rally led in
these institutions to look to the machinery, or to anything which bears
upon their trade; it therefore is no rest to them; it may be sometimes,
when they are allowed to take their families, as they do on certain
evenings, to the Kensington Museum, that is a great step; but the great
evil is that the pressure of the work on a man's mind is not removed,
and that he has not rest enough, thorough rest given him by proper
explanations of the things he sees; he is not led by a large printed
explanation beneath the very thing to take a happy and unpainful
interest in every subject brought before him; he wanders about
listlessly, and exerts himself to find out things which are not
sufficiently explained, and gradually he tires of it, and he goes back
to his home, or to his alehouse, unless he is a very intelligent man.

Would you recommend that some person should follow him through the
building to explain the details?--No; but I would especially recommend
that our institutions should be calculated for the help of persons whose
minds are languid with labor. I find that with ordinary constitutions,
the labor of a day in England oppresses a man, and breaks him down, and
it is not refreshment to him to use his mind after that, but it would be
refreshment to him to have anything read to him, or any amusing thing
told him, or to have perfect rest; he likes to lie back in his chair at
his own fireside, and smoke his pipe, rather than enter into a political
debate, and what we want is an extension of our art institutions, with
interesting things, teaching a man and amusing him at the same time;
above all, large printed explanations under every print and every
picture; and the subjects of the pictures such as they can enjoy.

146. Have you any other suggestion to offer calculated to enlighten the
Committee on the subject intrusted to them for consideration?--I can
only say what my own feelings have been as to my men. I have found
particularly that natural history was delightful to them; I think that
that has an especial tendency to take their minds off their work, which
is what I always try to do, not ambitiously, but reposingly. I should
like to add to what I said about the danger of injury to
_chefs-d'oeuvre_, that such danger exists, not only as to gas, but
also the breath, the variation of temperature, the extension of the
canvases in a different temperature, the extension of the paint upon
them, and various chemical o