DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1311#0236
OF THE WORLD'S INDUSTRY. 20]
Northampton, and St. Alban's, passed to places which had heen too small to dread
railways; new towns rose with wonderful rapidity, and the old became melancholy and
deserted. We need not tell what every one knows; though let the artisan class bear
in mind, that from the development of the railway system a great amount of new employ-
ment has been gained, and families once struggling against reverse of fortune are now
contented and happy. And if we say the very innkeepers and horses had soon more
to do than ever before, and that towns which had rejected railways got looped in, bit-
, terly lamenting, then we shall have simply told the story of the last sixteen years.
But the moral we cannot omit. It is, that the antidote to these temporary hardships
must be supplied by education, by the development of mind in the workman; and
for this antidote, the means existed in the Exhibition. J$y debasing the workman to a
mere machine, it has followed necessarily that the human machine was superseded,
sooner or later, by the superior mechanism which springs from mind. Immediate
advantages of concentration of attention and subdivision of labour were the limitation;
and it may not unreasonably be inferred, that the recent prevalence of insanity even
has been the result. Improved education, and the development of mental energy, would
not only lead to the discovery of new sources of employment, indispensable in a state
of progress, but would, at the same time, substitute an honest pride and pleasure
in the perfect execution of even mechanical work; the increasing want of which is a
main cause of the inferiority of many works of art, and a constant source of annoyance
to architects, and loss in buildings to the public. From the brickwork and joiner's work,
or ironmongery in a house, down to a chair or an umbrella, lowness of price without the
asserted durability, is universal; and the ingenuity, and even pleasure, which both dealers
and workmen evince in the practice of a deception, is equalled by the readiness of the
public to deceive themselves. As we cannot grasp the reasoning of a Chancellor of the
Exchequer, that because chicory is sold, coffee has been available to a class which had
not before used it, so we regret the prevalence of the delusion which exists in buildings
as in every other commodity. Many amongst the class of building artisans appear to
disregard directions as to work, for the mere pleasure of practising a deceit. Eor this
pleasure, we must substitute the pride of producing a good work, and this antidote, we
repeat, was to be found in the Exhibition. We could have hoped that the influence of
the Exhibition would have been exerted in the removal of a delusion before referred
to, namely, that expense and elaborate work are indispensable to the production of beauty.
Beautiful, indeed, and suggestive as were many of the objects of the Exhibition, there
appears to have been an entire absence of that cheap beauty which would be within the
reach of all classes. The attainment of this object would have been the more desirable,
since recent attempts to extend the influence of art, in association with objects of decoration
and utility, have fostered rather than discouraged the delusion, and so have not advanced
the objects of those who have made them. What has to be done, in fact, is to invest
every form of utility with the attributes of art, and this alike from tthe most elaborate
work of architecture, to the least important article of furniture, or the meanest utensil.
Certain principles which have to be kept in view are alike in all these cases. They corre-
spond with those which the most enlightened artists are endeavouring to bring to the
regeneration of architecture; they are in many respects distinct from those which deter-
mine the forms of painting and sculpture, and, perhaps, have never yet been accurately
perceived and exemplified in the architecture of any age. They depend, indeed, upon the
constant recognition of the fact, that the reason must be satisfied as well as the eye
delighted; and the want of this recognition is the great fault in the numerous designs for
decorative objects, now held up to notice as excellent works of art. We think that the
late Exhibition has afforded us the means not only of contributing to the advancement of
Northampton, and St. Alban's, passed to places which had heen too small to dread
railways; new towns rose with wonderful rapidity, and the old became melancholy and
deserted. We need not tell what every one knows; though let the artisan class bear
in mind, that from the development of the railway system a great amount of new employ-
ment has been gained, and families once struggling against reverse of fortune are now
contented and happy. And if we say the very innkeepers and horses had soon more
to do than ever before, and that towns which had rejected railways got looped in, bit-
, terly lamenting, then we shall have simply told the story of the last sixteen years.
But the moral we cannot omit. It is, that the antidote to these temporary hardships
must be supplied by education, by the development of mind in the workman; and
for this antidote, the means existed in the Exhibition. J$y debasing the workman to a
mere machine, it has followed necessarily that the human machine was superseded,
sooner or later, by the superior mechanism which springs from mind. Immediate
advantages of concentration of attention and subdivision of labour were the limitation;
and it may not unreasonably be inferred, that the recent prevalence of insanity even
has been the result. Improved education, and the development of mental energy, would
not only lead to the discovery of new sources of employment, indispensable in a state
of progress, but would, at the same time, substitute an honest pride and pleasure
in the perfect execution of even mechanical work; the increasing want of which is a
main cause of the inferiority of many works of art, and a constant source of annoyance
to architects, and loss in buildings to the public. From the brickwork and joiner's work,
or ironmongery in a house, down to a chair or an umbrella, lowness of price without the
asserted durability, is universal; and the ingenuity, and even pleasure, which both dealers
and workmen evince in the practice of a deception, is equalled by the readiness of the
public to deceive themselves. As we cannot grasp the reasoning of a Chancellor of the
Exchequer, that because chicory is sold, coffee has been available to a class which had
not before used it, so we regret the prevalence of the delusion which exists in buildings
as in every other commodity. Many amongst the class of building artisans appear to
disregard directions as to work, for the mere pleasure of practising a deceit. Eor this
pleasure, we must substitute the pride of producing a good work, and this antidote, we
repeat, was to be found in the Exhibition. We could have hoped that the influence of
the Exhibition would have been exerted in the removal of a delusion before referred
to, namely, that expense and elaborate work are indispensable to the production of beauty.
Beautiful, indeed, and suggestive as were many of the objects of the Exhibition, there
appears to have been an entire absence of that cheap beauty which would be within the
reach of all classes. The attainment of this object would have been the more desirable,
since recent attempts to extend the influence of art, in association with objects of decoration
and utility, have fostered rather than discouraged the delusion, and so have not advanced
the objects of those who have made them. What has to be done, in fact, is to invest
every form of utility with the attributes of art, and this alike from tthe most elaborate
work of architecture, to the least important article of furniture, or the meanest utensil.
Certain principles which have to be kept in view are alike in all these cases. They corre-
spond with those which the most enlightened artists are endeavouring to bring to the
regeneration of architecture; they are in many respects distinct from those which deter-
mine the forms of painting and sculpture, and, perhaps, have never yet been accurately
perceived and exemplified in the architecture of any age. They depend, indeed, upon the
constant recognition of the fact, that the reason must be satisfied as well as the eye
delighted; and the want of this recognition is the great fault in the numerous designs for
decorative objects, now held up to notice as excellent works of art. We think that the
late Exhibition has afforded us the means not only of contributing to the advancement of