osts to place Egyptian and other
eastern antiquities actually before the eyes of western students, in
order that they and the public may have the entertainment of examining
at home the wonders of lands which they make no effort to visit. I have
no hesitation in saying that the craze for recklessly bringing away
unique antiquities from Egypt to be exhibited in western museums for the
satisfaction of the untravelled man, is the most pernicious bit of folly
to be found in the whole broad realm of archaeological misbehaviour.

A museum has three main justifications for its existence. In the first
place, like a home for lost dogs, it is a repository for stray objects.
No curator should endeavour to procure for his museum any antiquity
which could be safely exhibited on its original site* and in its original
position. He should receive only those stray objects which otherwise
would be lost to sight, or those which would be in danger of
destruction. The curator of a picture gallery is perfectly justified in
purchasing any old master which is legitimately on sale; but he is not
justified in obtaining a painting direct from the walls of a church
where it has hung for centuries, and where it should still hang. In the
same way a curator of a museum of antiquities should make it his first
endeavour not so much to obtain objects direct from Egypt as to gather
in those antiquities which are in the possession of private persons who
cannot be expected to look after them with due care.

*Transcriber's note: Original text read "sight".

In the second place, a museum is a store-house for historical documents
such as papyri and ostraca, and in this respect it is simply to be
regarded as a kind of public library, capable of unlimited and perfectly
legitimate expansion. Such objects are not often found by robbers in the
tombs which they have violated, nor are they snatched from temples to
which they belong. They are almost always found accidentally, and in a
manner which precludes any possibility of their actual position having
much significance. The immediate purchase, for example, by museum agents
of the Tell el Amarna tablets--the correspondence of a great
Pharaoh--which had been discovered by accident, and would perhaps have
been destroyed, was most wise.

In the third place, a museum is a permanent exhibition for the
instruction of the public, and for the enlightenment of students
desirous of obtaining comparative knowledge in an