BY
SAMUEL PHILLIPS.
CRYSTAL PALACE LIBRARY;
AND
BRADBURY AND EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON.
1854.
BRADBURY AND EVANS,
PRINTERS TO THE CRYSTAL PALACE COMPANY,
WHITEFRIARS.
PREFACE.
The object of the following pages is to extract from the valuable collection of Statues and Busts, that will be found adorning the vast area of the Crystal Palace, some of the interest and instruction which such works, if properly addressed, are certain to yield. Man looks at his own image with a more feeling curiosity than he regards the architectural remains of a city, however ancient, or of any structure, however beautiful. The broad brow of the poet whose works we have read, or the martial air of the soldier whose deeds we have heard, excite an instant desire for more intimate acquaintance with the men; and such acquaintance can never be formed without lasting advantage to all who are susceptible of instruction.
The limits of the present small volume have prevented my doing more than record, as briefly as I might, the salient points in the characters of the various personages whose statues and busts constitute the Portrait Gallery of the Crystal Palace; but I trust sufficient has been done to throw a little light upon the various features which the visitor will contemplate on his pleasant journey, and to indicate, however indistinctly, the universal path which, in life itself, leads to all true greatness. A portrait gallery exhibits the men who have worked their way to eminence. Biography teaches how they travelled the difficult and thorny road.