e, to prevent corrosion, or the
infiltration of water and consequent damage to the plates. Then, the
entrance to the chamber being securely sealed, permanent records
should be made in many places and in various ways, setting forth the
purpose of the deposit, its exact location, and the nature of its
contents. Among such records not the least valuable would be deeply
cut polyglot inscriptions on natural cliffs in different parts of the
world, observation having shown that such records may remain to
challenge human curiosity for ages after all other records of their
time have disappeared.

Even a single deposit of this sort might prove of enormous value to
the race at some critical period of its history. But the probability
is that the good work would not end with one deposit. From age to age
this and other nations might repeat the experiment, commemorating in
this way important epochs in their history. The fashion once set might
easily become a permanent feature of all great national celebrations.
The cost would be comparatively small: a penny contribution from each
of the visitors to the Philadelphia Exhibition, for example, would
have been quite sufficient to provide for a memorial of our first
Centennial year that would have carried an imperishable picture of the
civilization of the day to the end of--our first millennium, at least;
and we may safely infer that, whatever may be the condition of the
world at that not very remote epoch, a memorial of that sort would be
something worth having.

As we have intimated, the custom might easily become general, so that
in the course of ages the earth would become dotted with such
repositories of art and learning. Then, come what might to
humanity--whatever might be the ups and downs of nations--whatever
moral, social, or intellectual advances mankind might make--whatever
lapses or disasters might befall them--it could hardly happen that a
knowledge of any considerable period of human history, or the
advantage of any worthy human achievement, could ever be permanently
blotted out and lost.

It is true that "posterity" has never done anything of the sort for
us. It is true that "posterity" may have no valid claim on us for such
a legacy. But we might venture to make "posterity" a present! It would
not cost us much, and it might turn out to be immensely valuable and
useful to some far future age.

* * * * *

THE LOST ARTS IN NEW YORK.