Our History Room 



35 



down the length of the room, may appreciate at a glance the 

 relative position of the principal events in the world's history. 

 He can hardly avoid noticing, with fair accuracy, the distance 

 between Homer and Socrates, between Socrates and Paul, 

 and between the Christian epoch and the times of Milton and 

 Shakespeare. He will be impressed at once, as, possibly, he 

 never was before, with a perception of the brief and very 

 recent portion of time which contains the whole of the annals 

 of our own nation. If, in addition to thus obtaining a sort of 

 bird's-eye view of the progress of the world, it is desired to 

 go into detail and devote time to the enquiry, a certain 

 amount of help will be found to have been provided on the 

 table-shelf. Detailed schedules taken from the " The Cen- 

 turies " (see advertisement) have been mounted on board 

 conveniently for hand use, and are placed on the table-shelf 

 at the foot of each century. A few books of reference in 

 biography and history, and numerous maps, have also been 

 suitably placed, and there are chairs. 



The " Historical Schedule " described takes up, as we have 

 said, the whole of one side of the long room. The other side 

 of it, as well as much of the floor-space, is occupied by 

 somewhat miscellaneous illustrations of prehistoric times, and 

 of nations and races which have not as yet attained to history. 

 The anthropoids, anthropology and ethnology in general here 

 find illustration, in large part, but not wholly, by pictorial aid. 

 We have also a few interesting objects suitable, as illustrating 

 social progress, for what is now known as a Folk- Museum. 



It is believed that this department of the Museum offers 

 special facilities to teachers, who bring their classes into it 

 and give explanations on the spot, and that by enabling the 

 pupil to obtain a wide purview of historical times, it may do 

 somewhat to obviate the inevitably cramping influence of the 

 too detailed study of single epochs. 



