THE BOOTH MUSEUM AT BRIGHTON. 451 



at it here, it would be of comparatively little account, but if 

 properly used, it might be the means of spreading knowledge and 

 interest which would affect the whole course of some of their 

 lives. They had all cares and troubles enough in their passage 

 through this world, and they were so often brought in contact 

 with so much that was mean, disagreeable, and ugly, that they 

 ought not, for their own sakes, as well as for the sakes of those 

 among whom they lived, to neglect any sources of joy and glad- 

 ness that might be offered to them. The man who walks through 

 life with his eyes open to beauty, wherever it could be found, was 

 by so much a happier and a more useful man than one whose 

 eyes were closed to it. The observation of bird-life was one 

 among many of unfailing sources of pleasure. They could not 

 walk upon their downs, or along their cliffs, or on their sands, 

 with their eyes open without seeing birds innumerable, though he 

 believed that many never did see them. That museum, however, 

 should teach them to see these, to know them one from another, 

 to make them their friends and companions, and, rightly used, it 

 might be a source of making many lives happier, and sweeter, and 

 purer than they otherwise would be. For such a collection as 

 that ever to be dispersed or destroyed would be a national mis- 

 fortune. The Mayor had alluded to the fact that it was offered 

 to the British Museum, and if he had had any idea then that, 

 if they did not accept it, it would be destroyed or dispersed, he 

 should have felt it his duty to advise the Trustees to take it 

 over. He received, however, intimation at the time of the fact 

 that the Corporation were not only willing, but most anxious to 

 take charge of the collection, and maintain it. Although it would 

 have been a great privilege to him to have been its official 

 guardian, he rejoiced to think it was going to remain in Brighton, 

 and that they had expressed their determination to maintain it 

 for the benefit of their fellow-townsmen and for visitors. The 

 great central national collections were the fitting repositories of 

 many specimens of natural objects, and works of art. Such as are 

 unique, and such as are necessary for the researches of advanced 

 students who require facilities for their investigations, which can 

 only be obtained by the direct comparison of a large series of 

 specimens one with another, ought to be in them. But, on the 

 other hand, the more collections like that — adapted for general 

 instruction — were to be met with in other great centres of 



