ON THE PEOVINCIAL MUSEUMS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 125 



ttem ; not merely what is practicable under existing circumstances, but 

 wliat would be the best under ideal conditions, and therefore what are 

 the aims to be kept in view, and the lines upon which labour and money 

 should be chiefly expended. 



The general objects common to all museums are : — 



1. To preserve, for the purpose of comparison and study, such speci- 

 mens, whether of natural or artificial production, as may illustrate the 

 history of the earth and its inhabitants. 



2. So to arrange and display these specimens as to make them most 

 available for such purposes. 



The special objects of a free rate-supported museum in a provincial 

 town should be : — 



1. To contribute its share to the general scientific statistics of the 

 country by collecting and preserving specimens of the natural and arti- 

 ficial productions of the district in which it is situated. 



2. To procure such other specimens as may be desirable for illus- 

 trating the general principles of science, and the relations of the locality 

 to the rest of the world. 



3. To receive and preserve local collections or single specimens 

 having any scientific value which the possessors may desire to devote to 

 public use. 



4. So to an'ange and display the specimens collected as to afford the 

 greatest amount of popular instruction consistent with their safe preser- 

 vation and accessibility as objects of scientific study. 



5. To render special assistance to local students and teachers of science. 



Eespecting the general objects of all museums, we do not think that 

 thei'e is much difference of opinion, and on this point little need be said. 

 These objects, however, can be fully carried out only in such extensive 

 buildings and with such large resources as are rarely attainable except in 

 metropolitan cities. To represent the history of the entire inorganic 

 world, and of the development and present condition of its vegetable and 

 animal life, as far as these things are known to science, is an object 

 worthy of a great State department but impracticable in any ordinary 

 provincial town. Nor could even a State department hope to accomplish 

 this work in full detail unless it could command much more extensive 

 buildings and a much larger income than any nation has ever yet devoted 

 to such a purpose. 



What a national museum can practically do is to represent the history 

 and present condition of the woi'ld and its inhabitants in an epitomised 

 form, illustrating all the salient points and filling in the details of a few 

 selected periods and types. It will also be the repository for important 

 special collections and for very rare and costly objects which have a wide 

 general interest. 



In the series of specimens preserved in such a museum the national 

 territory will be represented as a matter of course in its proper place, 

 and in its due proportion to the whole. There may indeed be an 

 additional department for that section of the earth's surface, with its 

 geology, natural history, and archeology represented as a distinct group, 

 and somewhat more elaborately than in the general collection ; but to 

 illustrate the full details of nature in the varied aspects presented by 

 each parish and county, even within the limits of a single empire, would 

 be impracticable in a museum devoted to the history of the world. 



