322 



MUSEUMS. 



caused their wrath to subside, and smiles played 

 once more over their hitherto benign countenances. 



I have occasionally noticed the defective manner 

 in which birds are stuffed for museums. At present, 

 I will confine myself solely to quadrupeds ; and, in 

 my remarks on the very inferior way in which they 

 are preserved, I beg to declare that I make no allu- 

 sions whatever to any one museum in particular. 



It may be said with great truth that, from Rome 

 to Russia, and from Orkney to Africa, there is not to 

 be found, in any cabinet of natural history, one single 

 quadruped which has been stuffed, or prepared, or 

 mounted (as the French term it), upon scientific 

 principles. Hence, every specimen throughout the 

 whole of them must be wrong at every point. 



Horace, in giving instructions to poets, tells 

 ihem how he would have different personages repre- 

 sented. Let Medea, says he, be savage and uncon- 

 querable ; let Ino be in tears ; let Ixion be perfidious; 

 let lo be vagrant ; and let Orestes be in sorrow : — 



" Sit Medea ferox invictaque, flebilis Ino, 

 Perfidus Ixion, lo vaga, tristis Orestes.'* 



Now, should I call upon any one of those, who have 

 given to the public a mode of preserving specimens 

 for museums, to step forward and show me how to 

 restore majesty to the face of a lion's skin, ferocity 

 to the tiger's countenance, innocence to that of the 

 lamb, or sulkiness to that of the bull, he would not 

 know which way to set to work : he would have no 

 resources at hand to help him in the operation ; he 

 could not call to mind one idea which would enable 



