DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0146
118 THE GREAT EXHIBITION
chemical theories of the last and the present century; from the investigations carried on
in the laboratories of Scheele and Kirwan, Berthollet and Lavoisieur. So rapidly in
this case has the tree of art blossomed from the root of science; upon so gigantic a
scale have the truths of science been embodied in the domain of art.
Again, there is another remark which we may make in comparing the first class,
Minerals, with the third class; or rather with the fourth, Vegetable and Animal substances
used in Manufactures, or as implements or ornaments. And I wish to speak especially of
vegetable substances. In the class of Minerals, all the great members of the class are
still what, they were in ancient times. No doubt a number of new metals and mineral
substances have been discovered; and these have their use; and of these the Exhibi-
tion presented fine examples. But still, their use is upon a small scale. Gold and iron,
at the present day, as in ancient times, are the rulers of the world; and the great
events in the world of mineral art, are not the discovery of new substances, but of new
and rich localities of old ones,—the opening of the treasures of the earth in Mexico
and Peru in the sixteenth century, in California and Australia in our own day. But
in the vegetable world the case is different; there, we have not only a constant accu-
mulation and reproduction, but also a constantly growing variety of objects, fitted to the
needs and uses of man. Tea, coffee, tobacco, sugar, cotton, have made man's life, and the
arts which sustain it, very different from what they were in ancient times. And no one
I think can have looked at the vegetable treasures of the Crystal Palace without
seeing that the various wealth, of the vegetable world is far from exhausted. The
Liverpool local committee have enabled us to take a starting point for sucb a survey,
by sending to the Exhibition a noble collection of specimens of every kind of import
of that great emporium; among which, as might be expected, the varieties of vegetable
produce are the most numerous. But that objects should be reckoned among imports,
implies that already they are extensively used. If we look at the multiplied collections
of objects of the same kind, some from various countries, not as wares to a known
market, but as specimens and suggestions of unexplored wealth, we can have no doubt
that the list of imports will hereafter, with great advantage, be enlarged. Who knows
wbat beautiful materials for the makers of furniture are to be found in the collections of
woods from the various forests of the Indian Archipelago, or of Australia, or of Tasmania,
or of New Zealand? Who knows what we may hereafter discover to have been collected
of fruits and oils, and medicines and dyes; of threads and cordage, as we had here from
New Zealand and from China, examples of such novelties; of gums and vegetable sub-
stances, which may, in some unforeseen manner, promote and facilitate the processes of
art? How recent is the application of caoutchouc to general purposes ? Yet we know
now—and on this occasion America would have taught us if we had not known—that
there is scarcely any use to which, it may not be applied with advantage. Again, how
recent is the discovery of the uses of gutta percha? In the great collection were some
of the original specimens sent by Dr. Montgomery to various experimentalists. Yet how
various and peculiar are now its uses, such as no other substance could replace! And
is it not to be expected that our contemporaries, joining the insight of science to the
instinct of art, shall discover, among the various sources of vegetable wealth which the
Great Exhibition has disclosed to them, substances as peculiar and precious, in the man-
ner of their utility, as those aids thus recently obtained for the uses of life? Before we
quit this subject, let us reflect—as it is impossible, I think, not to reflect when viewing
thus the constantly enlarging sphere of the utility which man draws, from the vegetable
world—what a view this also gives us of the bounty of Providence to man; thus bring-
ing out of the earth, in every varying clime, endless forms of vegetable life, of which so
many, and so many more than we yet can tell, are adapted to sustain, to cheer, to
chemical theories of the last and the present century; from the investigations carried on
in the laboratories of Scheele and Kirwan, Berthollet and Lavoisieur. So rapidly in
this case has the tree of art blossomed from the root of science; upon so gigantic a
scale have the truths of science been embodied in the domain of art.
Again, there is another remark which we may make in comparing the first class,
Minerals, with the third class; or rather with the fourth, Vegetable and Animal substances
used in Manufactures, or as implements or ornaments. And I wish to speak especially of
vegetable substances. In the class of Minerals, all the great members of the class are
still what, they were in ancient times. No doubt a number of new metals and mineral
substances have been discovered; and these have their use; and of these the Exhibi-
tion presented fine examples. But still, their use is upon a small scale. Gold and iron,
at the present day, as in ancient times, are the rulers of the world; and the great
events in the world of mineral art, are not the discovery of new substances, but of new
and rich localities of old ones,—the opening of the treasures of the earth in Mexico
and Peru in the sixteenth century, in California and Australia in our own day. But
in the vegetable world the case is different; there, we have not only a constant accu-
mulation and reproduction, but also a constantly growing variety of objects, fitted to the
needs and uses of man. Tea, coffee, tobacco, sugar, cotton, have made man's life, and the
arts which sustain it, very different from what they were in ancient times. And no one
I think can have looked at the vegetable treasures of the Crystal Palace without
seeing that the various wealth, of the vegetable world is far from exhausted. The
Liverpool local committee have enabled us to take a starting point for sucb a survey,
by sending to the Exhibition a noble collection of specimens of every kind of import
of that great emporium; among which, as might be expected, the varieties of vegetable
produce are the most numerous. But that objects should be reckoned among imports,
implies that already they are extensively used. If we look at the multiplied collections
of objects of the same kind, some from various countries, not as wares to a known
market, but as specimens and suggestions of unexplored wealth, we can have no doubt
that the list of imports will hereafter, with great advantage, be enlarged. Who knows
wbat beautiful materials for the makers of furniture are to be found in the collections of
woods from the various forests of the Indian Archipelago, or of Australia, or of Tasmania,
or of New Zealand? Who knows what we may hereafter discover to have been collected
of fruits and oils, and medicines and dyes; of threads and cordage, as we had here from
New Zealand and from China, examples of such novelties; of gums and vegetable sub-
stances, which may, in some unforeseen manner, promote and facilitate the processes of
art? How recent is the application of caoutchouc to general purposes ? Yet we know
now—and on this occasion America would have taught us if we had not known—that
there is scarcely any use to which, it may not be applied with advantage. Again, how
recent is the discovery of the uses of gutta percha? In the great collection were some
of the original specimens sent by Dr. Montgomery to various experimentalists. Yet how
various and peculiar are now its uses, such as no other substance could replace! And
is it not to be expected that our contemporaries, joining the insight of science to the
instinct of art, shall discover, among the various sources of vegetable wealth which the
Great Exhibition has disclosed to them, substances as peculiar and precious, in the man-
ner of their utility, as those aids thus recently obtained for the uses of life? Before we
quit this subject, let us reflect—as it is impossible, I think, not to reflect when viewing
thus the constantly enlarging sphere of the utility which man draws, from the vegetable
world—what a view this also gives us of the bounty of Providence to man; thus bring-
ing out of the earth, in every varying clime, endless forms of vegetable life, of which so
many, and so many more than we yet can tell, are adapted to sustain, to cheer, to