304 IDENTIFICATION OF THE ARTISAN AND AETIST. 



foruiatiou of an ideal museum, you liave thought it required a great 

 stretch of imagination to suppose it possible that such a collection could 

 be made in any city of England, I will ask you, then, now to spread 

 yonr wings a little more, and fly with me into even a more imaginary 

 idea than this. Let us suppose that by some chaiice all these objects 

 which we have collected were at some given period, in the first century 

 of Christianity, collected together in an auci(^nt Roman house; and let 

 us suppose that the owner of the house suddenly appeared among us, 

 and had a right to claim back all these beautiful works of art which we 

 so highly prize, whicli we have taken so much trouble, and laid out so 

 much money, to collect. Now, what does be do with them when he has 

 got them back? What will he do with these statues which we have been 

 copying and drawing and admiring so muc hi Pliny finds great fault, is 

 very indignant with the people of his age, because he says they have 

 begun to form gaWevies, pinacothecas ; that such a thing was unknown 

 before; that no real Roman should value a statue merely as a work of art, 

 but that it was only as the statue of his ancestors that he ought to value 

 them. And thus that Roman looks at them as nothing else. He takes 

 them back ; he puts the best of them, not in the center of a room where 

 it may be admired; but to him it is a piece of household furnituix', and 

 he puts it with all its fellows into the niches from which they hav^e been 

 taken, and where they are, perhaps, in a very bad light. It is exceed- 

 ingly probable that if the statues were not of his ancestors, he would, 

 instead of allowing them to remain in the beautiful hall prepared for 

 them, send them into his garden, into his villa, to stand out in the open 

 air, and receive all the rain of heaven upon them. The mosaic which we 

 have valued so much, and which is so wonderlul a piece of work, he will 

 put most probably into the ])arlor of his house to be trodden under foot 

 b3^ every slave that comes in and goes out. And now he looks about 

 him at that wonderful collection of beautiful Etruscan vases which we 

 have got together, and he recognizes them at once: "Take that to the 

 kitchen; that is to hold oil:" '-Take that to the scullery; that is for 

 water:" "Take these plates and drinking-cups to the pantry; I shall 

 want them for dinner." And those smaller, those beautiful vessels, which 

 yet retain as they do the very scent of the rich odors which were kept 

 in them, "Take them to the dressing-rooms; those are what we want 

 on our toilet, This is a washing-basin which I have been accustomed to 

 use. What have they been making of all these things, to put them under 

 glass, and treat them as wonderful works of art." And, of those beau- 

 tiful bronze vessels, some belong again to the kitchen, others belong to 

 our furnished apartments ; but every one of them is a mere household 

 piece of furniture. And then he looks into the beautiful cabinet ; and 

 he sends those exquisite gems into his rooms, to be worn by his family, 

 as ordinary rings. And your gold medals and silver medals and bronze 

 medals he quietly ])uts into his purse ; for, to him, they are common money. 

 Now, then, here we have made a collection of magnificent productions 



