n an upper
floor a large room was occupied by the cosmorama,--an exhibition of
pictures, usually of noteworthy scenery, foreign cities, etc., which
were looked at through round holes, enhancing the effect of their
illumination.

Peter Cooper doubtless often lingered in these museums, receiving the
inspiration which came from visions of a world much wider than his
individual horizon, from the curious and wonderful works of nature, and
from the works of man in former times and in foreign lands. From the
queer mechanical devices exhibited by inventors to the "Happy Family"
and the cosmorama, everything was full to his quick sympathy of
intellectual, moral, or sentimental suggestion; and no doubt he felt,
after an hour of such combined wonder and reflection, a satisfying sense
of time well spent.

He wished that this means of mental improvement and recreation combined
might be freely afforded to those whose scanty earnings would not permit
them otherwise to make frequent use of it, and he resolved that the
museum and the cosmorama should be included in his institution.

Another agency of which Mr. Cooper had made fruitful use, and the
efficacy of which he highly appreciated, was conversation and debate. If
people could be brought together and made to talk he thought they would
learn a great deal from each other. In this he had undoubtedly grasped
one of the great principles of progress. To meet and interchange our
ideas of books and by personal discussions is indeed the mightiest
factor of modern improvement. But the mere meeting to talk _about_
things unless it is combined with the disposition and the apparatus for
_studying_ things is but barter without production, and may degenerate
to a barren exchange of words, as unprofitable as that described in the
Yankee proverb, "swapping jackknives in a garret." This aspect of the
truth Mr. Cooper doubtless came to appreciate; but at the outset,
habituated as he was to get ideas from everybody he met and everything
he saw, it seemed to him that free discussions would be an unmixed
benefit to all, and he resolved that his institution should contain
rooms, devoted to the several handicrafts, where the practitioners of
each could meet and "exchange views."

It was also his intention that the lower part of the building he erected
should be occupied by stores and offices, the annual rent of which
should pay the running expenses of the institution. In the course of
time the Cooper