298 MUSEUMS. 
purest gold of Peru. Vessels are now made to 
go both against wind and tide; a thing deemed 
utterly impossible in brave Commodore Trun- 
nion’s day. It was once indispensably necessary 
for Englishmen to wear tails (either club or 
pig) on the nape of the neck. Billy Pitt’s discovery 
of the powder-tax has proved that we can do with- 
out them. 
Amidst all these extraordinary movements and 
inventions, our museums alone seem to have stood 
stock still, with the most invincible pertinacity. I 
allude not to the mere buildings themselves: they, 
indeed, are ever on the change. Scarcely a year 
passes over our heads, but some new structure is 
raised by the votaries of natural history, with an 
outside of beautiful architecture, but with inner 
apartments destined to receive articles of old and 
execrable workmanship. 
When I visit these magnificent buildings, in the 
different countries through which I pass, I can 
scarcely refrain from quoting the old verses : — 
‘* The walls are thick, the servants thin, 
The Gods without, the devils within.” 
In every apartment dedicated to the arts and 
‘sciences, saving that of natural history, we find the 
materials in the inner places quite upon a par, and 
often vastly superior, to the outer workmanship of 
the building itself. Thus, he who dedicates a gallery 
to painting always takes care to have a show of 
pictures which will adorn the walls; and he who 
builds an ornamental library seldom fails to fill it 
with books far more costly and important than any- 
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