32 ON NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUMS.
the Leverian museum in Leicester Square the visitor had to
pay at least five shillings, we ought indeed to congratulate our-
selves that our lot is cast in such enlightened times that we have-
municipal museums freely scattered throughout our land, which
may be visited by anyone without entrance fee or other
hindrance. The museum has come to be recognised, in the
words of Mr. E. Howarth, as "an essential element of
municipal life."41 It is hardly too much to say that every free
library should have associated with it a free museum. Indeed,
many who have given much thought to the matter have been led
to conclude that the museum is perhaps in some respects the more
important of the two institutions. "Museums," said Professor
Boyd Dawkins, "appeal to the interest of many, while books
and a taste for books interest a narrower circle."43 Turning to
the admirable speech delivered by the Countess of Warwick, at
the opening of our Essex museum, we find the opinion expressed
that "the foundation of a local museum for purposes of study
and reference is as valuable—perhaps even more valuable—than
a public library, for the drift of modern thought in the direction
of scientific education is towards a knowledge of nature rather
than a knowledge of books."43 It is obvious that the young
student learns more by direct relation with the concrete natural
objects—the minerals, the plants, the animals—even if he merely
sees them in glass-cases—than he can possibly learn about them
by mere reading. An American writer has remarked that "the
near future may well see as great an interest in the establishment
of museums as there is now in the founding of libraries.44
The day has gone by when people could afford to sneer
at local museums—"the little museums accumulated for the
service of science by the philosophers of all our country
towns."45 It must be admitted that the old type of provincial
museum founded by the enthusiasm of a few members of a local
society usually left much to be desired. When the founders
passed away, it often became difficult, sometimes impossible,
to find successors who would carry on the work of the museum,
and the collections were consequently doomed sooner or later to
41 Report, Museums Association, Canterbury Meeting, 1900, p. 76.
42 Ibid. Manchester Meeting, 1892.
43 Essex Naturalist, Vol. xi, (1900), p. 325.
44 "The Opportunity of the Smaller Museums of Natural History."—Popular Science
Monthly, May, 1903, p. 40.
45 A Second Letter to a Dissenter on the Opposition of the University of Oxford to the
Charter of the London College. By the Rev, W. Sewell, M.A., 1834.