THE PURPOSES OF MUSEUMS 317 



models of the solar system and the relative distances and 

 sizes of the heavenly bodies as well as modern and 

 ancient astronomical instruments, and the records obtained 

 by their use. Again, you might have (and to some extent 

 such museums exist), at the other end of the scale in 

 dignity and age, a museum illustrating the history and 

 present developments of the smelting of iron and other 

 metals, their purification, their alloying, and properties 

 as also a museum of paper-making and one of the steam 

 engine and its modern rivals. In such cases the purpose 

 of the museum would be plain enough and comparatively 

 easy to carry out. 



Most museums which have come into existence within 

 the last 200 years suffer from the fact that they are mere 

 enlargements of the ancient collector's " cabinet of rare 

 and curious things," brought together and arranged with- 

 out rhyme or reason. No one has ever attempted to say 

 what is precisely the aim and intention as a public enter- 

 prise of any of our great museums, and accordingly there 

 has been no consideration, discussion, or agreement, as to 

 the methods of collection, selection, arrangement, exhibi- 

 tion, and storage of the objects assembled within their 

 walls. Thousands, even millions of pounds, have been 

 expended on the building of museums, on the purchase of 

 specimens, on cases and cataloguing, and on the salaries 

 of directors, and keepers, and assistants, yet the museums 

 remain, so far as any declaration of purpose and principle 

 is concerned, mere " repositories," as in the words of the 

 old Act of Parliament constituting the British Museum 

 for the use and enjoyment of the public, it is true, but 

 without any expression of a conception of how that use 

 and enjoyment is to be limited so as to make them some- 

 thing better than a dime-show, or how any serious purpose 

 is to be achieved by their costly housing and up-keep. No 

 doubt various directors and keepers have from time to 



