266 Dr. G. Brown Goode's Paper. [510 
rightly indicated by its name, is, primarily, a place for 
books. The latter is a depository for objects of every kind, 
books not excepted. The British Museum, with its libra- 
ries, its pictures, its archaeological galleries, its anthropologi- 
cal, geological, botanical, and zoological collections, is an 
example of the most comprehensive interpretation of the 
term. Professor Huxley has described the museum as a 
consultative library of objects.” This definition is suggest- 
ive but unsatisfactory. It relates only to the contents of 
the museum as distinguished from those of the library, and 
makes no reference to the differences in the methods of 
their administration. 
The treasures of the library must be examined one at a 
time, and by one person at a time. Their use requires long- 
continued attention, and their removal from their proper 
places in the system of arrangement. Those of the 
museums are displayed to public view in groups, in syste- 
matic sequence, so that they have a collective as well as an 
individual significance. Furthermore, much of their mean- 
ing may be read at a glance. The museum cultivates the 
powers of observation, and the casual visitor even makes 
discoveries for himself, and, under the guidance of the 
labels, forms his own impressions. In the library one 
studies the impressions of others. 
The library is most useful to the educated ; the museum 
to educated and uneducated alike, to the masses as well as 
to the few, and is a powerful stimulant to intellectual 
activity in either class. 
The influence of the museum upon a community is not 
so deep as that of the library, but extends to a much larger 
number of people. The National Museum in Washington 
has 300,000 visitors a year, each of whom carries away a 
certain number of new thoughts. 
The two ideas may be carried out, side by side, in the 
same building, and, if need be, under the same manage- 
ment, not only without antagonism, but with advantage. 
That the proximity of a good library is absolutely essential 
to the influence of a museum, will be admitted by every 
