THE MUSEUMS OF THE FUTURE. 433 



that in the death of the elder members of a community, so much that 

 is precious in the way of knowledge and experience is lost to the world. 

 It is through the agency of books that mankind benefits by the toil of 

 past generations and is able to avoid their errors. 



In these days, when printing is cheap aud authors are countless, that 

 which is good aud true in human thought is in danger of being entirely 

 overlooked. The daily papers, and above all the overgrown and un- 

 canny Sunday papers, are like weeds in a garden whose rank leaves 

 not only consume the resources of the soil but hide from view the more 

 modest and more useful plants of slower growth. 



Most suggestive may we hud an essay on " Capital aud Culture in 

 America " which recently appeared in one of the English reviews. The 

 author, a well known Anglo- American astronomer, boldly asserts that 

 year by year it becomes clearer that despite the large increase in the 

 number of men and women of culture in America, the nation is deteri- 

 orating in regard to culture. Among five hundred towns where form- 

 erly courses of varied entertainments worthy of civilized communities — 

 concerts, readings, lectures on artistic, literary, and scientific subjects, 

 and so forth were successfully arranged season after season, scarcely 

 fifty now feel justified in continuing their efforts in the cause of culture, 

 knowing that the community will not support them. Scientific, liter- 

 ary, and artistic societies, formerly flourishing, are now dying or dead 

 in many cities which have in the meantime increased in wealth and 

 population." He instances Chicago as typical of an important portion 

 of America, and cites evidences of decided deteriraotoin within sixteen 

 years. 



The people's museum should be much more than a house full of speci- 

 mens in glass cases. It should be a house full of ideas, arranged with 

 the strictest attention to system. 



I once tried to express this thought by saying " An efficient educational 

 museum may he described as a collection of instructive labels, each illus- 

 trated by « /nil-selected specimen." 



The museum, let me add, should be more than a collection of speci- 

 mens well arranged and well labeled. Like the library, it should lie 

 under the constant supervision of one or more men well informed, schol- 

 arly and withal practical, and fitted by tastes and training to aid in the 

 educational work. 



I should not organize the museum primarily for the use of the people 

 in their larval or school-going stage of existence. The public school 

 teacher with the illustrated text-book, diagrams, and other appliances, 

 is in these days a professional outfit which is usually quite sufficient to 

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

 \\\^ to fifteen years, and they end with the majority of mankind before 

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

 reception and assimilation ofthebesl and most useful thought. Why 



should we be crammed in the times of infancy and kept in a stale of 

 H. Mis. 224, pt. 2 28 



