MUSEUMS. 



333 



order. I am always lost in admiration when I cast 

 my eyes on the vast collection of treasure which 

 this lover of the arts has brought into the spacious 

 and well-proportioned apartment, built at his own 

 expense, and arranged after his own plan. In con- 

 versing with him on the habits of those animals 

 which have come under his own immediate notice, 

 I perceive something so true, so pertinent, and so 

 straightforward in his observations, that I always 

 feel regret when I see by my watch it is time for me 

 to depart. 



It has been remarked by some, who have conversed 

 with me on this new process of preparing specimens 

 for museums, that it would take up too much time. 

 I am not aware that this would be the case ; for he 

 who is solely occupied in preparing specimens 

 would always contrive to have several on hand at 

 one and the same time. But, even granting that a 

 great portion of his time were spent upon a single 

 animal ; is not one good specimen worth twenty bad 

 ones ? y Who would fill his gallery full of Holland 

 toys, when he has it in his power to place there 

 statues of the first workmanship ? 



Indifferent specimens are admitted into museums 

 only because better cannot be procured; and better 

 will never be procured, until a radical change be 

 made in that mode of preparation which is now in 

 universal use. 



I often think that the directors of public museums 

 commit an error in not giving more encouragement, 

 in a pecuniary point of view, to those whom they 

 engage to prepare the specimens. The very mode- 



