6 MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. [Feb. 
the present edifice, I yet can hardly look forward to the time 
when we shall be in possession of it, without shrinking from 
the grandeur of our undertaking. The past history of our 
science rises before me with its lessons. Thinking men, in 
every part of the world, have been stimulated to grapple with 
the infinite variety of problems connected with the countless 
animals scattered without apparent order throughout sea and 
land. They have been led to discover the affinities of various 
degrees and different kinds, which bind together this host of 
living beings. The past has yielded up its secrets, and has 
shown them that the animals now peopling the earth are but 
the successors of countless populations which have preceded 
them, and whose remains are buried in the crust of our globe. 
Farther study has revealed relations between the animals of 
past time and those now living, and between the law of succes- 
sion in the former and the laws of growth and distribution in 
the latter, so intimate and comprehensive that this labyrinth of 
organic life assumes the character of a connected history, which 
opens before us with greater clearness in proportion as our 
knowledge increases. But when the museums of the Old World 
were founded, these relations were not even suspected. The 
collections of natural history gathered at immense expense in 
the great centres of human civilization, were accumulated 
mainly as an evidence of man’s knowledge and skill in exhib- 
iting to the best advantage not only the animals, but products 
and curiosities of all sorts, from various parts of the world. 
While we admire and emulate the industry and perseverance of 
the men who collected these materials, and did in the best way 
the work which it was possible to do in their time for science, 
we have no longer the right to build museums after this fashion. 
The originality and vigor of one generation become the subser- 
vience and indolence of the next, if we do but repeat the work 
of our predecessors. They prepared the ground for us by accu- 
mulating the materials for extensive comparison and research. 
They presented the problem; we ought to be ready with the 
solution. If I mistake not, the great object of our museums 
should be to exhibit the whole animal kingdom as a manifesta- 
tion of the Supreme Intellect. Scientific investigation in our 
day should be inspired by a purpose as animating to the general 
sympathy as was the religious zeal which built the cathedral of 
