of antiquities and of natural
history. In Heidelberg "the Museum" was the name, when I was there,
for a delightful club, with a garden. It belonged to the professors,
their families, and their friends in the town, and concerts and dances
were given in it. It seems that the Heidelberg "Museum" comes nearest
to the original meaning of the word as "a seat of Muses," for nearly
all those mythical ladies were remarkable for their special patronage
of music, dancing, and song.

Who were these goddesses, the Muses, and what were their names? What
was the speciality of each, and how do they come to have to do with
collections of works of art and specimens of natural history? Two
learned "classical" friends whom I lately met in Paris could not help
me further than by giving me the names of the first three. I was a
little shocked, but the next evening discovered that these goddesses
are, in modern times, very generally neglected and ignored. In an
extremely amusing play, called "Le Bois Sacre"--the Sacred Grove (of
the Muses)--a name applied jocosely to the Ministry of Fine Arts--I
found that the minister of that department was represented as a
pompous and fatuous person who completely fails to call to mind, in
the course of an eloquent speech, the name of more than one. On
ringing for his secretaries and airily asking them to refresh his
memory, he did not succeed in extracting from them more than two
doubtful additions to his list!

I am able, nevertheless (after due investigation), to put my reader in
possession of the facts so unfamiliar to the modern oracles of
classical mythology! Briefly, it appears that in the best period of
ancient Greece nine Muses were recognised, namely, Calliope, the Muse
of epic poetry; Euterpe, of lyric poetry; Erato, of erotic poetry;
Melpomene, of tragedy; Thalia, of comedy; Polyhymnia, of sacred hymns;
Terpsichore, of choral song and dance; Clio, of history; and Urania,
of astronomy. The last two seem to have very little in common with the
addiction to singing and dancing characteristic of the rest, and are
the only ones who can be imagined as feeling themselves at home in a
modern museum, excepting on those evenings when the authorities use
the museum (as is the custom in London) for a "conversazione,"
enlivened by brass bands and songs.

Apollo was said to be the leader and master of the Muses, but was not
related to them. They were in origin the "nymphs" or "genii" of
mountain streams wo