DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0065
44 THE GREAT EXHIBITION
■ great in criticism, and can make or mar a reputation, will experience the difficulty there
is for the best trained judgment deciding between the conflicting and distracting preten-
sions of such a vast variety of objects. Here is another great teaching; and with it an
argument, if one were needed, in favour of this museum of all nations, and for repeat-
ing attempts of this kind, even on a smaller scale; for thousands who have not the
inclination to form their judgments and modulate their feelings to works of art and
ingenious fabrications through books and the theories of men who comment and criticise
upon them, would yet put themselves to some personal trouble and inconvenience for
seeing and judging for themselves such a pile with such attractions. And it cannot be
denied but that they are under the best tuition. Beautiful works proclaim their own
merit, and force conviction. They have the force of examples seen by the eyes over
theories read unwillingly by the mind. They show the substance of true taste, and what
it is: your critics and books can only tell it.
CHAPTER VII.
VOLTAIRE IN THE CRYSTAL PALACE.
EAILWAY TRAVELLING----REFLECTIONS OK THE STEAM ENGINE—THE PLOUGH AND THE PRINTING
PEESS—ANCIENT AND MODERN CITIES—JEWELS AND GLASS BEADS—ITALIAN AND ENGLISH
SOULPTUEE—FRENCn TASTE—THE MEDIEVAL COURT----LUCIEER MATCHES—THE TIMES NEWS-
PAPER----EIRE ASMS—MODEL OP A PYEAMID—PEINCE ALBEEt'S MODEL LODGING HOUSES,
ETC., ETC.
" Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake, and when wre sleep."—Milton.
Such is the declaration that the immortal bard puts into the mouth of our great pro-
genitor. And our old friend, Christopher North, bears evidence, in one of his learned
lucubrations, to the truth of the statement, inasmuch as he testifies from ocular experi-
ence, to the appearance, within the walls of the Great Exhibition, of a revenant of con-
siderable celebrity in the world of letters. We allude to the philosopher of Perney, the
shrewd, the keen, the inquiring, the sarcastic Voltaire. In fact, our neighbours north
of the Tweed have always been celebrated, not only for the keenness of their optics for
the second sight, but also for their prompt recognition of ghosts and wraiths of every
description. Hence we readily enter into the statement of our contemporary respecting
the appearance of this sceptical personage, who, it seems, was resolved to ascertain for
himself the truth of the wonderful accounts he had heard of the Crystal Palace, whether
in the regions above or below we do not take upon ourselves to inquire. " It was im-
possible," says our friend Christopher, from whose columns we extract the following
passages, " to keep him quiet—there would have been no peace in the shadowy regions
of the departed, unless this energetic, inquisitive, self-willed spirit, had been allowed
to have his own way; and Voltaire, rising to the earth in the city of Paris (where else
could his spirit rise ?) started by train to see the Great Exhibition. Reports had reached
him that in a Crystal Palace, not far from the Thames, were to be assembled specimens
of the industry of all nations—nothing less than a museum of the works of man. But it
was not this only that had excited the curiosity of the philosopher of Perney. Humours
of a new era of society, of unexampled advancement or development of mankind, had
from time to time descended into the territory of the shades, and had kindled a desire
■ great in criticism, and can make or mar a reputation, will experience the difficulty there
is for the best trained judgment deciding between the conflicting and distracting preten-
sions of such a vast variety of objects. Here is another great teaching; and with it an
argument, if one were needed, in favour of this museum of all nations, and for repeat-
ing attempts of this kind, even on a smaller scale; for thousands who have not the
inclination to form their judgments and modulate their feelings to works of art and
ingenious fabrications through books and the theories of men who comment and criticise
upon them, would yet put themselves to some personal trouble and inconvenience for
seeing and judging for themselves such a pile with such attractions. And it cannot be
denied but that they are under the best tuition. Beautiful works proclaim their own
merit, and force conviction. They have the force of examples seen by the eyes over
theories read unwillingly by the mind. They show the substance of true taste, and what
it is: your critics and books can only tell it.
CHAPTER VII.
VOLTAIRE IN THE CRYSTAL PALACE.
EAILWAY TRAVELLING----REFLECTIONS OK THE STEAM ENGINE—THE PLOUGH AND THE PRINTING
PEESS—ANCIENT AND MODERN CITIES—JEWELS AND GLASS BEADS—ITALIAN AND ENGLISH
SOULPTUEE—FRENCn TASTE—THE MEDIEVAL COURT----LUCIEER MATCHES—THE TIMES NEWS-
PAPER----EIRE ASMS—MODEL OP A PYEAMID—PEINCE ALBEEt'S MODEL LODGING HOUSES,
ETC., ETC.
" Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth
Unseen, both when we wake, and when wre sleep."—Milton.
Such is the declaration that the immortal bard puts into the mouth of our great pro-
genitor. And our old friend, Christopher North, bears evidence, in one of his learned
lucubrations, to the truth of the statement, inasmuch as he testifies from ocular experi-
ence, to the appearance, within the walls of the Great Exhibition, of a revenant of con-
siderable celebrity in the world of letters. We allude to the philosopher of Perney, the
shrewd, the keen, the inquiring, the sarcastic Voltaire. In fact, our neighbours north
of the Tweed have always been celebrated, not only for the keenness of their optics for
the second sight, but also for their prompt recognition of ghosts and wraiths of every
description. Hence we readily enter into the statement of our contemporary respecting
the appearance of this sceptical personage, who, it seems, was resolved to ascertain for
himself the truth of the wonderful accounts he had heard of the Crystal Palace, whether
in the regions above or below we do not take upon ourselves to inquire. " It was im-
possible," says our friend Christopher, from whose columns we extract the following
passages, " to keep him quiet—there would have been no peace in the shadowy regions
of the departed, unless this energetic, inquisitive, self-willed spirit, had been allowed
to have his own way; and Voltaire, rising to the earth in the city of Paris (where else
could his spirit rise ?) started by train to see the Great Exhibition. Reports had reached
him that in a Crystal Palace, not far from the Thames, were to be assembled specimens
of the industry of all nations—nothing less than a museum of the works of man. But it
was not this only that had excited the curiosity of the philosopher of Perney. Humours
of a new era of society, of unexampled advancement or development of mankind, had
from time to time descended into the territory of the shades, and had kindled a desire