HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM 
The spirit of Mr. Jesup's administration is, perhaps, best expressed 
his own language in one of his later reports (1884) : 
"It would appear to be very desirable to place the Museum 
on such a permanent basis of maintenance that the annual con- 
tributions of the Trustees and Members could be appropriated 
exclusively to the purchase of objects of science. Valuable 
collections, which the Museum needs, are continually being 
offered us for sale, but we are obhged to decline their pur- 
chase for want of funds. 
"The great Museums of Europe are chiefly sustained by 
public funds, through the force of an enlightened public 
sentiment both as to their educational and economic value. 
"The value of what you have already accumulated in your 
halls rises to a large figure commercially, but it is a difficult 
task to estimate the money value of what belongs to science 
and scientific institutions. To their value must be added 
their ameliorating power, their educational force, and the 
scope they afford the higher faculties of man to apprehend 
the wonderful phenomena of Nature, and to master and 
utilize her great forces. 
"To the multitude shut up in stone walls, to whom are 
denied an acquaintance with the beauty of natural objects, or 
the study of nature in its usual aspects and conditions, the 
advantage of your Museum is, that it affords opportunity; and 
out of a great number who look on vaguely and experience 
only the healthful excitement of a natural curiosity, one here 
and there may be found endowed with special aptitude and 
tastes. Perhaps some child of genius, whose susceptibili- 
ties and faculties once aroused and quickened, will repay 
in the field of discovery and science, through the force of 
some new law in its manifold applications, all your expendi- 
ture a hundredfold. 
"Commercial values and purely scientific values meet 
often on common ground; but their essential life belongs 
to opposite poles. To some it appears necessary to vindicate 
the employment of large amounts of public money in such 
an institution as that which you control from the charge 
of extravagance; their ideas of value appear to be limited to 
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