FIFTY l'EABS OF MUSEUM WORK 



31 



not more unfulfilled plans; 1 one can have a great many disappointments 

 in fifty years. I cannot say more unfulfilled plans because early in my 

 career I learned the futility of making plans and the only two I ever 

 made came to naught. ' ' Blessed is he who expecteth nothing for he shall 

 not be disappointed." 



The things I did accomplish were simply kept in mind and carried 

 out as opportunity offered and opportunity without a plan is vastly more 

 important than a plan without opportunity. 



Also, as previously intimated, the director of a large museum is 

 frequently, or largely, director in name only; he is often actually the 

 executive officer, the real power of initiative and accomplishment lying 

 with the curators or trustees. Nevertheless, the director, like Provi- 

 dence, is often held responsible for many things for which he is really 

 quite blameless. A director can accomplish little without the support 

 of the staff; it is not necessary that there should be direct opposition; 

 mere lack of support, want of sympathy, failure to act on his sugges- 

 tions are enough, if the director be at all sensitive, to bring to naught his 

 most cherished ambitions or well-laid plans. The director who desires 

 to lead a peaceful life must be prepared to take disappointments 

 philosophically, to see his own plans come to naught while helping 

 others to the fruition of theirs, must expect to be criticized on the one 

 hand for what he does and on the other for what he does not do. He 

 would best adopt for his motto the advice of iEneas: "Remember in 

 arduous affairs to preserve an equable mind." Whether or not he can 

 follow it is a different matter. 



In museum work the greatest satisfaction is usually to be had not 

 in looking forward, still less in looking at present conditions, but in 

 looking backward. The future is usually obscured by the haze of un- 

 certainty and there are many times when the star of hope shines but 

 dimly. As for the present, there are so many things one wishes to do, so 

 few that one can do, that there are times when our own particular mu- 

 seum or department seems to be standing still while others are moving 

 onward. 



And there are periods of discouragement, many times when one 

 wonders "if it all pays," if the gain to the public and to education war- 

 rants all the time, thought and money put into museum exhibits. This 

 is a question that may be answered by the public in two ways, by attend- 

 ance and by appropriations and gifts for the support of a museum. The 



handicaps under which we labor, tell us what we ought to have done. 



