On the East side of the Square there are two great groups of buildings.
That nearest to the Public Hall contains, in a series of buildings
which communicate with one another, the Library, the Museum, the
Armory, the Model-room, and the Picture Gallery. The last is a building
as old as the House. They were, when these events began, open to the
whole Community, though they were never visited by any even out of
idle curiosity. The inquisitive spirit is dead. For myself, I am not
anxious to see the people acquire, or revive, the habit of reading and
inquiring. It might be argued that the study of history might make
them contrast the present with the past, and shudder at the lot of
their forefathers. But I am going to show that this study may produce
quite the opposite effect. Or, there is the study of science. How
should this help the People? They have the College always studying
and investigating for their benefit the secrets of medical science,
which alone concerns their happiness. They might learn how to make
machines; but machinery requires steam, explosives, electricity, and
other uncontrolled and dangerous forces. Many thousands of lives were
formerly lost in the making and management of these machines, and we do
very well without them. They might, it is true, read the books which
tell of the people in former times. But why read works which are filled
with the Presence of Death, the Shortness of Life, and the intensity of
passions which we have almost forgotten? You shall see what comes of
these studies which seem so innocent.
I say, therefore, that I never had any wish to see the people flocking
into the Library. For the same reason--that a study and contemplation
of things past might unsettle or disturb the tranquillity of their
minds--I have never wished to see them in the Museum, the Armory, or
any other part of our Collections. And since the events of which I
have to tell, we have enclosed these buildings and added them to the
College, so that the people can no longer enter them even if they
wished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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