Lucas: Purposes and Aims of Modern Museums 123 



That a museum should be a place for study and research car- 

 ried on by the few who are directly interested in what seems 

 abstruse science, is really a phase of its relation to the public. 

 We know very well that what is a matter of purely scientific 

 interest today is a matter of vital importance tomorrow, that the 

 farmer, the fruit grower, the physician, for example, depend 

 more and more upon the trained man of science for help in what 

 were once considered matters with which he was not at all con- 

 cerned. Here and elsewhere, the museum takes the knowledge 

 gained by years of study, puts it into visible shape, and makes 

 it available for all. And, after all, something is due the student 

 for without him there would have been no museum for natural 

 history. 



I have said nothing of the field of a museum of art and would 

 only remind you that the Staten Island Association is an Asso- 

 ciation of Arts as well as Sciences, and suggest that if the domain 

 of Nature has been sadly encroached upon by the labors of man 

 the province of art has been. correspondingly widened. Neither 

 have I said anything of what one may call the civilizing influence 

 that a museum exerts upon a community, though this is one of 

 the results, if not among the professed objects of the existence 

 of a museum. 



To inculcate the spirit of law and order, to foster a love of the 

 beautiful, to teach the visitor to observe and think, to supply 

 " rational amusement " to the masses, are among the things that 

 a museum does for the public in return for its cash investment. 

 Sidney Smith is credited with having preached the shortest and 

 most effective charity sermon on record. He said, " he who 

 giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord. If you like the security, 

 come down with the dust," so if you like your museum, support it. 



But over and beyond these things are the educational oppor- 

 tunities offered to everyone and, after all, love of knowledge is 

 the supreme test of civilization. Man stands pre-eminent among 

 all living creatures in his desire for knowledge, his wish to know 

 the reasons for all that goes on about him, and according to the 



