21 
stones of education. Science and scientific cultivation, in his 
opinion, furnish the true basis not only of the higher learning, 
but of every intellectual elegance and accomplishment. You all 
know what the Museum is. You may imagine what it will be 
when its buildings shall cover Manhattan Square, and it will be 
asking for more room still. Contemplation of its future moves 
me to introduce another subject closely related with it ; but first, 
it is necessary to refer to a certain portion of the Museum, in 
order that there may be no misunderstanding of my remarks. 
There is here the collection of woods known, I believe, as the 
Jesup Collection. A more original, a more beautiful, a more 
instructive feature of a Museum doesn't exist. I am proud to 
think that I had some part in hunting for its specimens. That 
stands by itself. It needs neither praise nor apology. Under 
Mr. Jesup and his colleagues, the Natural History Museum has 
enjoyed a model administration. The President himself has been 
a contributor of unequaled liberality and success, and the collec- 
tions here are of unexceptional value throughout. It would be 
difficult to find an institution built up with a more disinterested 
spirit of contribution and a sounder supervision. What I am 
about to say fails of application here. Nevertheless I must speak 
of a danger which overhangs all public institutions waiting to be 
filled with private gifts, frequently to their serious damage. A 
generous contributor is often tempted from a desire to perpetuate 
the memory of his own individuality and fancy, in addition to 
perpetuating his name, to impose conditions upon his gift which 
may conflict with the general advantage of the Museum as a whole. 
He demands that his collection shall be accepted and preserved 
intact. It must have special accommodations. Those accomo- 
dations are often established and provided for thereafter by 
special funds. Yet there may be in those collections some speci- 
mens, either scientific or artistic, which are a duplicate of those 
already owned. There may be other inferior specimens which an 
impartial expert would prefer to wait for in a better form. So, if 
it is provided that this gift, which on the whole is too valuable to 
be rejected, if it is provided that it shall exist as it is given, just 
as the particular taste or the opportunities of the collector may 
have made it, it enforces a most unbecoming sacrifice in the 
