THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION IO9 



2nd, To procure such other specimens as may be desirable for 

 illustrating the general principles of science, and the relations of the 

 locality to the rest of the world. 



3rd, To receive and preserve local collections or single specimens, 

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

 to public use. 



4th, So to arrange and display the specimens collected as to 

 afford the greatest amount of popular instruction consistent with 

 their safe preservation and accessibility as objects of scientific study. 



5th, To render special assistance to local students and teachers 

 of science. 



Mr. F. T. Mott, a member of the committee whose report I 

 quoted from, in a paper read before the Leicester Literary and 

 Philosophical Society on the " Development of Museums as public 

 instructors." says: "Museums, free libraries and art galleries have 

 this in common, that they are each expected to fulfil two purposes 

 which are somewhat incongruous, and require to be pursued by 

 different methods and very different appliances. Each of these 

 institutions is expected to minister to the wants both of trained 

 students and of the untrained and ignorant public; and the demands 

 of these two classes of persons are so diverse that they must be pro- 

 vided for separately. The free library must have its lending depart- 

 ment for the general public, and its reference department for students. 

 The art gallery must have attractive and interesting pictures for 

 ordinary visitors, but it must also have masterly studies for the 

 instruction of young artists. The museum, however, has a still more 

 complex and difficult part to play. It has not only to provide for 

 the diverse wants of students and visitors, but it has also to contribute 

 to the general progress of scientific knowledge. Every museum, at 

 least every provincial rate-supported museum, which is a public and 

 in some sense a national institution has a threefold duty, ist, to the 

 nation at large; 2nd, to the students of the neighborhood, and 3rd, 

 to the local public. If museums are ever to be more than a confused 

 compound of the curiosity shop and the peep show, which very many 

 of them are at present, this three fold duty must be very clearly 

 recognized and sufficiently carried out." 



