MUSEUMS FOR THE PEOPLE 



mechanical arts, as well as history, can also be illustrated 

 by extensive collections of objects; and we are thus led to 

 a broad division of museums, according as they deal mainly 

 with natural objects or with works of art. 



A museum of natural objects appears, for a variety of 

 reasons, best fitted to interest, instruct, and elevate the 

 middle and lower classes, and the young. It is more in 

 accordance with their tastes and sympathies, as shown by 

 the universal fondness for flowers and birds, and the great 

 interest excited by new or strange animals. It enables 

 them to acquire a wide and accurate knowledge of the 

 earth and of its varied productions ; and if they wish to 

 follow up any branch of natural history as an amusement 

 or a study, it leads them into the pure air and pleasant 

 scenes of the country, arid is likely to be the best antidote 

 to habits of dissipation or immorality. Such museums, 

 too, offer the only means by which the mass of the 

 working classes can obtain any actual knowledge of the 

 wonderful productions of nature in present or past ages ; 

 and such knowledge gives a new interest to works on 

 geography, travel, or natural history. Owing to the wide 

 disconnection of these subjects from the daily pursuits of 

 life, they are so. much the better adapted for the relaxation 

 of those who earn their bread by manual labour. The 

 inexhaustible variety, the strange beauty, and the won- 

 drous complexity of natural objects, are pre-eminently 

 adapted to excite both the observing and reflective powers 

 of the mind, and their study is well calculated to have an 

 elevating and refining effect upon the character. 



Works of art, on the other hand, though in the highest 

 degree instructive and elevating to some minds, are not so 

 universally attractive ; and, what is more important, do 

 not exercise so many faculties, and do not offer such wide 

 and easily-reached fields of study for the working classes. 

 Some previous training or special aptitude is required 

 in order to appreciate them ; and it may even be asserted 

 with truth that the study of nature is a necessary pre- 

 liminary to the appreciation of art. It does not seem 

 improbable that, even if our object were to make artists 

 and lovers of art, good museums of natural objects might 

 be the most useful first step. We have further to 



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