194 ON TASTE IN ORNAMENTAL DESIGN. Part II. 



collection of art. They may or they may not ; though many 

 a rigid talker scruples not to do so when abroad. It is the 

 working man, who has six day's confinement, for whom an 

 innocent and useful recreation is wanted ; and we should not 

 " strain at a gnat and swallow a camel," by leaving the gin- 

 palace open to him, and closing the mechanics' institutes and 

 other places of instruction, which would lead him to select, 

 and indulge in, better pursuits. 



Others again imagine that it would interfere with church 

 service ; but this would be obviated by not allowing a gallery 

 or museum to be open till after two o'clock ; and if it is not 

 discovered that the great encourager of crime, the gin-palace, 

 interferes with the church, it is difficult to understand why 

 the contemplation of humanising art should do so. Such 

 improvement to the mind is not like the mere love of amuse- 

 ment or excitement, as at a theatre ; and, indeed, from this 

 last no one is excluded by business or work during the even- 

 ings of the other six days ; nor should the excuse of want of 

 refreshment be permitted to sanction the buying and selling 

 of beer and spirits ; and at the Sydenham Palace all goods 

 that are for sale should be shut up as in a shop. The opposition 

 to the Sunday opening of museums of art is not surprising ; 

 for what useful innovations were ever proposed in England 

 without it, from public coaches, machinery, steamboats, rail- 

 ways, and the rest, down to Minie rifles ? And it requires 

 years and years to get rid of a Smithfield Market, intramural 

 interment, (the putrid state of the Thames,) or any other nui- 

 sance. Great hostility was even shown to Sunday-schools, when, 

 in 1781, they were first established for instructing those in 

 humble life in the usual routine of education. It is therefore 

 only consistent that this Sunday-school for another improving 

 branch of instruction should be opposed ; but the time will 

 come when a more practical generation will wonder at our 

 blindness, which might be an innocent one if it did not com- 

 mit an injustice. 



