JlTNE 14, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



923 



own powers, which is so characteristic of 

 many phases of our public life. It tends 

 to stimulate the idea that the necessity 

 for training for thorough work is an anti- 

 quated prejudice, and that good common 

 sense with a little smattering of knowledge 

 fits a man for any place in life, in busi- 

 ness as well as in science and in public 

 affairs. 



What I understand by popularization of 

 science is an endeavor to counteract these 

 very influences, and to bring out the sub- 

 limity of truth and the earnest efforts that 

 are needed to acquire it. Therefore every 

 kind of inaccuracy should be most care- 

 fully avoided, and attempts to make all 

 problems appear childishly simple by the 

 elimination of everything that is obscure 

 should not be tolerated. 



This does not mean that the most com- 

 plex problems should be selected for pop- 

 ular presentation, but the serious effort 

 required to reach results should be empha- 

 sized. To apply this to the striking pop- 

 ular exhibits' to which I referred before, 

 enough should be given surrounding these 

 exhibits to convey the impression that the 

 visitor, by looking at the single thing, has 

 not grasped all that is conveyed by the 

 collections, and that there is more to study. 



Another point of view should be borne 

 in mind. When the technical perfection 

 of the striking exhibits is very great, the 

 danger is ever-present that the admiring 

 public will not see the idea that is to be 

 conveyed by the exhibit, but will forget 

 even to look for it in its admiration of the 

 technical skill exhibited in the installation. 

 For instance, in an exhibit of gulls hover- 

 ing over the waves of the sea, it is only too 

 likely that the visitors will ask, ' How are 

 they suspended?' and that upon coming 

 back from the museum, they will tell their 

 friends of the skill exhibited in the invis- 

 ible suspension of the birds, but presumably 



they will not know what birds they were. 

 Thus every incidental point that is added 

 to the essentials of the exhibit will distract 

 attention from the fundamental idea. I 

 fear that in some cases an interest in the 

 artificial likeness to nature may be engen- 

 dered like that felt by the courtiers of the 

 Emperor of China in Andersen's fairy tale, 

 'The Nightingale,' when they all exclaim 

 on discovering that the nightingale is not 

 a mechanical toy: 'How uninteresting! It 

 is a real bird ! ' 



In order to attract the attention of the 

 visitors who stroll through the halls, the 

 museum needs a somewhat indifferent back- 

 ground of material, from which is set off 

 here and there a striking exhibit intended 

 to arrest attention; and the art of the mu- 

 seum administrator consists in the proper- 

 selection of such exhibits as will drive home- 

 a definite idea. A museum consisting only 

 of an array of striking exhibits defeats ta 

 a certain extent its own ends, because where 

 a great many objects of equal interest are 

 assembled, the attention given to each is 

 only slight. Furthermore, the indifferent 

 background which consists of exhibits re- 

 lated to the one illustrating a particular 

 idea elucidates the vastness of the problem 

 dealt with, and is a check against the super- 

 ficial assumption that the one exhibit ex- 

 hausts the subject. 



There are only two methods possible to 

 reach the visitors who come to the museum 

 to be entertained. The one is to have only 

 a very few exhibits of rare beauty and ex- 

 cellence, which by their own merit will 

 prove attractive. An attempt to carry this 

 idea into execution has been made in parts 

 of the Museum of the Brooklyn Insti- 

 tute. However, this is avowedly neither 

 the object nor the method of a large mu- 

 seum which endeavors to gather under its 

 roof a great variety of objects, and to im- 

 pose not only by a small selection of ex- 



