most useful to the educated, the 

 museum to educated and uneducated alike, to the masses as well as to 

 the few, and is a powerful stimulant to intellectual activity in either 

 class. The influence of the museum upon a community is not so deep 

 as that of the library, but extends to a much larger number of people. 



The National Museum has 300,000 visitors a year, each of whom car- 

 ries away a certain number of new thoughts. 



The two ideas may be carried out, side by side, in the same building, 

 and if need be under the same management, not only without antago- 

 nism, but with advantage. 



That the proximity of a good library is absolutely essential to the 

 usefulness of a museum will be admitted by everyone. 



I am confident also that a museum, wisely organized and properly 

 arranged, is certain to benefit the library near which it stands in many 



