in LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS 57 



This is the kind of institution which I hope will, before 

 long, be established in every county in the land. The 

 marvellous spread of state - supported and rate - supported 

 libraries which has taken place during the last few years 

 appears to be only the prelude to museums supported in the 

 same way. The underlying idea of a library and a museum 

 is precisely the same. They are both instruments of in- 

 tellectual culture, the one as much as the other. We have 

 this illustrated on a magnificent scale in our great National 

 Library and Museum in London. Before long a well-arranged 

 and well-labelled museum will be acknowledged as a necessity 

 in any well-considered scheme of educational progress. The 

 museum and library will go hand in hand as essential com- 

 plements to each other in the advancement of science and art, 

 and intellectual development generally. A book without 

 illustrations is of comparatively little value in teaching many 

 of the most important subjects now comprised in general 

 education. A museum should be a book or rather library of 

 books, illustrated not by pictures only, but by actual specimens 

 of the objects spoken of. The great principle of expending 

 public money upon purposes of education, though a com- 

 paratively new one, is now conceded upon all sides. The cost 

 of supporting really efficient museums in all our principal 

 local centres would be but a trifling addition to the millions 

 spent upon other methods (some probably of far less value) of 

 educating and elevating the people. But in all cases let us 

 remember, as Professor Brown Goode, the Director of the 

 United States National Museum, in an admirable essay on 

 " The Museums of the Future," says, " One thing should be 

 kept prominently in mind by any organisation which intends 

 to found and maintain a museum, that the work will never 

 be finished, that when the collections cease to grow they begin 

 to decay. A finished museum is a dead museum, and a dead 

 museum is a useless museum." 



