3 i6 MUSEUMS 



kinds of works of art (pottery, furniture, lace, metal-work, 

 etc.) of all countries and ages, including pictures, which 

 is now sumptuously housed in the Victoria and Albert 

 Museum. 



Though I propose to write here with special reference 

 to " museums," in the more limited sense as repositories 

 of objects which are the bases of our knowledge of the 

 history of man and his arts, and as the storehouses of 

 specimens which in the same way are the material by the 

 study of which we arrive at a knowledge of the history of 

 the earth, and of the living things which have existed, and 

 of others which still exist on its surface yet it is obvious 

 that the general purposes of all collections of interesting 

 objects (including even pictures) and their arrangement 

 for public use and benefit must be the same, although 

 there are special purposes in view in regard to some col- 

 lections which do not exist in regard to others. Not long 

 since Mr. Claude Phillips ably set forth some of the 

 principles which should guide the arrangement and ex- 

 hibition of objects in an art museum, and criticised the 

 plan at present adopted in the Victoria and Albert 

 Museum. As I hold views in regard to the arrangement 

 of natural history museums which are very similar to his, 

 I think it may be useful to explain here what they are. 



I may point out that nearly every branch of knowledge 

 should have in a civilised well-provided community its 

 collection of material objects, either specimens, models, or 

 ancient examples and remains, which should be " records " 

 to be religiously preserved for future reference and com- 

 parison by expert students, whilst others should be there 

 to serve as demonstrations of " great " facts of nature or of 

 human art direct and straightforward appeals to the 

 ordinary intelligent (but not specially learned) man. You 

 might well have (what does not at present exist !) a 

 museum (in the modern sense) of astronomy, containing 



