" It is to the development of Provincial Museums that we must
look in the future for the extension of intellectual pursuits throughout
the land."
Prof. Edward Forbes.
" The value of a Museum does not consist so much in the number as
in the order and arrangement of the specimens contained in it."
Agassiz.
" I would urge all persons belonging to Field Clubs, not selfishly
to retain the specimens they gather, but to deposit them where they may
be of use to their fellow-explorers. . . I earnestly advocate and petition
for the formation of an entirely Local Museum."
Prof. Phillips.
" I believe that the most useful museum . . . is that which is devoted
to the natural objects of its locality. It gives a stimulus to observe and
collect; it adds an interest to every object contributed, in the relation
which each specimen bears to its collector, and the circumstances attend-
ing its recognition. Well carried out, such a museum is helpful to
science in fixing a date to the fauna and flora of the district, and in
giving the material means of contrasting it with the conditions of both
at a later period"
Sir Richard Owen.
" All schools and museums, whatsoever, can only be, what they
claim to be, and ought to be, places of noble instruction, when the persons
who have a mind to use them can obtain so much relief from the work,
or exert so much abstinence from the dissipations of the outside world as
may enable them to devote a certain portion of secluded, laborious, and
reverent life to the attainment of the Divine Wisdom, which the Greeks
supposed to be the gift of Apollo, or of the sun, and which the Christian
knows to be the gift of Christ."
Ruskin.