252 Memorial of George Brow7i Goode. 



Another collection of the same general character as the one just 

 described is the Soane Museum in London. Another, the famous col- 

 lection of crown jewels and metal work in the Green Vaults at Dresden, 

 a counterpart of which may be cited in the collection in the Tower of 

 London. The Museum of the Hohenzollerns in Berlin and the Museum 

 of the City of Paris are of necessity unique. Such collections can not 

 be created. They grow in obedience to the action of natural law, just 

 as a tree or a sponge may grow. 



The city which is in the possession of such an heirloom is blessed just 

 as is the possessor of a historic surname or he who inherits the cumu- 

 lative genius of generations of gifted forefathers. The possession of one 

 or a score of such shrines does not, however, free any community from 

 the obligation to form a museum for purposes of education and scientific 

 research. 



The founding of a public museum in a city like Brooklyn is a work 

 whose importance can scarcely be overestimated. The founders of in- 

 stitutions of this character do not often realize how much they are doing 

 for the future. Opportunity such as that which is now open to the 

 members of the Brooklyn Institute occur only once in the lifetime of a 

 nation. It is by no means improbable that the persons now in this room 

 have it in their power to decide whether, in the future intellectual prog- 

 ress of this nation, Brooklyn is to lead or to follow far in the rear. 



Many of my hearers are doubtless familiar with that densely popu- 

 lated wilderness, the east end of London, twice as large as Brooklyn, 

 yet with scarce an intellectual oasis in its midst. Who can say how dif- 

 ferent might have been its condition to-day if Walter Besant's apostolic 

 labors had begun a century sooner, and if the People's Palace, that won- 

 derful materialization of a poet's dream, had been for three generations 

 brightening the lives of the citizens of the Lower Hamlets and Hackney ? 

 Libraries and museums do not necessarily spring up where they are 

 needed. Our governments, Federal, State, and municipal, are not "pa- 

 ternal" in spirit. They are less so even in practical working than in 

 England, where, notwithstanding the theory that all should be left to 

 private effort, the Government, under the leadership of the late Prince 

 Consort and of the Prince of Wales, has done wonderful things for all 

 the provincial cities, as well as for London, in the encouragement of 

 libraries, museums, art, and industrial education. 



However much the state may help, the private individual must lead, 

 organize, and prepare the way. " It is universally admitted," said the 

 Marquis of Lansdowne in 1847, "that governments are the worst of cul- 

 tivators, the worst of manufacturers, the worst of traders," and Sir 

 Robert Peel said in similar strain that ' ' the action of government is 

 torpid at best. ' ' 



In beginning a museum the endowment is of course the most essential 

 thing, especially in a great city like Brooklyn, which has a high ideal of 

 what is due to the intelligence of its populace and to the civic dignity. 



