72 ADDRESS AT THE OPENING OF vi 



with wretched examples, and continue to pay the unfortunate 

 bird-stuffer a miserably inadequate sum for work which should 

 be the work of a real artist, and which can only be done by a 

 man who not only has devoted great care and attention to the 

 subject, but has also the rare gift of inborn genius. I am 

 very critical, indeed, as you can see, on the subject of bird- 

 stuffing, and I am happy to be able to say, and every time 

 I enter this museum it strikes me more, that the greater 

 number of specimens in it, though, of course, they are unequal, 

 are admirable specimens of the art of taxidermy. Many of 

 them are very fine indeed, all are above the average, and I 

 believe there is not a single bad one among them, "fhe 

 collection is eminently adapted for public instruction. If the 

 advantages to be derived from it were only the momentary 

 pleasure of looking at it here, it would be of comparatively 

 little account, but if properly used it may be the means of 

 spreading knowledge and interest which will affect the whole 

 course of some of our lives. We all have cares and troubles 

 enough in our passage through this world, and we are so often 

 brought into contact with so much that is mean, disagreeable, 

 and ugly, that we ought not, for our own sakes, as well as for 

 the sakes of those among whom we live, to neglect any sources 

 of joy and gladness that might be offered to us. The man 

 who walks through life with his eyes open to beauty, wherever 

 it can be found, is by so much a happier and a more useful 

 man than one whose eyes are closed to it. The observation of 

 bird-life is one among many of unfailing sources of pleasure. 

 We cannot walk upon our downs, or along our cliffs, or on our 

 sands, with our eyes open without seeing birds innumerable, 

 though I believe that many never do see them. This 

 museum, however, should teach us to see them, to know them 

 one from another, to make them our friends and companions, 

 and, rightly used, it may be a source of making many lives 

 happier, and sweeter, and purer than they otherwise would be. 

 For such a collection as this ever to be dispersed or destroyed 

 would be a national misfortune. The Mayor has alluded to 

 the fact that it was first offered to the British Museum, and 

 if I had had any idea that, if we did not accept it, it would 

 be destroyed or dispersed, I should have felt it my duty to 



