DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1310#0209
16:3 . THE GREAT EXHIBITION
family of the human race that sent their representatives to us at the call of peace and
science, and brotherly love, must have seen the objects around them according to their
own national tastes, habits, and associations. Then, again, in those national peculiari-
ties how many individual peculiarities must also exist! What two persons ever think
exactly alike, or are equally interested by any one object "whatsoever! The sculptor
gazes with delight upon the " storied urn, or animated bust," whilst he scarcely glances
at the ponderous iron masses that represent the wonders of machinery; and the engineer
turns away from the breathing marble, to contemplate utility and strength in a rougher
material, and luxuriates in images of power and steam.
The philosopher exclaims, with Diogenes, " How many things are here that I do not
want W:—the poor man, "how many things that I wish I could have \"—the rich one,
" how many things that I have already ! how many more that I will have !" The mili-
tary man handles the blades of Toledo, the sabres of Damascus, the Highland dirk and
claymore, the guns, pistols, and rifles—single and double barrelled, self-priming, self-
loading, revolving. The lover of peace turns to the pruning-hooks, the ploughs, the
spades, the hoes, and the garden-rollers. The philanthropist looks round for sugges-
tions that may benefit the human race; the missionary for the mean3 of evangelizing
it, casting a longing eye towards the Holy Bible in its hundred and fifty different
languages. Those who " go down to the sea in ships," examine the models of vessels,
and life-boats, light-houses, harbours, and breakwaters—but the ladies are all unanimous
in their raptures with the treasures of dress and decoration expressly framed for the
heightening of their attractions, and consequent extension of the empire of their charms.
. What a variety of thoughts, sentiments, comparisons, and calculations, must have
passed through the minds of the motley crowd that daily congregated under that crystal
canopy! numerous as the motes in the sunbeam, rapid as the movements of the gnat-
fly's wings—which wings, be it known to you, gentle reader, have been ingeniously
ascertained to flap at the rate of fifteen thousand times per second. The Crystal
Palace, with all its wonders, could never have produced a wonder like that little insect,
even had it stood for a million of years.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE APPLICATION OF SCIENCE TO THE PURPOSES 02" HUMANITY—SMITH S YIELDING BREAK-
WATER—NATURE'S SIMPLE BABRIEE, THE TRUMPET-MOUTHED WEED—HINTS OH PHILAN-
THEOPY AND ECONOMY—LOCOMOTIYES—THE TILLAGE 0E BEDEUTH—THE LOED OE THE
ISLES—THE COENWALL—THE LIVERPOOL, ETC. ETC.
"Paulo majora canamus," was the exclamation of the Mantuan bard, when he
meditated a loftier theme than his bucolic muse was accustomed to inspire. " Paulo
majora canamus" we repeat, as, somewhat reluctantly, we confess, we turn from the
flowery fields of poesy, the beautiful and graceful forms, in ever-changing variety, that
art, with lavish hand, so profusely scattered through the various mazes of the Crystal
Palace, "to please and sate the curious taste/' But we feel we should not be doing
justice to our subject, were we to confine our lucubrations solely to what relates to
the gratification of taste, however pure and refined that taste may be. Other objects
there were within those memorable walls, which tended to excite even loftier emotions
than could be awakened by the proudest display of imitative art. Science unfolded her
family of the human race that sent their representatives to us at the call of peace and
science, and brotherly love, must have seen the objects around them according to their
own national tastes, habits, and associations. Then, again, in those national peculiari-
ties how many individual peculiarities must also exist! What two persons ever think
exactly alike, or are equally interested by any one object "whatsoever! The sculptor
gazes with delight upon the " storied urn, or animated bust," whilst he scarcely glances
at the ponderous iron masses that represent the wonders of machinery; and the engineer
turns away from the breathing marble, to contemplate utility and strength in a rougher
material, and luxuriates in images of power and steam.
The philosopher exclaims, with Diogenes, " How many things are here that I do not
want W:—the poor man, "how many things that I wish I could have \"—the rich one,
" how many things that I have already ! how many more that I will have !" The mili-
tary man handles the blades of Toledo, the sabres of Damascus, the Highland dirk and
claymore, the guns, pistols, and rifles—single and double barrelled, self-priming, self-
loading, revolving. The lover of peace turns to the pruning-hooks, the ploughs, the
spades, the hoes, and the garden-rollers. The philanthropist looks round for sugges-
tions that may benefit the human race; the missionary for the mean3 of evangelizing
it, casting a longing eye towards the Holy Bible in its hundred and fifty different
languages. Those who " go down to the sea in ships," examine the models of vessels,
and life-boats, light-houses, harbours, and breakwaters—but the ladies are all unanimous
in their raptures with the treasures of dress and decoration expressly framed for the
heightening of their attractions, and consequent extension of the empire of their charms.
. What a variety of thoughts, sentiments, comparisons, and calculations, must have
passed through the minds of the motley crowd that daily congregated under that crystal
canopy! numerous as the motes in the sunbeam, rapid as the movements of the gnat-
fly's wings—which wings, be it known to you, gentle reader, have been ingeniously
ascertained to flap at the rate of fifteen thousand times per second. The Crystal
Palace, with all its wonders, could never have produced a wonder like that little insect,
even had it stood for a million of years.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE APPLICATION OF SCIENCE TO THE PURPOSES 02" HUMANITY—SMITH S YIELDING BREAK-
WATER—NATURE'S SIMPLE BABRIEE, THE TRUMPET-MOUTHED WEED—HINTS OH PHILAN-
THEOPY AND ECONOMY—LOCOMOTIYES—THE TILLAGE 0E BEDEUTH—THE LOED OE THE
ISLES—THE COENWALL—THE LIVERPOOL, ETC. ETC.
"Paulo majora canamus," was the exclamation of the Mantuan bard, when he
meditated a loftier theme than his bucolic muse was accustomed to inspire. " Paulo
majora canamus" we repeat, as, somewhat reluctantly, we confess, we turn from the
flowery fields of poesy, the beautiful and graceful forms, in ever-changing variety, that
art, with lavish hand, so profusely scattered through the various mazes of the Crystal
Palace, "to please and sate the curious taste/' But we feel we should not be doing
justice to our subject, were we to confine our lucubrations solely to what relates to
the gratification of taste, however pure and refined that taste may be. Other objects
there were within those memorable walls, which tended to excite even loftier emotions
than could be awakened by the proudest display of imitative art. Science unfolded her