A certain stock of specimens is necessary (as a general apparatus) for public instruction ; but this is soon acquired: the great mass of our museums look much beyond this ; they seek specimens from abroad, as much for display as use, at great cost and labour. Yet it is precisely what is nearest at hand and cheapest, that, after all, is the most valuable. On no objects are the faculties so likely to be well exercised as on objects within every-day reach; the results of inquiry are sure to be more accurate, subject as they are to much stricter and frequent tests; they lead to more immediate utility; they are the very materials of all after knowledge; they are more or less interwoven with all the purposes of local life. The formation of a local museum, carried on by the institution according to the peculiar dispositions and opportunities of its members, necessarily leads to all this. Whilst one party or individual is engaged with local mineralogy or geology, another with local natural history, a third with local antiquities, a fourth is occupied with local statistics and economics, and all more or less pass through a course, of all others, to themselves and their districts the most beneficial,— a course of thorough study of those matters in which, one way or other, they are for the rest of their life most likely to be engaged.

In the meantime the collection proceeds without drawing on their purse; the materials are found in their daily walk. But it must not on that account be considered less precious to others as well as themselves.