a l^atio?ial Mitseum. 1S3 



Fcr amusement on the side of virtue, is entitled to the highet 

 praise of generous and far-sighted pohcy. 



The games of ancient Greece and Rome were grand po- 

 litical instiunions. They were employed to call forth into 

 action a display of various talent, to excite ardent emula- 

 tion, to sooth the public mind, and divert it from the irri- 

 tation of calamity, or of ignorance inflamed by faction : but 

 they also were tributary to the elegant arts, and gave some of 

 their richest stores to painting, poetry, and sculpture. What 

 can more surely tend to the refinement of taste, as applied to 

 the graces of art, than the habitual contemplation of the 

 brilliant varieties, the elegant gradations and harmonies of 

 form and colour displayed throughout every department of 

 inanimate as well as of animated nature ? 



The advantages of such an establishment to the purposes 

 of scientific inquiry are too obvious to need specification. 



A national museum, considered in these points of view, as 

 adapted both to the instruction and delight of the nation at 

 large, cannot fail, it is [presumed, to interest all classes in 

 its favour. 



We are blest with a sovereign under whose auspices and 

 protection every liberal science, and the arts in all their 

 branches, have arrived at a degree of perfection exceeding, 

 in most respects, the attainments of all other nations. The 

 globe has been widely and accurately explored, and our con- 

 nections with distant regions extended beyond all compari- 

 son with those of any other people in any period of time. 



It is believed that a scheme of establishing a national mu- 

 seum has already been contemplated by his majesty, together 

 with some leading members of his late administration ; and 

 that the museum collected by Sir Ashton Lever would have 

 been purchased as the foundation of such an establishment, 

 had the six-cimens been found in a due slate of preservation. 

 It may not beimpropcr here to observe, that a museum formed 

 on a preconcerted plan of scientific arrangement, is not hkf- 

 ly to be attended with the expenses in whicli a rage for 

 rarities frequently involves the emulous collector. 



Our catalogue of scientific nicn, whose names do honour 

 to their age and country, is too long to b« here inserted. It 



