xviii 



and should therefore be taken into account with the enumeration of actual 

 Readers who have availed themselves of its advantages within. Of these latter 

 the numbers have increased with the enlargement of the building, and the 

 additions to the collection in a ratio which it may interest you to hear. 



As taken from the books, in which the names are. inscribed by the readers 

 themselves, they appear as follows : 



1856 ... Open March, April, May, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. ; rest 



of the year 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. additional ... 23,769 



1857 ... Open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m 42,226 



1858 77,925 



1859 127,887 



* 1860 (eleven months) 162,115 



1861 (three months) 41,850 



Let it not be assumed that this large number of persons is composed of 

 an assemblage impelled hither by an idle curiosity, or of those who come to 

 while away hours for which there is no other employment than a species of 

 weak and frivolous mental dissipation. The steady increase shows that there must 

 be some more sterling attraction. The works here are not of a character to 

 yield such shadowy entertainment ; they present, rather, that substantial food 

 which turns the minds towards worthier aims than those gross pleasures which 

 enslave the senses ; which begets a relish and creates a veneration for letters, 

 and causes those who partake to revert to it with unsatiated appetite and ever 

 increasing satisfaction. 



Passing from this topic, the attention of your Excellency is requested to 

 the subject more immediately requiring your observation the Museum of Art. 



The primary idea entertained by the Trustees, in recommending the 

 formation of this department, had reference to the estaMishment of a School of 

 Design, in which would be assembled types of those choice productions of genius 

 by the ancient sculptors, which have been alike the astonishment and delight 

 of ages. 



This, in a country such as ours, so far removed from the seat of such 

 distinguished works, would, with the different other efforts of genius to be 

 associated with them, much assist in moulding the public taste creating 

 betimes in the young an appreciation of what was correct and beautiful, and 

 thus inducing a respect for the refinement which is the characteristic of those 

 people amongst whom the spirit of liberty and an acquaintance with the true 

 uses of wealth have fostered art. 



With this view Casts of some of the best known Works of Antiquity have 

 been procured. They arrived here much mutilated by injuries received on 

 the voyage, but the skill and patient labor of Mr. Summers himself an 

 accomplished sculptor have wrought a complete restoration. It is to be 



This exceeds the number of readers at the British Museum in the year 1857. 



