7 
As before remarked, there is no doubt that’ the present time is 
the age of these great museums; it is becoming more and more 
evident that there can be no greater benefit to society than to have 
the evidence of the laws of progress before their eyes. They will then 
learn that the species cannot go backwards, and that if society goes 
backwards, the world will leave it behind ; that progress is a plea- 
sure, and that retrogression will sooner or later become a pain. That 
thousands and millions are nothing in opposition to the progress 
of nature, and that, as in the past so in the future, she can bury her 
dead no matter how many they be. That this building is the 
place for such an exhibition, as adapted to the means of this city, 
I think no one can for a moment doubt. It is the only build- 
ing, to my knowledge, which is sufficiently large and extended 
to present in order the millions of objects which we ought to ex- 
hibit. The space which is contained within these walls, well sup- 
ported by iron columns, and bound together by iron girders as 
they are, can hold the contents of the British Museum and the 
South Kensington Museum combined; it would contain the con- 
tents of the Louvre and the Fardim des Plantes conveniently under 
one roof. Here the visitor or the citizen can pass from one de- 
partment to the other, without having traversed the length and 
breadth of this great city, and without missing any part of them. 
Shall this city, the second in population on the American con- 
tinent, in the front rank of the cities of the world, neglect this 
opportunity? Shall it refuse material aid; shall it entomb its dol- 
lars and bury its talent, so to speak, in the earth, by erecting new 
and costly museum buildings in scattered localities? A distin- 
guished author says that the work of science is generally in inverse 
ratio to elegance of buildings and appliances; and it certainly is 
unwise for men to put money into structures, and not leave enough 
to support the work to be carried on within their walls. 
I sincerely hope that this important opportunity will not be 
lost, and that Philadelphia may fully avail itself of the facilities 
which are presented within the immense space which is covered 
by the roof above us. E. D. Core. 
PENN MONTHLY PRESS: EDWARD STERN & CO., PRINTERS,PHILA. 
