MUSEUM OF PRACTICAL ART.
A new section of the catalogue at Marlborough House has been issued. It is calculated to serve a very useful purpose. It is felt that the present arrangement of the objects is such as to make a hasty survey difficult, especially in reference to the catalogue. The rooms are far too small, and are not of a kind intended for the purposes of exhibition. Their allotment for that purpose is an accident, and it may be said that they are only better than no rooms at all. The want of space, and the fact that the collection is only a commencement, receiving daily accessions, render it very difficult to make a complete arrangement of the catalogue from the first ; circumstances which explain in a consi- derable degree the inconvenience we noticed on our last reference to the subject. The new section of the catalogue is a brief description, under separate heads, of the classes of objects and the places in which they are to be found. By the aid of this description, the spectator is not only enabled to find what he wants, but is also made to understand the analy- al of the Dolled:ion before him. Instead of being a confused herd of dif-
ferent objects, it now becomes a classified assortment of practical illustra- tions.
This useful step in the right direction convinces us that the develop- ment of the Museum is guided by that species of candid intelligence which profits by strictures instead of resenting them. The doing so is a striking and not a very common test of true mastery over the subject The uncertain mind resents the being challenged; the self-relying mind derives profit from the indication of faults.
Previous page
