Sir John Soane was a munificent patron of various public charities, and
was even more liberal in his contributions for the advancement of art;
he subscribed £1000 to the Duke of York's monument; a similar sum to
the Royal British Institution; £750 to the Institute of British
Architects; £250 to the Architectural Society, &c. He made a splendid
collection of works of art, valued at upwards of £50,000 before his
death, converted his house into a Museum, and left the whole to his
country, which is now known as _Sir John Soane's Museum_--one of the
most attractive institutions in London. He devoted the last four years
of his life in classifying and arranging his Museum, which is
distributed in twenty-four rooms, and consists of architectural models
of ancient and modern edifices; a large collection of architectural
drawings, designs, plans, and measurements, by many great architects; a
library of the best works on art, particularly on Architecture; antique
fragments of buildings, as columns, capitals, ornaments, and friezes in
marble; also, models, casts, and copies of similar objects in other
collections; fragments and relics of architecture in the middle ages;
modern sculptures, especially by the best British sculptors; Greek and
Roman antiquities, consisting of fragments of Greek and Roman sculpture
antique busts, bronzes, and cinerary urns; Etruscan vases; Egyptian
antiquities; busts of remarkable persons; a collection of 138 antique
gems, cameos and intaglios, originally in the collection of M. Capece
Latro, Archbishop of Tarentum, and 136 antique gems, principally from
the Braschi collection; a complete set of Napoleon medals, selected by
the Baron Denon for the Empress Josephine, and formerly in her
possession, curiosities; rare books and illuminated manuscripts; a
collection of about fifty oil paintings, many of them of great value,
among which are the Rake's Progress, a series of eight pictures by
Hogarth, and the Election, a series of four, by the same artist; and
many articles of virtu too numerous to mention here, forming altogether
a most rare, unique, and valuable collection. What a glorious monument
did the poor bricklayer's son erect to his memory, which, while it
blesses, will cause his countrymen to bless and venerate the donor, and
make his name bright on the page of history! Some there are who regard
posthumous fame a bubble, and present pomp substantial; but the one is
godlike, the other sensual and vain.