17 



more injurious to the progress of learning, and to 

 the proper growth of a public Institution, than that 

 it should be inordinately and indiscriminately 

 increased, merely with a view to its being a huge 

 receptacle for all kinds of objects, the visitors of 

 which are distracted and bewildered. It is as 

 inconvenient and equally to be avoided, on the 

 other hand, that objects, so to speak, homogene- 

 ous should be dispersed in separate repositories. 

 A majolica plate, with a date, or the name of the 

 painter or artist, ought not to be in one public 

 Institution, whilst many other plates of the same 

 epoch, and of the same style, which might be 

 illustrated and made infinitely more interesting 

 or instructive, if side by side with the former, are 

 in another. 



By limiting the British Museum Collections of 

 Antiquities to Classical or Pagan art, as was in a 

 great measure the case a few years ago, space 

 might at once be found to display to the public 

 view a selection of medals, the gems, and the gold 

 ornaments, the Townley Terracottas, &c. All that 

 space which is now occupied by Medieval Anti- 

 quities, by what are called British or Irish Anti- 

 quities, and by the Ethnological Collection,* might 

 thus be turned to better account. It does not seem 

 right that such valuable space should be taken up 

 by Esquimaux dresses, canoes, and hideous feather 



Plan III., 3. 



