XVI. INTRODUCTION. 



in various quarters are afforded for the study of such ohviously 

 useful sciences. Art, including music, has its re^jresenta- 

 tive centres in thousands of homes ; and, omitting other and 

 more select illustrations, I will venture to affirm that the 

 cultivation of a taste for much that is refined and beautiful 

 in art has very effective aid in the collections displayed to 

 meet the eyes of all who pass through the streets of a popu- 

 lous town. It is probable that such exhibitions are not made 

 with purely educational intentions ; but as commerce is the 

 great promulgator of civilisation, howbeit not always under- 

 taken for that purpose, so trade, in its free display of choice 

 fabrics, mechanism, jewelry, ceramic wares, engravings, and 

 sometimes even pictures, is a benefactor to the public taste. 



I own myself indebted for many pleasant hours to the 

 shop-windows, pleasant, but not exempt from the recurrence 

 of the question, Are there not other examples of embroidered 

 tissues, of exquisite machinery, of purely combined colours, 

 and graceful configurations, unseen by the throng, and yet as 

 suitable as these to gratify the beholders ? And it has been 

 consolatoiy to remember that there was, not far away, one 

 place at least where some care had been taken to invite 

 attetition to the wares of Nature's own handiwork. 



I am disposed to set a high value on the delight afforded 

 simply by the beauty of natural objects. A specimen without 

 a history, or even without a name, that calls forth a genuine 

 exclamation, How beautiful ! fulfils a noble mission ; espe- 

 cially when the observer is a child, or young. 



But the aim of a museum is to do something more than 

 this. No mere assemblage of rare and beautiful objects can 

 impart more than a small portion of the gratification capable 

 of being conveyed by a store of natural productions. It 

 is the exhibition of the order and affinity between one form 

 and another, and between successive groups of forms, that 

 constitutes the chief function of a museum. 



