758 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



of religion or religious ceremonies, it will be most advisable to approxi- 

 mate tlie methods of those braiiclies of study in which the knowledge 

 is acquired for its own sake, without thought of professional use or 

 partisan advantage, simply for the enlargement of the mental horizon 

 of the individual and the increased mental power thereby attained. 



Modern investigation and modern teaching are based upon phe- 

 nomena. Science deals with objects and phenomena; it collects them, 

 describes them, and classities them. A few great men in the world 

 generalize; speculation, acknowledged to be such, is out of fashion. 



This tendency of investigation to deal with phenomena has reacted 

 upon all forms and grades of instruction, the higher as well as the 

 popular. It has given the impulse to and shaped the growth of the 

 highest modern method of popular instruction, "the most powerful and 

 nseful auxiliary of all systems of teaching by object lessons"*— the 

 educational museum. 



Religious history and ceremonial have been tlie very last to profit by 

 the awakened impulse acquired through the museum and the general 

 exhibition. 



The first museum established solely for the collection and preserva- 

 tion of objects having to do with religion was the Musee Guimet, 

 founded at Lyons in 1879 by M. Emile Guimet on his return from the 

 mission intrusted to him by the French ministry of i)ublic instruction 

 to study the religions of the extreme Orient. The collection thus 

 assembled is the largest and best single collection of objects relating to 

 religion ever put together. It has occasioned the publication of a series 

 of volumes which form by far the most remarkable contributions yet 

 produced to the scientific study of religions. 



In 1885 this museum was removed to Paris, a special building erected 

 for it, and it is now included among the series of museums under Gov- 

 ernment control. 



But, in spite of the splendid character of the collections and the 

 great impetus they have given to scientific research, the museum has 

 serious weaknesses which should not be overlooked. The general 

 classification as well as the special arrangement are defective from the 

 point of view of a museum of religions. 



Geograi)hical considerations have dictated the general classification, 

 so that the Chinese, Japanese, and Indian Buddhism, for example, are 

 shown out of relation to one another. .Esthetic considerations have 

 directed the arrangement of the groups themselves. The S])ecial objects 

 are in the main without labels, making the use of the i^rinted guide, 

 always tiresome and distracting, an absolute necessity for the general 

 visitor. So strongly has the aesthetic arrangement predominated that 

 I am informed the character of the museum is to be changed, and that 

 in future it will be devoted to Oriental art. 



*Goode, Dr. G. Brown, Museums of the Future. Report U. S. National Museum. 

 1889, p. 427. 



