body of
our people can ever hope to become familiar with the great masterpieces
of European galleries, which have had so much effect upon the taste of
the people among whom they exist, and might do a similar good work in
this country were they only brought within reach. Doubtless there are
many who join us in the wish that not only every large, but every small
city might have its gallery of reproductions as well as its public
library--a gallery in which children could grow up familiar with the
noblest productions of Greece and Italy, in which the laborer could pass
some of his holiday hours, and in which the mechanic could find the
stimulus to make his own work beautiful as well as good. But the
principal reason why such collections are not more numerous is probably
that people have an exaggerated idea of their cost, and, among those who
might best afford this, there are doubts as to whether an undertaking of
the kind would be appreciated in any but the large cities.

Thanks to the liberality of Mr. W.A. Slater, the experiment has been
tried in Norwich, Conn., and the results of the first year of the Slater
Memorial Museum in attracting and holding popular interest have far
exceeded the anticipations of its founder and his advisers. As it has
been Mr. Slater's desire that the museum established by him should serve
not only to educate his townsmen, but also to stimulate others who had
the means to follow his example in other parts of the country, he has
given us permission to make public the cost of his collections, which,
we doubt not, will be a revelation to many. In August of last year we
gave a long description of the Slater Memorial Museum, not then quite
completed, from which it was evident that within the lines laid down by
Mr. Slater, by which it was determined that the collection should
contain only reproductions, and no original works, there were no
restrictions as to expense. The works selected were to be the best of
their kind, and were to be set up and arranged in the most effective
manner possible. The number of objects was to be limited only by the
size of the building.

The useful little catalogue of the casts in the Museum, prepared by Mr.
H.W. Kent, the curator, to whom we are indebted for the figures which we
shall quote, shows 124 numbers in the Greek and Roman section, and 103
in that of the Renaissance. Among these are some of the largest casts
made, such as the selection from the Pergamon reliefs