LEIPSIC MUSEUM OF ETHNOLOGY. 397 



Otaheitaii, the Malay, tbe Mexican, the Egyptian, the Chinese, and the 

 Jew. It is the condition of limitation." 



" Finally the free nation occupies the topmost grades of culture. 

 The yoke of priestcraft is broken. Intellectual forces expand in all 

 directions. Laws to regulate internal affairs, foreign treaties, eager 

 desire for adventure, the spirit of research, of striving after the remote 

 and the difficult — these are the phenomena here exhibited. The Per- 

 sian, the Arab, the Eom an, are examples of this, but above all the 

 German race furnishes the most perfect examples of this condition of 

 culture, having Christianity as its peculiar agency for the destruction of 

 hierarchical rule." 



In perfecting this scheme. Dr. Klemm expended many years of time 

 and energy, gathering what has been considered the best collection of 

 objects of human culture. On his death, this rich and unicj^ue material, 

 which had cost him 25,000 Prussian thalers, besides containing dona- 

 tions to an equal amount, was offered for sale by his heirs, first to the 

 royal government of Saxony, which favored its purchase for the Univer- 

 sity of Leipsic. The commissioners, Professors Wuttke and Overbeck, 

 appointed by the university to examine the collection, reported, the 

 former in the most flattering terms, in favor of procuring the treasure. 

 But, for reasons not necessary to state, the university decided against 

 receiving the gift. The heirs of Klemm, fearing that the collection 

 would be scattered and its usefulness destroyed, offered to take 10,000 

 thalers for it, on the condition of its becoming the nucleus of a museum 

 of universal ethnology at Leipsic. The offer was accepted and the 

 accompanying circular was issued by the Board of Eegents, in order to 

 explain the constitution and design of the " Leipsic Museum of Eth- 

 nology." 



It was in the year 18G9 that the committee was organized in Leipsic for 

 the purpose of founding a museum of the history of culture, which should 

 be an honor not only to the city but to science. There existed already, 

 elsewhere, magnificent and richly endowed collections of ethnological 

 objects. These, however, call especial notice to natural history or geo- 

 graphical facts, and pay attention to culture-historical development 

 only in a more or less secondary manner. 



The chief impulse to this undertaking was given by the circumstance 

 that the celebrated museum of the royal Saxon privy-counselor and 

 chief librarian, Dr. Gustav^ Klemm, of Dresden, was offered by his heirs 

 at public sale. The committee published an appeal, soliciting contribu- 

 tions for the i)urchase of this material and for the foundation of a gen- 

 eral anthropological museum. They hoped not only to be able by this 

 means to foster science, but also to develop a jiatriotic spirit in securing 

 to the fatherland the Klemm collection, which would otherwise be scat- 

 tered in foreign countries. 



From the beginning, the labors of the committee had such success, 

 that although the demands of the heirs of Klemm were not immediately 



