“The characteristic of the English populace,--perhaps we ought to say
people, for it extends to the middle classes,--is their propensity to
mischief. The people of most other countries may safely be admitted into
parks, gardens, public buildings, and galleries of pictures and statues;
but in England it is necessary to exclude them, as much as possible,
from all such places.”
This is a sentence from the last published number of the ‘Quarterly
Review.’ Severe as it is, there is much truth in it. The fault is not
entirely on the side of the people (we will not use the offensive term
populace); but still they are in fault. The writer adds, speaking of
this love of mischief, which he calls “a disgraceful part of the English
character,” that “anything tends to correct it that contributes to give
the people a taste for intellectual pleasures,--anything that
contributes to their innocent enjoyment,--anything that excites them to
wholesome and pleasurable activity of body and mind.” This is quite
true. We hope to do something, speaking generally, to excite and gratify
a taste for intellectual pleasure; but we wish to do more in this
particular case. We wish to point out many unexpensive pleasures, of the
very highest order, which all those who reside in London have within
their reach; and how the education of themselves and of their children
may be advanced by using their opportunities of enjoying some of the
purest gratifications which an instructed mind is capable of receiving.
Having learnt to enjoy them, they will naturally feel an honest pride in
the possession, by the Nation, of many of the most valuable treasures of
Art and of Science; and they will hold that person a baby in mind--a
spoiled, wilful, mischievous baby--who dares to attempt the slightest
injury to the public property, which has been collected together, at an
immense expense, for the public advantage.
Well, then, that we may waste no time in general discussion, let us
begin with the BRITISH MUSEUM. We will suppose ourselves addressing an
artisan or tradesman, who can sometimes afford to take a holiday, and
who knows there are better modes of spending a working day, which he
some half-dozen times a year devotes to pleasure, than amidst the smoke
of a taproom, or the din of a skittle-ground. He is a family man; he
enjoys a pleasure doubly if it is shared by his wife and children. Well,
then, in Great Russell-street, Bloomsbury, is the British Museum; and
here, from ten o’clock till four, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,
he may see many of the choicest productions of ancient art--Egyptian,
Grecian, and Roman monuments; and what will probably please the young
people most, in the first instance, a splendid collection of natural
history--quadrupeds, birds, insects, shells--all classed and beautifully
disposed in an immense gallery, lately built by the Government for the
more convenient exhibition of these curiosities. “But hold,” says the
working man, “I have passed by the British Museum: there are two
sentinels at the gateway, and the large gates are always closed. Will
they let me in? Is there nothing to pay?” That is a very natural
question about the payment; for there is too much of paying in England
by the people for admission to what they ought to see for nothing. But
_here_ there _is_ nothing to pay. Knock boldly at the gate; the porter
will open it. You are in a large square court-yard, with an
old-fashioned house occupying three sides. A flight of steps leads up to
the principal entrance. Go on. Do not fear any surly looks or
impertinent glances from any person in attendance. You are upon safe
ground here. You are come to see your own property. You have as much
right to see it, and you are as welcome therefore to see it, as the
highest in the land. There is no favour in showing it you. You assist in
paying for the purchase, and the maintenance of it; and one of the very
best effects that could result from that expense would be to teach every
Englishman to set a proper value upon the enjoyments which such public
property is capable of affording. Go boldly forward, then. The officers
of the Museum, who are obliging to all strangers, will be glad to see
you. Your garb is homely, you think, as you see gaily-dressed persons
going in and out. No matter; you and your wife, and your children, are
clean, if not smart. By the way, it will be well to mention that very
young children (those under eight years old) are not admitted; and that
for a very sufficient reason: in most cases they would disturb the other
visitors.
You are now in the great Hall--a lofty room, with a fine staircase. In
an adjoining room a book is presented to you, in which one of a party
has to write his name and address, with the number of persons
accompanying him. That is the only form you have to go through; and it
is a necessary form, if it were only to preserve a record of the number
of persons admitted. In each year this number amounts to about seventy
thousand: so you see that the British Museum has afforded pleasure and
improvement to a great many people. We hope the number of visitors will
be doubled and trebled; for exhibitions such as these do a very great
deal for the advance of a people in knowledge and virtue. What
reasonable man would abandon himself to low gratifications--to drinking
or gambling--when he may, whenever he pleases, and as often as he
pleases at no cost but that of his time, enjoy the sight of some of the
most curious and valuable things in the world, with as much ease as a
prince walking about in his own private gallery. But that he may enjoy
these treasures, and that every body else may enjoy them at the same
time, it will be necessary to observe a few simple rules.
1st. _Touch nothing_. The statues, and other curious things, which are
in the Museum, are to be seen, not to be handled. If visitors were to be
allowed to touch them, to try whether they were hard or soft, to scratch
them, to write upon them with their pencils, they would be soon worth
very little. You will see some mutilated remains of two or three of the
finest figures that ever were executed in the world: they form part of
the collection called the Elgin Marbles, and were brought from the
Temple of Minerva, at Athens, which city at the time of the sculpture of
these statues, about two thousand three hundred years ago, was one of
the cities of Greece most renowned for art and learning. Time has, of
course, greatly worn these statues: but it is said that the Turkish
soldiers, who kept the modern Greeks under subjection, used to take a
brutal pleasure in the injury of these remains of ancient art; as if
they were glad to destroy what their ignorance made them incapable of
valuing. Is it not as great ignorance for a stupid fellow of our own day
slily to write his own paltry name upon one of these glorious monuments?
Is not such an act the most severe reproach upon the writer? Is it not,
as if the scribbler should say, “Here am I, in the presence of some of
the great masterpieces of art, whose antiquity ought to produce
reverence, if I cannot comprehend their beauty; and I derive a pleasure
from putting my own obscure, perishable name upon works whose fame will
endure for ever.” What a satire upon such vanity. Doubtless, these
fellows, who are so pleased with their own weak selves, as to poke their
names into every face, are nothing but grown babies, and want a fool’s
cap most exceedingly.
2dly. _Do not talk loud._ Talk, of course, you must; or you would lose
much of the enjoyment we wish you to have--for pleasure is only half
pleasure, unless it be shared with those we love. But do not disturb
others with your talk. Do not call loudly from one end of a long gallery
to the other, or you will distract the attention of those who derive
great enjoyment from an undisturbed contemplation of the wonders in
these rooms. You will excuse this hint.
3rdly. _Be not obtrusive._ You will see many things in the Museum that
you do not understand. It will be well to make a memorandum of these, to
be inquired into at your leisure; and in these inquiries we shall
endeavour to assist you from time to time. But do not trouble other
visitors with your questions; and, above all, do not trouble the young
artists, some of whom you will see making drawings for their
improvement. Their time is precious to them; and it is a real
inconvenience to be obliged to give their attention to anything but
their work, or to have their attention disturbed by an over-curious
person peeping at what they are doing. If you want to make any inquiry,
go to one of the attendants, who walks about in each room. He will
answer you as far as he knows. You must not expect to understand what
you see all at once: you must go again and again if you wish to obtain
real knowledge, beyond the gratification of passing curiosity.
In future numbers we shall briefly mention what is most worthy your
attention in this National Collection.
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