MUSEUM COLLECTIONS TO ILLUSTRATE RELIGIOUS HISTORY 

 AND CEREMONIALS* 



Bv Cyrus Adler. 



Museum collectious perform a double function. They instruct the 

 public and they furnish material for the investigator. . They render the 

 reading of books more intelligible, and their writing more accurate. 

 Infinitely more than the popular illustrated magazine or scientific 

 monthly are they the means of communication between the average 

 man and the scholar. 



The study of religious history and ceremonial institutions stands 

 on a footing different from that of any other branch of knowledge. 

 Political history, though in a lesser degree, suffers under similar 

 disadvantages. 



The study of biology or the physical sciences is approached with 

 no predisposition. Their terminology is arbitrarily given, and the 

 errors of their followers are due to infirmity of the j)owers of observa- 

 tion or generalization. 



The study of political history, no matter how scientific the spirit in 

 which it be api^roached, is influenced by an emotion — that worthy emo- 

 tion known as patriotism — for which men sacrifice life, health, and for- 

 tune. An emotion even stronger is religion; its influence is second 

 only to that of domestic affection, and sometimes overcomes it; its les- 

 sons are the earliest instilled into the mind; none escapes its influence. 

 Even with unusual precautions in the case of a human being bereft of 

 most of the avenues of perception, religious teaching could not be 

 excluded. t 



All modern literatures presuppose a definite belief, and the creeds 

 which differ therefrom are described in terms which carry a derogatory 

 implication, i: 



It is obvious, therefore, that if the public is to be taught the history 



^ A paper read at the International Congress of Anthropology, Chicago, 1893. 



t Laura Bridgiiian. 



jThis sometimes occurs as a result of scientific prejudice; witness the placing of 

 many religious objects under the headings of "superstition" and " cruelty '^ in the 

 Museo Psychologico at Florence. 



757 



