An Account of the Library of the Division of Art at Marlborough House

obscurity to which the actual experience of the world had long ago condemned it. And besides these preventive advantages of such a library, who can say how much more might not have been developed in the province of industrial-art labour, had the skilled workman at all times had access to the vast store of ingenuity still preserved in illustrated books, books comparatively unknown to those best calculated to make use of them? The man of letters or the artist, close as his inspection may be in some respects, must ever be in others but a superficial observer, and the skilled workman or practical mechanic might receive a ray of light of incalculable benefit to himself, and advantage to his art, from the mere glimpse of some example of his own trade which might be indifferent to all others, such, for instance, as in musical instruments, and perhaps in many other branches of mechanical industry. It is the experience of the world pitted against that of an individual; instead of being limited to what he is personally surrounded by, he has at once an insight into the labours of all times and all places.

VII. Thus, many of the works belonging essentially from their specialty to this library, will serve the purposes of science as well as art; for plates of objects necessarily illustrate, to some extent, their construction as well as their properties of form, &c., in an æsthetic sense.

VIII. The following scheme of the catalogue will show the comprehensive nature of the library, notwithstanding its special character, and although at present it may not contain half-a-dozen works in some classes. It has been arranged as nearly as practicable according to the classification of arts and trades adopted in the Great Exhibition of 1851, as that classification has been made, to a certain extent, familiar to the public.

IX. Classification of Catalogue.

1. Alphabets, writing, &c.

2. Anatomy, physiology, &c.

3. Antiquities, ancient and medieval. 4. Architecture.

5. Art, practice of, instruction in, &c.

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theory of.

,, history of,

6. Biography.

7. Building, engineering, surveying, &c. (Cl. VII.)

8. Costume, manners and customs, &c.

9. Decoration and ornament, general.

10. Dictionaries, glossaries, &c.

11. Drawing, systems of.

12. Engraving.

13. Galleries, museums, academies.

14. Geometry and perspective.

15: Glass painting.

16. Heraldry, seals, crests, &c.

17. Manufactures, general.

machines and tools (Cl. VI.)

ordnance, armour, and accoutrements (Cl. VIII.) philosophical, horological, and musical instruments (Cl. X.)

Woven fabrics

cotton (Cl. XI.)

woollen and worsted (Cl. XII.)

silk and velvet (Cl. XIII.)

flax and hemp (Cl. XIV.)

mixed fabrics (Cl. XV.)

leather, saddlery, harness, &c. (Cl. XVI.)

printing and bookbinding (Cl. XVII.)
printed or dyed fabrics (Cl. XVIII.)

tapestry, carpets, floorcloths, lace, and embroidery
(Cl. XIX.)

bronze, iron, and general hardware (Cl. XXII.)
jewellery, &c. (Cl. XXIII.)

glass (Cl. XXIV.)

ceramic manufactures,

pottery, porcelain, &c.

(Cl. XXV.)

19. Monuments, sepulchral.

20. Natural history in reference to its application to art-botany.

conchology.

23. Sculpture, models, gems, medals, coins, &c. (Cl. XXX.) 24. Topography, guides, &c.

25. Trades.

X. In the above classification there is a range of subjects directly bearing upon upwards of two hundred trades now carried on in the metropolis; and such a library may be converted into an inexhaustible mine of information and improvement by those occupied in or carrying on these various arts and trades, which, to avoid anything like vagueness, I now proceed to enumerate, according to the adopted classification of the Exhibition :

Class V.-Machines for direct use--
-Carriages.
Coach makers.