The Museums of iJie Future. 245 



The historj' of museum and library runs in parallel lines. It is not 

 until the development of the arts and sciences has taken place, until an 

 extensive written literature has grown up, and a distinct literary and 

 scientific class has been developed, that it is possible for the modern 

 library and museum to come into existence. The nniseum of the pres- 

 ent is more unlike its old-time representative than is our library inilike 

 its prototN'pe. 



There were, in the remote past, galleries of pictures and sculpture as 

 well as museums, so called. Public collections of paintings and statuary 

 were founded in Greece and Rome at a very early day. There was a 

 gallery of paintings (Pinacotheca) in one of the marble halls of the 

 Propylceum at Athens, and in Rome there was a lavish public display of 

 works of art. 



M. Dezobry, in his l^rilliant work upon "Rome in the time of Augus- 

 tus" {Rome an sicclc d'Angiisie), described this phase of the L,atin civili- 

 zation in the first century before Christ. 



' ' For man}' 3^ears, ' ' remarks one of his characters, ' ' the taste for 

 paintings has been extending in a most extraordinary manner. In for- 

 mer times the}^ were only to be found in the temples, where they were 

 placed, less for purposes of ornament than as an act of homage to the 

 gods; now they are everywhere, not only in temples, in private houses, 

 and in public halls, but also on outside walls, exposed freely to air and 

 .sunlight. Rome is one great picture gallery; the Forum of Augustus is 

 gorgeous with paintings, and they may be seen also in the Forum t-f 

 Caesar, in the Roman Forum, under the peristyles of many of the tem- 

 ples, and especially in the porticos u.sed for public promenades, some of 

 which are literally filled with them. Thus everybody is enabled to enjoy 

 them, and to enjoy them at all hours of the day." 



The public men of Rome at a later period in its history were no less 

 mindful of the claims of art. They believed that the metropolis of a 

 great nation should be adorned with all the best products of civilization. 

 We are told by Pliny that when Ctesar was dictator, he purclia.sed for 

 300,000 deniers two Greek ^laintings, which he caused to l)e publicly 

 displayed, and that Agrip]\a placed many costly works of art in a hall 

 which he built and bequeathed to the Roman people. Constantine 

 gathered together in Constantinoi)le the paintings and sculptures of the 

 great masters, .so that the city before its destruction became a great 

 museum like Rome. 



The taste for works of art was in the days of the ancient civilizations 

 generally prevalent throughout the whole Mediterranean region, and 

 there is abundant reason to belie\'e that there were prototypes of the 

 modern nmseum in Pensia, Assyria, Babylonia, and Egypt, as well as 

 in Rome. 



Collections in natural history also undoubtedly existed, though we 

 have no positive descriptions of them. Natural curiosities, of course, 



