2S 



MUSEUMS AND OTHER EDUCATIONAL EDIFICES. 



Although the ground now held by your Commission, east of 

 Flatbush avenue, does not appear to us desirable to be retained for 

 the purpose for which it has been assigned, it will nevertheless be 

 an advantage to the park, if a small section of it, abutting on Flat- 

 bush avenue and facing the park, remains in the possession of the 

 city. We therefore desire to offer a suggestion as to the use to 

 which it may be appropriated. 



It is undesirable that any duties or responsibilities should be as- 

 sumed by legislative bodies that can be equally well undertaken by 

 citizens, either individually or associated in their private capacity. 

 The exact limit of judicious legislation in this way cannot however 

 be defined, and while there are many public responsibilities that 

 clearly cannot be assumed by individual citizens, and many more 

 that can, there are some few that are of an intermediate character, 

 and that require special consideration. It is generally conceded 

 that a system of popular education is an essential part of a repub- 

 lican government, for instance, but it is by no means determined 

 what means of education should be secured to all, and to what 

 extent the public can be taxed, with reasonable assurance of a 

 saving to the tax payers through a reduction of taxes for courts, 

 police, prisons and poorhouses, and the general cheapening of the 

 necessaries of life by the increased capacity for productive labor of 

 the whole community which may be obtained through the improve- 

 ment of the educational system. 



It is very desirable therefore that plans should, if possible, be 

 adopted by our municipal bodies, which will admit of strict construc- 

 tion, and at the same time be no bar to the progressive improvement of 

 our methods of education. At present, book learning and education 

 are generally considered correlative terms, but the conviction is evi- 

 dently fast gaining ground in the public mind, which has long been 

 established with those who have given the most thorough' consider- 

 ation to the subject, that, although the ordinary chances of observa- 

 tion may be sufficient to make many branches of knowledge which 

 are inculcated in books sufficiently intelligible, there are others, 

 progress in which is of special value with reference to the enlarge- 

 ment of the mind and the development of healthy inclinations and 

 habits, which cannot be pursued with much advantage in this 

 second-hand M r ay. 



