310 HOW TO STUDY NATURAL HISTORY, [xn. 



Such classes, too, would be the easiest, cheapest, and 

 pleasantest way of establishing what ought to exist, I 

 think, in connection with every institution like this, 

 namely, a museum. If the young men were really 

 ready and willing to collect objects of interest, I doubt 

 not that public-spirited men would be found, who 

 would undertake the expense of mounting them in a 

 museum. And you cannot imagine, I assure you, how 

 large and how interesting a museum might be formed 

 of the natural curiosities of a neighbourhood like this, 

 I may say, indeed, of any neighbourhood or of any 

 parish : but your museum need not be confined to the 

 neighbourhood. Societies now exist in every part of 

 England, who will be happy to exchange their dupli- 

 cates for yours. As your collection increased in im- 

 portance, old members abroad would gladly contribute 

 foreign curiosities to your stock. Neighbouring gentle- 

 men would send you valuable objects which had been 

 lumbering their houses, uncared for, because they 

 stood alone, and formed no part of a collection ; and I, 

 for one, would be happy to add something from the 

 fauna and flora of those moorlands, where I have so 

 long enjoyed the wonders of nature; never, I can 

 honestly say, alone ; because when man was not with 

 me, I had companions in every bee, and flower, and 

 pebble ; and never idle, because I could not pass a 

 swamp, or a tuft of heather, without finding in it a 

 fairy tale of which I could but decipher here and there 

 a line or two, and yet found them more interesting 

 than all the books, save one, which were ever written 

 upon earth. 



