PART V.
BENEFICIAL RESULTS, PROBABLE AND POSSIBLE.
“Albion! on every human soul
By thee be knowledge shed
Far as the ocean waters roll,
Wide as the shores are spread:—
Truth makes thy children free at home,
Oh, that thy flag unfurl’d
Might shine, where’er thy children roam,
Truth’s banner round the world.”Montgomery.
Possessed as we are of an aptitude and an inclination to speculate on the issues of any enterprise in which we take a lively interest, we naturally turn, when revolving in our thoughts the subject of our Glass Palace and our great gathering, to look at the consequences which seem likely to emanate from such a remarkable exhibition, or which may be elicited by wisdom and benevolence from the fact of such an assemblage of the human family. There are temporal results of an advantageous kind certain, or almost certain, to arise. While we deprecate the all-absorbing interest felt by too many in pursuits terminating upon our condition in the present life; while we condemn an extravagant and idolatrous admiration of talent in invention and cleverness in contrivance; while we deplore that in the present day there is, in some quarters, an unmingled enthusiasm about such matters, which almost looks like the worship “of the vice, the saw, and the hammer;” while we look with pain upon the instances around us, in which our fellow-creatures are under the supreme and disastrous guidance of what an inspired teacher calls the “lust of the eye and the pride of life;” while we bear in mind that the insatiable love of gain, which is obvious enough in this commercial age, and is plainly the besetting sin of multitudes, must lead its subjects into temptation and a snare, and many hurtful lusts, which drown men in perdition:—yet, consistently with all this, in strict accordance with the spirit of our holy religion, which has “the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come;” we look with interest and thankfulness upon all that may improve, elevate, and adorn the condition of mankind in the present stage of existence. It seems impossible that this exposition of the works of all countries should not have a most favourable influence upon the taste, knowledge, convenience, and physical welfare of mankind. Whilst the sight of so many productions of art will exercise the judgment, inspire the admiration, and chasten and guide the sensibilities of the mind in reference to artistic beauty, we shall obtain an enlarged acquaintance with modern inventions, and thus derive information relative to what forms an interesting chapter in the history of human achievements. Among the suggestions of philosophical and philanthropic minds, that of Douglas, for the establishment of a Great Society, which should survey the compass and collect and arrange the treasures of human knowledge, a suggestion founded on Lord Bacon’s germinant idea of a philosophia prima, is one of the most remarkable. The Great Exhibition will accomplish to a considerable extent one of the ends contemplated in the project. It will convey more intelligence, in reference to art, than any written description could do. The operations of our “Regent Society” will furnish a gigantic catalogue of the inventions of men, illustrated by the inventions themselves. “Few works,” says the writer we have named, “would be more conducive to further advancement than ‘a calendar;’”—here he uses Bacon’s words;—“than a calendar resembling an inventory of the estate of man, of all inventions which are now extant, out of which doth naturally result a note what things are yet impossible, or not invented.” Here we shall have the very thing—the huge household book of the world’s furniture, bound in covers of crystal. By its influence on the knowledge and cultivation of art the Exhibition will promote at once our individual enjoyment, the comforts of our home, and all the conveniences and elegancies of domestic life, and also tend to strengthen and elevate our national importance. What will benefit the rich may bless the poor. “The discoveries which are the property of the higher class in one age descend indeed to the lower, but slowly and imperfectly; and there is ample opportunity and scope for accelerating the general diffusion of knowledge and inventions among all classes of society. Even, in the most civilized countries, the mass of the nation have been suffered to remain comparatively barbarous; and it will be the dawn of a new and happier era, when the condition of the multitude is considered with that interest which is due to those, the sum of whose joys and sorrows are to all that is felt by the rest of the community what the ocean is to the drops of rain that fall into it.”
“It would be difficult to point out any branch of art which does not tend to the prosperity of our country; those which in appearance are most remote in their influence, however indirectly, yet effectually contribute to the perfection of its manufactures. The pursuits of immediate utility and of refined pleasure, however far separated from each other, alike combine in exalting our national welfare. It is not necessary, in recommending the fine arts to public patronage, to point out how far they improve and recommend to other nations the productions of manufactures, since they have higher and more direct claims upon the national encouragement. Still their advancement, and above all their diffusion, become of high importance in a country like Britain, to be and ever to continue the centre and heart of trade and manufactures.” [122]
We may also advert for a moment to the connexion of the present enterprise with the pursuits of science. In the history of human progress it may indeed be remarked that art has preceded science; that Phidias came before Aristotle, and Michael Angelo before Lord Bacon; but still science has ever proved the friend of art in those branches which minister immediately to the enjoyments of mankind.
Scarcely any specimens of modern ingenuity could be found in the Exhibition which are not indebted for something of their beauty and adaptation, if not their very existence, to scientific knowledge. The practical application of philosophy has given birth to the manifold kinds of machinery which at once abridge the toils and improve the products of human skill. Now art, if it cannot pay back the debt it owes to science, may be subservient to the interests of its patron. So it has proved in many instances already, and will continue to do, no doubt, as the necessities of artistic invention give an impulse to philosophical inquiry. The manufacture of watches long since led to careful observations upon the effect of temperature on metals. Glass-making, at an early period, occasioned examinations into the colouring properties of metallic oxides; and the dying of woollens and silks has naturally induced persons employed in that department to investigate the qualities of mineral substances as they bore upon the operations of their own trade. No sagacity can anticipate, no fancy conceive, the yet future enlargement of the sum of human science, especially in its minute details, to be derived from the busy activities of useful art. All this the present collection of the industry of the nations will be likely to promote; and, even with this limited view, one may regard it, in its relation to the Illustrious Personage who may be deemed the founder of the Great Institute, as worthy of a place among the “Opera Basilica” which Bacon desired to witness. Some princes have sought to immortalize themselves by war; some by purchasing the praise of contemporary poets; some by erecting palaces, temples, and statues: but at length a prince has arisen, who, to his lasting honour, seeks, by encouraging a noble enterprise, to foster the arts and manufactures, not only of his adopted country but of the wide world.
But the social effects of the great gathering are most important. Vast multitudes of the human race cannot be brought together for one common peaceful purpose without its tending to some desirable end. There is a bond of consanguinity which encompasses all the descendants of Adam. “God has made of one blood the families of men.” There are sympathies in all human hearts like the strings of a concert of harps attuned in harmony: “as in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.”
When men are marshalled under opposite banners in the battle-field, and taught to look on each other as natural enemies, deadly passions are evoked from the depths of the heart:
“Like warring winds, like flames from various points
That mate each other’s fury, there is nought
Of elemental strife, were fiends to guide it,
Can mate the wrath of man.”
But when they meet amidst scenes of peace, to contemplate the glories of nature, or the beauties of art; where they are freed, for a while at least, from the sophistry which would persuade them that the depression of one class or country is necessary to the prosperity of another; the kindly instincts of the human breast are likely to unfold and operate, and mutual amity and good-will to brighten and bless the interview. We know how the selfishness, pride, and irritability of men, after having for a season been lulled to rest, may easily be aroused again: we are not unmindful of the possibility that, even through the Exhibition itself, jealousies may be excited in some minds; yet still we cannot but hope, and we fervently pray, that after this peaceful congress of states, and the amicable interchange of kind thoughts and good offices which generally, we trust, it will produce, there will be far more even than at present an indisposition for war among the nations of the earth. May we not expect that, after this, America, the continental powers, and ourselves will feel an increased reluctance to unsheath the sword? Will not fighting look more than ever like fratricide? It was a custom among the Romans to split in two, and divide between themselves and foreign visitors who shared their hospitality, a small token called the tessera hospitalis, which was preserved from generation to generation in the two families who formed the friendly alliance. It became an heir-loom, to be enjoyed and used by remote descendants. Fervently do we desire that the result of the great gathering in the industrial mansion, the minor gatherings in other, and especially sacred, places of resort, and the private gatherings of foreign friends around English-hearths, will be like the division of the tessera hospitalis in old times, and that its memory will be cherished and honoured through years to come.