66 BO YS' MUSEUMS 



to prepare them and compare them, to arrange and name 

 them. In proportion as a collection has had all this done to 

 it will be its value. That a museum depends for its utility, not 

 upon its contents, but upon the mode of arrangement of its 

 contents, is now a trite saying. An ill-arranged museum has 

 been well compared to the letters of the alphabet tossed about 

 indiscriminately, meaning nothing ; a well-arranged one to the 

 same letters placed in such orderly sequence as to produce 

 words of counsel and instruction. Far more, however, than 

 the intrinsic value of the collection, in the case of the 

 beginner, is its value as a means of education to the owner. 

 The arrangement of a collection not only teaches the 

 nature and properties of the objects contained in it ; it also 

 stimulates a desire to know more of the similar objects not 

 contained in it, but to be found in other and larger collections. 

 Still more important than this, as an educator, it calls out 

 many valuable practical qualities : originality, order, neatness, 

 perseverance, taste, power of discriminating small differences 

 and resemblances, all of which will be found useful in other 

 spheres of life. 



It matters less what are the contents of a museum than 

 that there should be some definite object in bringing them 

 together. To be a mere " snapper -up of unconsidered trifles " 

 is not forming a museum. The subject chosen to be illustrated 

 by the specimens collected should not be of indefinite extent, 

 but have some natural limit. This alone will enable the 

 collector to attain to the highest goal in the happiness of 

 his occupation : the filling in of all the vacant spaces when 

 the framework of his collection is completed. The richer 

 a series is, the greater joy there is in adding to it what 

 still remains wanting. Limits to collections of natural history 

 objects are of two kinds. Either a particular natural group 

 of animals or plants may be selected, as shells, butterflies, 

 mosses, seaweeds, etc., or any subdivision of these great groups ; 

 or else the products of particular localities, preferably of 

 course that in which the collector lives, may only be regarded. 

 A combination of these two methods of limitation will gener- 

 ally lead to the most manageable and profitable amateur 

 museum. Suppose, for instance, our young friend were to set 



