434 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



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 par- 

 tially 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 ob- 

 jects of every 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 museum as "a consultative 

 library 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 every one. 



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

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

 ways through its power to stimulate interest in books, thus increasing 

 the general popularity of the library and enlarging its endowment. 



Many books and valuable ones would be required in the first kind of 

 museum work, but it is not intended to enter into competition with the 

 library. (When necessary, volumes could be duplicated.) Tt is very 

 often the case, however, that books are more useful and safer in the 



