177 



The intention is, that such a repository of specimens shall be strictly local — 

 strictly confined to the district worked by the members of the Woolhope Club. 

 This feature is peculiarly adapted to the true aims of such institutions ; and 

 those aims appear to me, to be stimulative and educational. General collections, 

 like general remarks, rather insinuate than assert ; and seem too vague for 

 individual purposes. We rove from here to our antipodes ; we circumnavigate 

 the globe ; we pierce the jimgle, and brave the rigours of ice — producing collections 

 of the utmost splendour. They are magnificent — they are worthy of high 

 civilization. But how few visit them with any other object than the gratification 

 of curiosity, or at best, a general and fugitive recognition of the wonders of 

 Creation. Their scope is far too vast for every day life ; they may shed lustre 

 over the collectors, and they may adorn a nation, without furnishing one sugges- 

 tion of practical value, or one incitement to systematiCcJly scientific research. 

 But a local Museum possesses attractions peculiarly its own, amd peculiairly 

 suggestive. We there see not only the produce of earth, air, and water, but more 

 immediately, of our own earth, air, £md water — of our own native place, or the 

 place of our predilections. Even as strangers, we cannot view such a collection 

 without curbing all rambling propensities — without the idea arising that all we 

 see was gathered here — here, within a very narrow zone — here, from the waters 

 which flow through our own lands — from the air which passes over this very 

 spot — from the earth on which we are treading. Sympathy is aroused — emula- 

 tion stimulated. Further (and what I conceive to be one of the chief practicad 

 uses of a Museum), the student, desirous of consulting the highest authority on 

 any subject embraced by the collectors, can here satisfy his doubts — glean 

 important information — and scattering the chaff of false theories to the four 

 winds of heaven, store up the golden grains of truth. And may not all this be 

 obtained through the medium of books ? I doubt whether as efficiently ; for 

 where the eye ministers to the understanding, there is less room for conjecture, 

 and consequently less chance of error. There is perhaps, too, some difficulty 

 in separating the true from the false, in books ; while in such collections as you 

 propose, all is truth — each specimen is a spark drawn from nature ; there is none 

 of that Chinese-slipper work, which is all very well in a curiosity shop ; but 

 aiming at something higher and better, the student will here contemplate nature 

 as framed by the Great Creator's hsmd — thence drawing his own conclusions, 

 vmswayed by the bias of a human teacher. 



To facilitate its educational purpose, I think every specimen should be 

 accompanied by a statement (which might be comprised in two or three lines), 

 of the order and family to which it belongs ; together with any marked peculiarity 

 attending it — its most striking character, whether as an individual specimen, 

 or one of a group. A descriptive catalogue would also be of some assistance ; 

 more particularly with a short prefix of each science — confined to what is known 

 and proved, excluding the merely conjectursd. 



Thus it appears to me, would the labours of our Field Club not only redound 

 to their own credit, but aid in developing — and very largely too — the truths, the 

 beauties, and the admirably designed harmony of creation. 



