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THE INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM
Museum, but the art of medicine as a whole would not be represented.
In the same way, so long as the Highland and Agricultural Society watches over the interests of agriculture; the Royal Scottish Academy over those of the fine arts; the Architectural Society over those which occupy the builder; the Society of Antiquaries over the ancient progress of all the arts; the extent to which the Industrial Museum will charge itself with illustrating the scope of agriculture as an art; with collecting the pigments, marbles, bronzes, and other materials with which the painter and sculptor work; with the accumulation of building materials; and with the acquisition of examples of the earlier and ruder stages of industrial processes, will to a great degree depend upon the limits which may hereafter be agreed to, as bounding the domains of the different societies named. Each of these bodies has a central province peculiar to itself, on which, even if it were unoccupied, the Industrial Museum would not intrude. Each of them has also a border-land which the Museum cannot help overlapping, as it too has a border-land which they unavoidably overlap. The extent to which this mutual infringement shall take place must be matter of amicable compromise. In any case an ample area, entirely its own, will be left
AND COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE.
43
to each institution, and all will be gainers by a wise division of the debated land.
Leaving such details for future arrangement, I would now urge that such a collection as I have supposed, of raw and workable materials, modifying agents, transforming machinery, and finished products, would prove specially instructive—1. To those ignorant of the capabilities of an industrial art, and solicitous to appreciate them; and 2. To those desirous of ascertaining the imperfections of an industrial art with a view to improve it. To the latter only will I refer. The chief and ultimate aim of an Industrial Museum is the improvement of the useful arts, which cease to exist, or exist only as stunted dwarfs where they do not make progress.
But it is not only from the ranks of experienced workers in an art, that its improvers always or perhaps most frequently come.
We are accustomed to say that every man knows his own trade best, and to warn the shoemaker not to step beyond his last. Although, however, the improvement of particular arts must mainly be looked for from those who have inherited a special pecuniary as well as professional interest in them, still we must not forget the effect of custom in rendering men indifferent to defects, or of age in making them
Page 43
520
H
el
42
THE INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM
Musoum, but the art of medicine as a whole would not be represented.
In the same way, so long as the Highland and Agricultural Society watches over the interests of agriculture; the Royal Scottish Academy over those of the fine arts; the Architectural Society over those which occupy the builder; the Society of Antiquaries over the ancient progress of all the arts; the extent to which the Industrial Museum will charge itself with illustrating the scope of agriculture as an art; with collecting the pigments, marbles, bronzes, and other materials with which the painter and sculptor work; with the accumulation of building materials; and with the acquisition of examples of the earlier and ruder stages of industrial processes, will to a great degree depend upon the limits which may hereafter be agreed to, as bounding the domains of the different societies named. Each of these bodies has a central
province peculiar to itself, on which, even if it were unoccupied, the Industrial Museum would not intrude. Each of them has also a border-land which the Museum cannot help overlapping, as it too has a border-land which they unavoidably overlap. The extent to which this mutual infringement shall take place must be matter of amicable compromise. In any case an ample area, entirely its own, will be left
AND COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE.
43
to each institution, and all will be gainers by a wise division of the debated land.
Leaving such details for future arrangement, I would now urge that such a collection as I have supposed, of raw and workable materials, modifying agents, transforming machinery, and finished products, would
prove specially instructive-1. To those ignorant of the capabilities of an industrial art, and solicitous to appreciate them; and 2. To those desirous of ascertaining the imperfections of an indus- trial art with a view to improve it. To the latter only will I refer. The chief and ultimate aim of an Industrial Museum is the improvement of the useful arts, which cease to exist, or exist only as stunted dwarfs where they do not make progress.
But it is
not only from the ranks of experienced workers in an art, that its improvers always or perhaps most frequently come.
We are accustomed to say that every man knows his own trade best, and to warn the shoemaker not to step beyond his last. Although, however, the improvement of particular arts must mainly be looked for from those who have inherited a special pecuniary as well as professional interest in them, still we must not forget the effect of custom in rendering men indifferent to defects, or of age in making them
520
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