The State has contributed to it from
the public treasury, and private citizens have given their
contributions liberally towards its support. The building has been
rapidly carried forward, and the portion undertaken is now near
completion. How does it compare with the Oxford Museum? What provision
has been made that in its outward aspect it shall correspond with the
worth and grandeur of the collections it is to hold and the studies
that are to be carried on within it? What patient thought, what stores
of imagination, what happy adaptations do its walls reveal? These
questions are easily answered. Convenience of internal arrangement has
been sought without regard to external beauty, without consideration of
the claims of Art. The architect has, we must suppose, been obliged to
conform his plans to the most frugal estimates; but we cannot help
thinking, that, generous as the State has been, it would have been more
worthy of her, had no such necessity existed. The building for the
Museum is one which can never excite high admiration, never touch any
chord of poetic sentiment, never arouse in the student within its walls
any feeling save that of mere convenience and utility.
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