{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_64495/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_64495","id":"gutenberg_64495","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64495","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Crystal Palace (Great Exhibition, 1851, London, England)","Great Exhibition (1851 : London, England)","Progress -- Religious aspects -- Christianity"],"text":"Transcribed from the 1851 Religious Tract Society edition by David Price.\nMany thanks to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Local\nStudies, for allowing their copy to be used for this transcription.\n\n\n\n\n\n                                   THE\n                             PALACE OF GLASS\n                                 AND THE\n                         GATHERING OF THE PEOPLE.\n\n\n                        A BOOK FOR THE EXHIBITION.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                  BY THE\n                           REV. JOHN STOUGHTON.\n\n             Humani generis progressus,\n       Ex communi omnium labore ortus,\n    Uniuscujusque industri\u00e6 debet esse finis:\n                   Hoc adjuvando,\n    Dei optimi maximi voluntatem exsequimur.\n\n             The progress of the human race,\n    Resulting from the common labour of all men,\n    Ought to be the final object of the exertion of each individual.\n                In promoting this end,\n    We are carrying out the will of the great and blessed God.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                 LONDON:\n                       THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,\n           DEPOSITORY, 56, PATERNOSTER-ROW, AND 65, ST. PAUL\u2019S\n                               CHURCHYARD.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                  1851.\n\n\n\n\nADVERTISEMENT.\n\n\nTHE Writer of the following pages has, from the first announcement of the\nproject, taken a sunny view of the nature and tendency of the Great\nExhibition.  Originating in the disinterested suggestions of the\nIllustrious Prince Consort\u2014designed and adapted to promote the interests\nof art and commerce, and the fellowship of nations\u2014supported by persons,\nwho, in addition to the distinctions of rank or wealth, are remarkable\nfor knowledge, benevolence, and piety\u2014promoted generally from a desire to\nadvance the welfare of our country and mankind\u2014responded to very\nextensively abroad as well as at home with manifest cordiality and good\nwill\u2014and calling forth and securing the prayers of Christians in\nreference to the undertaking\u2014it appeared to the Author to warrant\ncheering and hopeful anticipations.  The wonderful scene on the day of\nopening\u2014as must have been felt by those who have read the graphic\ndescriptions of it in the public prints, and especially by those who were\nprivileged to behold that unprecedented spectacle\u2014was of a character to\nstrengthen favourable expectations of the result of the enterprise.  The\norder, harmony, and mutual kindness manifested by the vast multitude on\nthat occasion\u2014the moral impression which it certainly made on many\u2014and\nthe religious element introduced into the august ceremonial, evidently\nawakening sympathy in thousands of hearts which then beat with strange\nemotion\u2014surely may be regarded as tokens for good!\n\nThe Author is far from intending to assume a tone of confident\nprediction\u2014remembering that only the Infinite and All-wise One can\nembrace the entire bearings and tendencies of human events\u2014but he may be\nallowed to confess, that while he does not overlook the incidental evils\nto which such a vast gathering of the people may give rise, his hopes\ndecidedly predominate over his fears.  The following pages, expressive of\nthoughts and feelings which are pervaded by the spirit thus indicated,\nare now commended to the candid attention of the reader, with an earnest\nprayer for the Divine blessing on their perusal.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n                      PART I.\n                                                PAGE\nTHE POET\u2019S DREAM                                   1\n                      PART II.\nCONTRASTS BETWEEN THE PAST AND PRESENT            29\n                     PART III.\nVOICES OF HOPE AND WARNING                        51\n                      PART IV.\nASSOCIATIONS, SECULAR AND SACRED                  79\n                      PART V.\nBENEFICIAL RESULTS, PROBABLE AND POSSIBLE        115\n                      PART VI.\nLESSONS, PERTINENT AND PRACTICAL                 145\n\n\n\n\nPART I.\nTHE POET\u2019S DREAM.\n\n\n    \u201cThe bard beholds the work achieved,\n       And, as he sees the shadow rise\n       Sublime before his wondering eyes,\n    Starts at the image his own mini conceived.\u201d\n\n                                                              KIRKE WHITE.\n\nFIVE centuries ago there might have been seen in the streets of old\nLondon, one of those gifted mortals who are now and then sent into the\nworld by the Father of spirits, to stamp their name upon the age in which\nthey live, and to enshrine its memory amidst the splendours of their own\ngenius.  With a deep and luminous insight into the scenes of nature, the\nworks of art and the ways of men, did there look forth from those large\nbright eyes of his a poetic soul of an order high and rare.  As he passed\nalong the highways of his native city, to which he tells us he had \u201cmore\nkindly love, and fuller appetite than to any other place on earth,\u201d he\nwas gathering materials for a living picture of his times; or rather\nforming a photograph representation of men around, catching in the magic\nmirror of his verse the evanescent forms and colours, lights and shades,\nof our Proteus-like humanity, and there retaining them in stedfast\nimagery for ever.\n\nChaucer, though unhappily as a writer not free from moral blemishes, was,\nlike Hogarth, the great historic painter of his age, sketching not armies\nin battle, or parliaments in conclave, but a people in their costume and\nintercourse, their business and pastime, their private habits and daily\nlife.  In turning over the black-letter volume of his works, we see and\nhear our ancestors, and talk with them.  It is as if the very glance of\nthe eye, the quivering of the lip, and the tones of the voice, had by\nsome strange process been preserved by this wonder-working artist.\n\nBut Chaucer often passed beyond the sphere of contemporary realities.\nThe lore of chivalry he was accustomed to weave into a rich tapestry of\nverse; and ideal realms, and groups of visionary beings, he was wont to\nsketch with the power and beauty of a Fuseli.  It was in one of the\nplayful flights of his untiring fancy, that he touched on scenes and\nobjects strangely associated with the occasion of this little book;\u2014it\noccurs in a poem, well known as \u201cChaucer\u2019s Dream.\u201d  Throughout the wild\nrevellings of his genius, which he has recorded in that production, it\nwould be beside our present purpose to follow him.  The general plot and\nmachinery of the tale are in the extravagantly symbolic spirit of the\nage,\u2014utterly unlike what could happen at any period, and not at all\nentering within the range of our conceptions now.  In the nineteenth\ncentury a poet\u2019s strangest vision would not be like his.  But amidst\nassociations out of all congruity with modern times did the bard we have\ndescribed fashion out a picture, almost the counterpart of what we have\nlived to witness embodied in the actual work of men.  He \u201chad a dream\nwhich was not all a dream.\u201d  He imagined, standing on an island, a\nstructure, whose wall and gate were \u201call of glass:\u201d\n\n    \u201cAnd so was closed round about,\n    That leaveless none came in or out\u2014\n    And of a suit were all the towers,\n    Subtilly carven, after flowers\n    Of uncouth colours, during aye\u2014\n    That never been, or seen, in May.\u201d\n\nThis island of the Crystal Palace he represents under the sovereignty of\na beautiful lady, who becomes wedded to a royal knight, and he describes\na festival celebrated in tents on a large plain, by\n\n    \u201cThe Prince, the Queen, and all the rest,\u201d\n\namidst a wood between \u201ca river and a well,\u201d continuing for three months,\u2014\n\n    \u201cFrom early rising of the sun\n    Until the day was spent and done.\u201d\n\nThe coincidence between these parts of the poet\u2019s dream and the reality\nof 1851, with respect to the place, the Palace, the regal personages, and\nthe period of the year, is singular enough: it is one of those remarkable\nexploits of thought, which appear sometimes in the form of reproductions\nof the past, and sometimes in the form of anticipations of the\nfuture,\u2014exhibiting the counterpart of far distant things, now on the page\nof history, then in poetic strains, and again in the records of\nscience\u2014likenesses between what has been and what is, apparently without\nany connexion whatever: likenesses which baffle the effort to explain the\nlaw of their occurrence, and which seem to indicate the existence of\nunfathomable sympathies between minds in ages present and remote, and\nsuggest to us yet once more the oft-told truth that there are more things\nin heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy.  What was the\nprecise form and fashion of the structure Chaucer pictured in his charmed\nisle we cannot tell; but we question whether, even in his boldest dreams,\nhe ever saw aught so marvellous as that which the people of all lands are\nflocking, or will flock, to see in our Hyde Park the present summer.\nChaucer was not ignorant of the ways of building in the age in which he\nlived, for he was appointed clerk of the works at Windsor Castle, in the\nyear 1390; but assuredly, among all the plans which were ever suggested\nby his genius, or adopted by his judgment, as capable of being reduced to\nrealities, such a thing as the grand transparent Hall of Industry never\nentered his mind.\n\nIt may indeed be said, that every beautiful work of art was once a\ndream,\u2014it floated in the imagination before it was fixed and made visible\nby the hand.  A picture by Corregio or Rubens is a painter\u2019s dream\ntransferred to canvass.  The Apollo Belvidere is a sculptor\u2019s dream\ncarved in marble.  Milton\u2019s \u201cParadise Lost\u201d is a poet\u2019s dream committed\nto paper.  Strasburg Cathedral is an architect\u2019s dream built up in stone.\nThousands of strange images arise in artistic minds which of necessity\nnever find expression in any actual work; some, also, worthy of being set\nin ripe and lasting fruit, perish in the blossom: but all the great\nproductions of ancient and modern times assuredly constitute a harvest,\nof which the seeds were only dreams.  To whatever order of genius the\norigin of the Crystal Palace belongs, it certainly embodies a beautiful\ndream, which in a happy hour lighted on the fancy of Mr. Paxton.  It was\nshaping itself into form during the few days he thus describes:\n\n    \u201cIt was not until one morning when I was present with my friend Mr.\n    Ellis, at an early sitting in the House of Commons, that the idea of\n    sending in a design occurred to me.  A conversation took place\n    between us, with reference to the construction of the New House of\n    Commons, in the course of which I observed that I was afraid they\n    would also commit a blunder in the building for the Industrial\n    Exhibition.  I told him that I had a notion in my head, and that if\n    he would accompany me to the Board of Trade, I would ascertain\n    whether it was too late to send in a design.  Well, this was on\n    Friday, the 11th of June.  From London I went to the Menai Straits,\n    to see the third tube of the Britannia Bridge placed, and on my\n    return to Derby, I had to attend some business at the Board-room,\n    during which time, however, my whole mind was devoted to this\n    project; and, whilst the business proceeded, I sketched the outline\n    of my design on a large sheet of blotting-paper.  Having sketched\n    this design on blotting-paper, I sat up all night until I had worked\n    it out to my own satisfaction.\u201d\n\nThus was created in the inventor\u2019s mind an image of his work, with a\nrapidity precursive of the speed with which the work itself has since\nbeen realized.  The dream grew up and bore its ripened fruits in a few\nhours: the Industrial Palace, in a few months, has attained its full\nperfection; so that, as if by miracle, it now looks like the old\nfig-tree,\u2014\n\n    \u201cSuch as at this day to Indians known\u2014\n    In Malabar or Deccan, spreads her arms,\n    Branching so broad and long, that on the ground\n    The bending twigs take root, and daughters grow\n    About the mother tree; a pillar\u2019d shade,\n    High overarch\u2019d, and echoing walks between.\u201d\n\nWe do not know whether Mr. Paxton possesses what is generally understood\nby a poetic mind; but, certainly, no one who has gazed on the stupendous\nstructure erected in Hyde Park, according to his plan, but must feel that\na poetical idea there stands expressed.  So gigantic in its dimensions,\nsimple in its form, and graceful in its details, it awakens a sense of\nvague wonder, which, on a careful survey of the object exciting it,\nsubsides into calm, intelligent admiration.  It inspires a curiosity to\nexamine into the parts and proportions of so strange an edifice\u2014into the\nminute and delicate filling up of so bold an outline; and commends itself\nto the taste and judgment of the spectator, as it spreads out before his\neye, like the pages of a volume, and reveals, on close inspection\u2014\n\n    \u2014\u201cThe subtle shining secrecies\n    Writ in the glassy margin of such books.\u201d\n\nSeen a little while ago, as the morning vapours rolled round its\nbase,\u2014its far stretching roofs, rising one above another, and its great\ntransept, majestically arched, soaring out of the envelope of clouds, its\npillars, window-bars, and pinnacles enamelled with rich hoar-frost, the\ntrees around it all sparkling with the same bright ornament,\u2014the\nstructure looked literally a castle in the air, like some palace, such as\none reads of in idle tales of Arabian enchantment, having about it all\nthe ethereal softness of a dream,\u2014being itself \u201cthe fabric of a vision,\u201d\nrather than a structure of solid and enduring material.  Looked at from a\ndistance at noon, when the sunbeams come pouring upon the terraced and\nvaulted top, it resembles a regal palace of silver, built for some\neastern prince; when the sun at eventide sheds on its sides his parting\nrays, the edifice is transformed into a temple of gold and rubies; and in\nthe calm hours of night, when \u201cthe moon walketh in her brightness,\u201d the\nimmense surface of glass which the building presents, looks like a sea or\nlake throwing back in flickering smiles the radiant glances of the queen\nof heaven.  Ever does it repose in its strong, though not stone-built,\nfoundations\u2014the very image of beauty and strength.\n\nThe antecedent of this great work\u2014the parent construction, of which it is\nthe offspring, nobler than its sire\u2014had more than a dash of poetry about\nit.  The building we refer to is the glass conservatory at Chatsworth,\ncontrived for the preservation of the gigantic water-lily, found on\nnew-year\u2019s day, 1837, on the river Berbice, in Demerara, and sent to\nEngland by sir Robert Schomburgh.  The arrival of the extraordinary\nplant, with its six-foot leaf, shaped like an elegant salver, and adorned\nwith broad rims of green and crimson, was warmly welcomed by that patron\nof botanical science, the duke of Devonshire, and forthwith committed to\nthe charge of Mr. Paxton, then and still the scientific and tasteful\nhorticulturist-in-chief at the far-famed paradise of the Peak.  Improving\nupon all his former improvements in the arrangement of glass-houses, he\ncontrived a fitting receptacle for this new specimen of the western\nflora, surnamed the \u201c_Victoria Regia_,\u201d\u2014and \u201cso well had everything been\nprepared for its reception, that it flourished as vigorously as if it had\nbeen restored to its native soil and climate.  Its growth and development\nwere astonishingly rapid, for on the 9th of November a flower was\nproduced a yard in circumference.  In little more than a month after the\nfirst seeds ripened, some of them were tilled; and on the 16th of\nFebruary succeeding, young plants made their appearance.  The\nextraordinary lily obeyed nature\u2019s law of development with such\nunexpected rapidity, that it outgrew the dimensions of its home in little\nmore than a month.\u201d  This circumstance gave rise to a new conservatory of\nmuch greater extent, out of which has grown the idea of the present, and\nmuch vaster one, for receiving the world\u2019s industry\u2014one which throws its\npredecessor into the shade, and which, in addition to its other wonders,\nincluded within its vitreous walls some fine old trees, above a hundred\nfeet in height.\n\nTo return again to Chaucer; we cannot help thinking how much there is in\nthis glass palace, and in what is connected with it, which would have\nseemed even to his credulous fancy, more strange and startling than any\ndream.  Whence all the glass could come, needful for a building composed\nchiefly of such material, and of length more than quadruple that of St.\nPeter\u2019s Abbey at Westminster, would have sorely puzzled our architect and\npoet to divine, in days when glass windows were so little used, that his\ngreat contemporary, William of Wykeham, who built Windsor Castle, was\nhard put to it to find twelve glaziers to do the work there, and actually\nhad to _press_ men into the service from different counties!  The unity\nof principle, too, pervading the whole construction\u2014everything in the\ngreat building being a dividend or multiple of twenty-four {14}\u2014so\ndifferent from the bold, yet not inharmonious, irregularity of the\ncathedrals, churches, and castles which Chaucer had seen; and the variety\nof uses sub-served by one and the same member of the edifice; columns\nserving the purpose of water-drains, and the floor being at once a\nventilator and a dust-trap, securing conveniences of which he never\nthought, and strangely different from the cumbrous contrivances employed\nfor such simple and necessary ends as were then contemplated,\u2014would have\nstartled and discomposed him with a long-enduring surprise.  And, then,\nthe haste with which the beautiful dream has been wrought out into\nwell-compacted wood and glass and iron, the few months taken for its\ncompletion\u2014rapid as the growth of the _Victoria Regia_; and the thousands\nof men engaged in its erection,\u2014the preparation of the parts before they\nwere brought together,\u2014the strange machinery employed in the\npreparation,\u2014the fact of the structure serving as a scaffold for\nitself\u2014and the small expense of the whole, not amounting to more than one\nhalfpenny per cubic foot,\u2014these items in the history of the building\nwould surely have made him open his eyes and lift up his hands in wild\nastonishment.\n\nBut the strangeness of the dream ends not here.  We must think of what is\nincluded within this vast area, what is exhibited in its long aisles and\ngalleries where are gathered and arranged the productions of every art in\nevery clime\u2014arts which five hundred years ago had no existence, and\nclimes then undiscovered.  Articles, a list of which will fill a portly\nvolume; the handiwork of man and woman in every sort of usable material.\nWorks of strength and skill for necessity and convenience\u2014for comfort and\nluxury\u2014for ornament and display\u2014things carved, and moulded, and\nwoven\u2014vast and minute, bold and elegant, simple and elaborate, running\nthrough all the conceivable departments and grades of inventive industry!\nGroups, heaps, masses of all manner of cunning work!\n\nAnd the whole of the contents in this hive of the world classified\naccording to the clime from which they come!  At the extreme east of the\nedifice one sees the productions of America, our young and ardent rival\nin ingenious toil.  Next are the fruits of rising art in Russia, with\nspecimens of skilful labour sent by Norwegians and Swedes.  There are\nfound rich stores from the shops of German craftsmen.  The Zollverein\nexhibits its treasures in close vicinity to these; and beyond are seen\ncontributions from the provinces of Austria.  The Dutch, the Belgic, and\nthe French vie with each other further on; and close to them, Portugal,\nSpain, and Italy also appear in friendly contest for the palm of\npre-eminence.  Switzerland, in the contiguous space, spreads out her\nvarious wares, beside which Brazil and Mexico deposit their rich\nfreights; and then Egypt, Turkey, China, Greece, Persia, and Arabia, in\nclose neighbourhood, exhibit a harvest of oriental taste.  Crossing the\ntransept, at once a garden and a refectory\u2014where, beneath over-arching\ntrees, and beside sparkling fountains, the spectator of this the world\u2019s\ngreat horn of plenty may refresh himself with various delicacies\u2014he is\nforthwith introduced to the products of the distant \u201cInd,\u201d and the\nnumerous ramifications of our colonial dependencies, to terminate at\nlength this tour around the globe, performed under a case of glass, with\na sight of the immense assemblage of our home manufactures, gathered from\nalmost every town and village in the British Isles.  Nine miles of\ntable-room are thus passed in review; and it would require days and weeks\nto circumnavigate this epitome of the manufacturing world, and only to\nglance with anything like intelligence at the various divisions of its\naffluent stores.  A traveller who has visited in detail the chief\nmanufactories of European countries must feel himself to be in a kind of\ndream, when looking on these achievements of human industry brought\ntogether, not merely from the English provinces, and the European\ncontinent, but from the remotest regions of this and the other\nhemisphere.  A dream, then, indeed, would it have seemed to the father of\nEnglish poetry, with his limited knowledge of geography and art, could he\nhave paced along these spacious alleys, lined with the peaceful spoils of\nall the earth.\n\nThe sight of these interesting objects is suggestive of important\nreflections.  Imagining oneself left alone in the vast building\u2014permitted\nto tread in silence the deserted halls\u2014what musings might arise relative\nto themes awfully beautiful, which the giddy portion of the daily crowd\nwithin the walls have never entertained!\n\nThis repository of art, with all its varied contents, is the production\nof the human mind.  Its constructive skill is singularly exhibited in the\nedifice itself; not such constructive skill as can be confounded with the\ninstinct of the bird or bee, not a blind impulsive power; but a\nclear-eyed intelligence, which can survey, and consider, and contrive,\nand adapt, and fashion, according to the exigency of the case, in ways\nmore various than art can classify.  Of the power of human discovery, the\ndetection of latent qualities in nature, a remarkable example is afforded\nin the history of the material out of which the building itself is\nchiefly wrought.\u2014That the vitrification of sand and nitrium, noticed\naccidentally by the Ph\u0153nician mariners, according to the once generally\nreceived account by Pliny; or that some other occurrence at a much\nearlier period, as is now commonly believed, should have led men to\nperceive, in materials perfectly opaque, capabilities of transformation\ninto a substance perfectly transparent; that out of dingy masses of\nmineral could be spread forth sheets of liquid diamonds, broad as the\nawning over the Coliseum at Rome; that it was possible to mould this\nbrittle material, as if it were so much wax or clay; that, hard as rock,\nit might be blown into a bubble soft and light as a drop of water; that,\nwhite as the sunbeam, it could receive and retain all the dyes of the\nrainbow; constitute a series of marvels, forming but one out of a\nthousand chapters included in the annals of human discovery.  The plastic\npower of the human mind is also here displayed in the almost infinitely\ndiversified forms which, under its touch, the rude materials of nature\nhave received.  Timber and stone, cut into elegant shapes for useful\npurposes, or with astonishing truthfulness made to resemble the most\ndelicate expressions of animated nature, even to the feather of a bird\nand the petal of a flower!  Earth moulded by hand or machinery, and\nmetals wrought or cast in a thousand mimic fashions!\n\nNor should we omit to notice, in these objects of art, a deep desire to\nembody in material things the _beau id\u00e9al_, to rise above the dull\npurpose of mere utility and convenience, to give a touch of beauty to the\ncommonest aids and implements of life, to lift art to a lofty sphere, and\nto surround it with a brilliant halo.  Man is seen as the lover of\nartistic perfection, tasking his powers to conceive and execute what\nshall at least approach a standard too lofty for him yet to measure, but\nof the existence of which he has the consciousness, deep though dim.  He\nmay be said to fight a battle with the obstinate resistance of material\nnature, and though oft defeated, still struggles for the victory!  The\nspiritual takes possession of the physical, as a foreign realm, which it\nseeks to subdue to its own purposes.  The _distinct essence_ of the soul\nis also asserted.  Its attempt to rule over all around, and to enrich\nitself with the spoils of the conquered region, is not a contest with a\nco-ordinate and equal power, but it is the effort of a kingly nature so\nformed by God, created in his image, and inaugurated into regal office,\nat the beginning when the charge was given, \u201cReplenish the earth and\nsubdue it.\u201d  The superiority of the mind over all material nature is thus\nunequivocally proclaimed.\n\nAnd amidst all this, does he not catch glimpses of things purer, nobler,\nand more enduring than the things of earth?  Does he not feel at times\nthat there are objects existing somewhere, incomparably more beautiful\nthan any work of art?  Has he not raised within him a conception of\ninvisible and spiritual realms more wonderful than the material?  And is\nthere not also to be recognised, in the ambition of the artist who\nstrives to produce a work which his admirers vainly call immortal, a\nstrong craving for some after-existence\u2014a flinching from the thought,\nthat death is to put an end to all\u2014a wish, at least, to impress some\ncharacteristic idea of his own on some portion or particle of the great\nwhole of things, so that he may live by representation if not in\nconsciousness.\n\nYet, while such musings on the works of men open up to us deeps of power\nand beauty in the soul, they only reveal a small division of the vast\nworld of human nature.  We visit but a single province of the\nintellectual realm: we leave unexplored the vast domains enriched by the\ngrowths of literature and science; while the emotions, social affections,\nmoral feelings, and religious capacities of the soul remain untouched.\nNo account is here taken of conscience, and of the capability of knowing,\nloving, and serving his Maker, which form the highest distinction of\nman\u2019s nature.  Yet even from our partial and limited view of the subject,\nwe derive no slight conviction of the immortality of that nature to which\nsuch attributes as we have described belong.  Great as may be the mystery\nof a future existence, most certainly the mysteries connected with the\ndenial of this truth are greater still.  It involves the supposition that\nwhat in nature, power, and capability is perfectly distinct from the\nmaterial form in which it dwells, and by which it works, is to perish\nwith it:\u2014that the inmate is to die with the decay of his dwelling, the\nartist expire with the breaking of his implement;\u2014that a being possessed\nof unbounded capacities of improvement is destined to advance only a few\nsteps in his proper career, and then be arrested in his course for\never;\u2014that a life of thought and feeling, which contains the germs of\nhigher thoughts and feelings, awaiting, as essential to their full\ndevelopment, other influences than those which are shed on earth, is to\nbe succeeded by eternal unconsciousness and oblivion;\u2014and that a soul\nwhich finds in the present life a range too narrow for the full and\nvigorous scope of its nascent powers and feelings, is to be disappointed\nin its earnest longings and deep-seated hopes.  It involves the\nsupposition of a Divine design intimated, and then thrown aside\u2014a Divine\npromise pledged and broken.  The Great Architect would appear\nconstructing a portico as if introductory to a magnificent temple, and\nthen, suddenly stopping short in the work, breaking it down, and\nscattering its beauty in the dust.\n\nThe construction of the Crystal Palace, with its contents, is a monument\nto the superiority of mind over matter; and that superiority indicates\nsome great destiny hereafter.  Immortality rises upon the eye of reason\nin the hazy distance: but confidence in relation to the future state must\ncome from another quarter, through the exercise of faith.  \u201cLife and\nimmortality\u201d are brought \u201cto light through the gospel.\u201d\n\nNor can we properly terminate reflections of this order without going\nback to the source and origin of mind.  If the material universe bears\nwitness to the existence and character of a Great First Cause; if \u201cthe\ninvisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,\nbeing understood by the things that are made;\u201d if \u201cthe heavens declare\nthe glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork;\u201d if the earth\nbe full of his goodness; how much more does the soul of man, with all its\ncapacities and powers, its intellect and genius, and, above all, its\nmoral and religious susceptibilities, bear testimony to the being and\nattributes of the Creator.  The marks of design in the mind of man,\nhimself a designer, are more astonishing than those which we have in\nvisible things.  The power and beneficence of God, in giving us faculties\nof thought and susceptibilities of affection, appear with a plainness of\nexpression even beyond what we discover in any of the material provisions\nfor our comfort.  While the whole universe is a volume in which God has,\nas it were, written down his thoughts, what page in it is so wonderful as\nthe human mind?  Whatever is great or beautiful in the imagination of\nman\u2014whatever there is to admire in the works of his hands, fashioned\naccording to the intellectual type within, must be traced up to the\ninfinite source of intelligence, as its origin.  Man has nothing which he\nhas not received.  What then must that unrevealed fount of beauty be, of\nwhich all the choice thoughts and beautiful imaginings of men from the\nbeginning, however they have been expressed, are but as drops and spray!\n\n\n\n\nPART II.\nCONTRASTS BETWEEN THE PAST AND PRESENT.\n\n\n    \u201cFair land, by time\u2019s parental love made free,\n    By social order\u2019s watchful arms embraced:\u2014\n    With unexampled union meet in thee,\n    For eye and mind the present and the past;\n    With golden prospects for futurity,\n    If that be reverenced which ought to last.\u201d\n\n                                                               WORDSWORTH.\n\nTHE allusions we have made to Chaucer and his dream, in connexion with\nthe Crystal Palace, suggest some very obvious but interesting reflections\non the difference between the order of civilization which existed in his\nday, and that which obtains in our own.  There are works of art and facts\nof history associated with his times, and not entirely unassociated with\nhimself, which, by being brought under our review and placed beside the\nGreat Exhibition, with its treasures and purposes, will exhibit the\ndifference between the two epochs of our country\u2019s progress in a\npeculiarly striking light.  It should be observed however, in the first\nplace, that the fourteenth century, like the nineteenth, was an era of\nprogress.  The blooming of poetic genius after the long winter of the\nmiddle ages, was in itself an indication that some new impulse had been\ngiven to the mind.  The perfection which Gothic architecture attained at\nthe same period, in the bold proportions, the noble forms, the chaste and\nelegant adornments, and all the grand and beautiful effects of the\ndecorated style\u2014the revival too of mercantile pursuits which then took\nplace, owing very much to the influence of our third Edward, who to the\ntitle of Hero of Cressy appended the better title of the Father of\nEnglish Commerce\u2014were also signs and tokens of advancing civilization.\nTo these we should add the remembrance of the mental activity and\ndialectic skill of the schoolmen then rife in our universities, fostering\na spirit of inquisitiveness, and promoting an independence of thought and\nindividuality of character, which could hardly fail at length to break\nthrough the trammels in which for a long period they patiently toiled:\nnor should we forget the bearing upon society and the spirit of the age,\nof the early efforts at ecclesiastical and religious reformation\ncommenced by Wickliff and his compeers.\n\nBut between that past age of excitement and the present there are\ncontrasts bolder than any resemblance which can be traced.\n\nWindsor Castle may be said to have been built in the middle of the\nfourteenth century, when Chaucer was a youth; and with the completion of\nsome parts of the palatial edifice and the contiguous chapel he, as we\nhave seen, was associated.  That building was a sign not only of the\nartistic, but of the social state of civilization at that period.  The\nstern-looking old fortress of former times, the very symbol of feudalism,\nthe type of individual, firm, unconquerable resistance, was succeeded by\nless forbidding piles of architecture; and\u2014to adopt the idea of a French\nwriter at that period\u2014the kingly and baronial edifices of the fourteenth\ncentury relaxed somewhat their rigid features, and seem to \u201c_laugh_\u201d\nthrough their oriel windows, as they looked down on the gay quadrangle\nglittering with the arms and banners of chivalry.  But the royal building\nat Windsor, though it was of the new order of architecture, and showed\nthat taste was re-establishing her empire,\u2014though it evinced some advance\nupon a previous condition of social disorder, when the rough net-work of\nfeudal government kept things together in a very loose and imperfect\nmanner, it also betrayed in its broad moats, machicolated towers, and\nother grim-looking fortifications, that a period of social tranquillity\nand quietude had not arrived.  It was still needful to have the\ndrawbridge and the sally-port, the loophole in the wall and the turreted\nwalk on the top for the bow-man.  The whole aspect of the place, with its\nwarden and garrison, indicated liability to baronial attack, or popular\noutbreak.  It was to be inferred that peer, burgess, and peasant were\nheld still in some distrust, that law had not yet the strength of hand it\nneeded to check the pride of the rich and curb the passions of the poor.\nWe may look on Windsor Castle, as it stood in Chaucer\u2019s time, as an\nexponent of an unsettled state of society, when the great tumults and\nagitations which had swept, wave after wave, over the European world had\nnot spent their force and died away.  The erection of a glass palace,\nstrong indeed and enduring, if untouched by violence, and preserved by\ncare, but, under opposite circumstances, frail and perishable in the\nextreme; its open and unprotected situation on the skirts of the great\nmetropolis, and beside one of its chief and most frequented highways; its\nfull exposure to general observation, and its openness to the approach of\nall, are facts which tell loudly in testimony of the altered state of\nsociety in which our lot is cast.  Such a structure thus undefended is\nout of all harmony with the bygone times to which we have just referred,\nwhen tumults and deadly conflicts in the streets were of common\noccurrence, when property was ever in danger of rapine and plunder, and\nthe approach to a city or town was left unlined by hedges lest they\nshould furnish convenience for ambush to the thief or assassin.  It\nproclaims the supremacy of law, the exaltation of that invisible and\nhallowed guardian of our rights, not only to a seat of physical power\nwhence it can make its mandates felt, but upon the throne of the public\nmind, which has been taught reverently to bow before its majesty.  It\nindicates the general education of the people\u2014their improved intelligence\nand taste\u2014their better social habits\u2014their acknowledgment of the rights\nof property\u2014their regard for order, and their love of peace.  It shows\nthat the last five hundred years have been years of social improvement,\nand leads us to ponder the causes which have wrought the change.  Then\nthere pass in review, the decline of feudalism, the development of the\nfree principles of our constitution, the invention of printing, the\nreformation of religion, the progress of arts and science, the\nimprovement of courts of justice, the institution of a well organized\npolice; but, above all, the efforts of the preacher and the schoolmaster,\nthose two most efficient labourers in the cause of moral civilization.\nThis large array of agencies, with many others here overlooked, have been\ndoing their silent work through hundreds of past years.  Here we have the\ntillers of the soil, and the sowers of the seed, from which has sprung\nthe harvest of social order and security which crowns the middle of the\nnineteenth century.\n\nReferring again to the regal edifice reared by Edward III. we are\nreminded of the method by which labourers were obtained for the execution\nof the works.  Ashmole tells us, that to the end they might be _honestly_\nand duly performed the sovereign issued letters patent to press hewers of\nstone, carpenters, and other artificers, also to provide stone, timber,\nand other materials.  They were gathered in London, and out of divers\ncounties in England, by virtue of writs directed to the sheriffs, who\nwere to take security that the workmen should not depart without license,\nunder the penalty of \u00a3100; and, because some left Windsor clandestinely,\nproclamation was made to punish the fugitives with imprisonment in\nNewgate, and any one who dared to employ them, with a forfeiture of all\nhis goods.  This circumstance, while it illustrates the small pecuniary\nresources of the sovereign, throws a strong light on the condition of the\nlabouring classes.  The personal liberty of the subject was but half\nconceded by the unconstitutional assumptions of the royal authority.  The\nartisan was little better than a villain or serf, in whose labour the\nmonarch was supposed to have a vested and indefeasible interest.  The\nlatter was still, to a considerable degree, the great feudal lord of the\nland, having a supreme proprietorship in the persons and possessions of a\nvassal-like people.  Marvellous and happy is the change that has come\nover England since then, as is shown by the history of the building\nbefore us!  Not the product of a monarch, seeking to gratify his pride,\nand to surround himself with luxury at the expense of his people; but the\nenterprise of the people themselves by their own voluntary contributions,\ncommenced, indeed, and encouraged by the suggestion and patronage of a\nprince illustrious and beloved\u2014the erection of the Industrial Palace is\nconnected with no violation of the rights of property or labour.  If the\nEnglish working man has still some evils in his social condition of which\nto complain\u2014if his neck be still chafed by a yoke real or fancied\u2014he\nshould remember that his condition is enviable compared with that of his\nfathers.  His strength and skill are his estate.  He has the liberty to\nsell them in what market he may think the best.  No regal mandate can\ninterfere with the perfect mastery which he claims over himself.  Not an\naxe or hammer has been used in the building but by the free will of him\nwho wielded it.  The edifice looks more majestic than ever when\ncontemplated as the work of a nation of freemen.  The money freely\ngiven\u2014the labourers freely assembled\u2014the work freely done.  The fact\nproclaims to the world the wealth and liberty of England, the last the\nbest preserver of the first, and the sure pledge, we trust, under the\nblessing of the Almighty, of her enduring power and growing prosperity.\n\u201cAs the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall\nlong enjoy the work of their hands.\u201d\n\nCasting back once more a glance upon the fourteenth century, another\npoint of contrast presents itself between the past and present\nsignificant of the condition of the arts, especially in connexion with\nthe religion of the times.  Loud has been the boast of the admirers of\nthe medi\u00e6val system in relation to its artistic aspects, with which,\nhowever, it must also be remembered, that while a corrupt church\ncultivated the imagination in subservience to its own superstitions, it\nblinded the nobler faculty of reason.  That age certainly could boast of\nbeautiful trophies.  To say nothing of the architect whose cathedrals and\nchurches awaken the wonder of posterity, the sculptor chiselled his\nimages for the niche, the shrine, and the tomb;\u2014the limner exercised his\ninfant skill upon the vellum pages of illuminated MSS., or in bolder\ndecorations for altarage and stall;\u2014the stainer of glass dyed the windows\nof the chapel, the convent, and the castle, so as to present pictures of\nsaints and heroes, or \u201ca tissue of variegated crystals, a transparent\nmosaic of gems, through which the light, like flame, might pass through\nthe varied pomp of earthly hues;\u201d\u2014the graver of brass preserved the\nimages of the dead in graceful outline, full of the expression of\ndeathlike repose, and therewith paved the choir and aisles trodden by the\nfeet of surviving worshippers;\u2014the carpenter and the cabinet-maker\nenriched their respective works with quaint but oftentimes picturesque\ncarvings;\u2014the smith plied his art in the manufacture of metals into\nvarious imitative forms, rearing iron screens of mimic architecture,\ncuriously adorning a lock, or elaborating the hinges of a door;\u2014and the\ngoldsmith and jeweller fashioned and chased and studded with gems the\nimages and utensils employed in popish worship, and the salt-cellars,\nbowls, chargers, and other pieces of plate, which sparkled on the festive\nboard of the prince and noble.  Between these works of art, _as such_,\nand the productions of our own day, it is not our purpose here to\ninstitute any comparison; we notice them now only _as signs of\ncivilization_, and the fact which they illustrate under this view is the\nlimitation of the employment of art at that time to a very few uses,\ndeemed sacred or noble.  All above the lowest class of artificers were\nemployed exclusively in the service of the church, and the highest\nclasses of the state.  They were dependent upon the Abbey or Castle, or\nupon the rising wealth and budding taste of some city merchant.  The\npeople, in general, had nothing to do with works of art except to produce\nthem, or to gaze on them from afar in their religious worship, or when\nthey were permitted humbly to participate in the magnificent festivities\nof their lordly superiors.  The houses, furniture, and vessels of all,\nexcept the highest class, were of the meanest and most untasteful kind.\nRough and rude were all the arrangements of their dwellings, and all the\nappliances of their domestic life; artistic beauty was absorbed and\nconcentrated elsewhere\u2014no traces of it were to be found in the peasant\u2019s\ncottage, or even the tenement of the common burgess.  This fact, as\nindicative of the condition of the people in reference to their domestic\ncivilization, is what, in the language of lord Bacon, may be styled \u201ca\n_glaring instance_\u201d\u2014one that stands naked and open,\u2014and this in an\neminent manner, and in the highest degree of significance.\n\nNo one can survey the immense assemblage of articles in the Great\nExhibition without being struck with the signs they afford of a state of\ncivilization, the opposite of that just noticed.  Here Art is seen\nextending its territory over all the regions of life.  If in the service\nof religion among Protestants, she is not tasked as was once the case, we\ndo not deplore the circumstance.  Without a calm judgment and a pure\nheart, she is apt to become in the so-called house of God, the\nmaid-servant of superstition.  Only up to a certain point was she allowed\nto go under the Old Testament dispensation, when her services were\nlargely in demand for constructing and beautifying the tabernacle and\ntemple.  \u201cThou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image,\u201d was a check\nput upon the ingenious devices of a Bezaleel and an Aholiab, and upon all\n\u201cwho had wisdom to devise curious works, to work in gold, and in silver,\nand in brass, and in the cutting of stones, to set them; and in carving\nof wood, to make any manner of cunning work.\u201d  Under the present\ndispensation, when the worship of the Father is to be in spirit and in\ntruth, in _contrast_ with the worship instituted by Moses, and therefore\nnot merely unformal and unhypocritical, (which pure worship always was\nand must be,) but _un_symbolic, a still stronger restraint must be put on\nthe activity of artistic skill within the houses of prayer called after\nthe name of him who talked with the woman of Samaria.  The busiest and\nmost elaborate efforts of art are, therefore, as we conceive, properly\nremoved from the house of God, by his own solemn interdict upon their\nemployment there, lest man should make God\u2019s most precious gift subject\nto vanity,\u2014while the faculty of ingenious invention seeks and finds full\nscope for its exercise in increasing, multiplying, and adorning the\nconveniences and comforts of life among all classes.  Art is mainly\nintended to refine and ennoble what specially belongs to this mortal\nlife.  In this respect she has the power of elevating man\u2019s social\ncondition by evoking and gratifying a taste for the beautiful; art is\nseen thus fulfilling her mission in the myriad-achievements of human\nskill which this Great Exhibition spreads with such lavish wealth before\nspectators from all climes.  Passing beyond purposes of mere utility and\nconvenience, in the accomplishment of which, however, they abound, the\nfabricators of all this various furniture for the homes of men, have\nsought to breathe into it the spirit of the beautiful.  Not only does\nelegance of design, and accuracy of execution, mark those costlier\nproductions which are intended for the drawing-rooms of the rich and\ngreat, but they appear in the cheap and simple provisions for the\nparlours and kitchens of the poor and humble.  Modern European society is\nthus coming back to that pitch of artistic civilization which\ndistinguished old Greece in her palmy days, when \u201cthe plastic and\npresiding spirit of symmetry shed its influence over the minutest details\nof ordinary occupation, and the shapes of the commonest utensils.\u201d  The\ninfluence of fine art is thus rendered universal.  Civilization in that\nform is seen generally diffused.  The sharp barriers of rank are broken\ndown, the grades of society under the touch of wide-spread taste\nassimilate to each other; their boundary lines soften, become more and\nmore indistinct, and gradually melt away.\n\nTo return again to the age of Edward.  In the beginning of the year 1358,\nsays old Knighton in his \u201cChronica,\u201d the king issued his royal\nproclamation throughout all England, that all knights strangers from any\npart of the world, who had a mind to come to the feast of St. Georges, to\nbe held on the 23rd of April, at Windsor, should have his letters of safe\nconduct to pass and repass the realm at their pleasure, for the space of\nthree weeks without the least impediment or danger, there to partake\nevery one according to his degree and merit of those honours and prizes\nwhich attended the princely exercises of jousts and tournaments.  And\naccordingly this great feast was held, and thither went in their suits of\narmour, and with devices emblazoned on their shields, with all the pomp\nand circumstance of chivalry, John of France and the duke of Brabant, and\nmany noble lords and knights from \u201cAlmain, Gascogne, Scotland, and other\ncountries.\u201d  Philippa, the heroic wife of Edward, and the queen of the\nking of Scots, were present with a whole bevy of high-born dames to gaze\non the tilt and tournay.\n\nPunctiliously, according to chivalrous custom, did the gorgeously coated\nheralds and pursuivants proclaim and enforce the laws of the encounter.\nProudly did the combatants take lance in hand and rush to the\ncombat,\u2014with eager eyes and beating hearts did matron and maiden look on\nhusband and lover,\u2014and with boisterous shouts of joy did the crowding\npopulace hail the prowess of the conqueror.  The scene was typical of the\nage.  It was an exposition of the spirit predominant in our own land, and\nthroughout Europe.  It indicated the martial genius of the nation.  It\nwas a spectacle to which the Englishman would point with patriotic\nvanity,\u2014just as the Roman would point, in the days of his great heroes,\nto the Campus Martius, and the streets that led to the capitol, crowded\nwith the symbols and attendants of a triumph decreed by the republic as a\nreward for the valour of her warlike sons.  Another prince not indeed\noccupying the throne, but the loving and honoured consort of the\nillustrious lady who fills it, has proposed a great English festival for\nthe year 1851, and in union, not merely with popular members of the\naristocracy but with distinguished representatives of commercial\nenterprise, and industrial activity, has sent forth the challenge to all\nlands, and invited people of all ranks to an earnest rivalry for crowns\nof pre-eminence.  Thither have already arrived the weapons with which the\ncontest is to be decided, while multitudes are wending from the far east\nand west to witness the array, to decide on who are the winners in this\nstrange conflict, and to award to each the prize he merits.  This\nexhibition of art is beautifully significant of the times in which we\nlive.  It shows that the taste for arms is no longer predominant; that it\nhas yielded to predilections more worthy of human nature.  Bales of\nmerchandise and piles of manufacture are now beginning to be deemed more\nworthy of regard and admiration, than blood-stained banners, bruised\nshields, and splintered spears, with other trophies torn from the\nvanquished.  The gauntlet of war is not flung down before the world, but\nthe gage of peace.  To the assemblage in Hyde Park\u2014a fraternal\nintermingling of the children of all lands, with their interchange of\nideas and sentiments, conveyed both to the eye and the ear, and the\nhealthful stimulus thus afforded to the further improvements of the arts\nof human life\u2014many of us are now pointing, not with pride but with\nthankfulness to Providence, as interpretations of the new spirit that has\ncome over civilized society.  Nor can we omit to add that much as the\nsuperiority of the military profession was vaunted in the olden time, and\nstrongly as may linger still in many breasts the remnants of that\nprejudice, we believe that mankind are coming more and more to see that\nthe palm of preference belongs of right rather to him who deepens the\nchannels of industry, and circulates the streams of commerce.  To build\nup and adorn must be better than to desolate\u2014to nourish, comfort, and\ngladden, than to fight and destroy; and if armies be still needful to\nprotect and defend, if we want them as a police to sustain and execute\nthe law of nations, let it be remembered that such a view can give\nmartial occupations no precedence in the estimation of the wise and\ngood\u2014as he whose business it is to take captive or to punish the\nviolators of public order can never rank above those who minister\ndirectly to the happiness and improvement of their fellow citizens.\n\nNor should we here forget the enduring character of those peaceful\nvictories won in modern times by discovery and invention, of which\nmultiplied mementoes are afforded in the treasures of the Hyde Park\nPalace.  Most favourably do they stand out in contrast with the\nevanescent nature of military power and valour.  \u201cTo whatever part of the\nvision of modern times,\u201d says sir Humphry Davy, \u201cyou cast your eyes, you\nwill find marks of superiority and improvement, and I wish to impress\nupon you the conviction that the results of intellectual labour or\nscientific genius are permanent, and incapable of being lost.  Monarchs\nchange their plans, governments their objects, a fleet or an army effect\ntheir object, and then pass away: but a piece of steel touched by the\nmagnet preserves its character for ever, and secures to man the dominions\nof the trackless ocean.\u201d  All the discoveries of knowledge and their\napplication to practical uses are of this description, and we joyfully\ncompare them with the mouldering trophies of the warrior.  The spoils of\nCressy and Poictiers have long since perished\u2014even the power which Edward\nand his soldiers established in France soon declined and disappeared, and\nlong since left behind it only a name in history\u2014but the results of\nscientific study and artistic toil, which have produced the Great\nExhibition of 1851, are destined, we doubt not, to last to a remote\nperiod, and to improve the condition and adorn the dwellings of unborn\nmillions of the human family.\n\nIn closing this chapter, we may remark that unlike the martial gathering\nat the tournament of Windsor, the concourse of British subjects at the\npresent festival no longer exhibits the distinctions of feudal society.\nLordship and vassalage have happily become numbered among the things that\nare past.  Whatever purposes they might subserve at a certain period,\nthey were badges of imperfect civilization, and have given place to a\ncondition of social order in which, though a graduated scale of rank very\nproperly obtains, the equal rights of men as intellectual and moral\nbeings are beginning to be acknowledged.  In this \u201cpassage\u201d of arts, \u201cnot\narms,\u201d the humblest are permitted to display their skill;\u2014not as\naforetime, when the contest was confined to the men of high descent, the\npoorest workman may place his productions beside those of the richest\nsons of fortune.  The man who can make no boast of gentle blood, who can\nappeal to no roll of ancestry, whose name is but of yesterday, who\nsimply, by dint of using his brains and his muscles, his thoughts and ten\nfingers, has raised himself into notice is permitted and encouraged to\ncontend with the highest born for the prize of honour in these pacific\nand generous rivalries.  This is not among the least pleasing of the\ncontrasts between past and present.\n\n\n\n\nPART III.\nVOICES OF HOPE AND WARNING.\n\n\n                \u201cThe barrier flood\n    Was like a lake, or river bright and fair,\n    A span of waters: yet what power was there,\n    What mightiness for evil and for good!\n    Even so doth God protect us, if we be\n    Virtuous and wise.\u201d\n\n                                                               WORDSWORTH.\n\nTHE invitation we have given to the world, to send its treasures to\nenrich and bedeck our Crystal Palace, and its tribes to visit us, for the\nsake not only of inspecting that great emporium but of witnessing our\nnational conditions under its various aspects, implies a conscious\ngreatness, on the part of our country, sufficient to warrant such a bold\nand unprecedented step.  It would be presumptuous and idle for an\ninferior state to ask her potent neighbours thus to honour her, and no\nsuch state would venture on the experiment.  Indeed, the resources\nnecessary for carrying out so formidable an enterprise could not be at\nits command.  Great Britain, while she assumes by her present conduct a\nhigh standing in the rank of nations, can with perfect ease justify\nherself in this respect.\n\nThough the mother isle be a tiny speck on the map of the globe, her\ncolonial dependencies extend over the most remote latitudes.  Her entire\nterritory embraces an area of eight millions of square miles, exceeding\nthat of Russia by at least one million.  It is double the size of the\ncontinent of Europe, and out of every six acres of dry land upon the\nplanet it claims one.  Two hundred and forty millions of subjects bow to\nthe sceptre of Queen Victoria, the largest united population in\nexistence, next to China.  Including the whole empire, a fifth of the\nhuman family are subject to her sway.  Of this multitude, two hundred\nmillions dwell in India; so that, if that country only remained under\nBritish rule, her Majesty could say to the potentates of Europe, \u201cI am\nequal to you all; for, taking all the men on the surface of the globe,\none at least out of every six owns me as supreme.\u201d {54}  In the amount of\nits revenue, the wealth of its commerce, the activity and productiveness\nof its manufactures, the intersection of its country by roads, canals,\nand railways, the cheapness and rapid communication of its postal system,\nand the number of ships which crowd its ports, England knows no equal.\nOther elements of greatness which cannot be reduced to statistic\ncalculation are to be added to these, such as our government,\ninstitutions, laws, liberties and literature.\n\nDwelling upon the fact of our national greatness, so obviously suggested\nto us by what is now taking place, we very naturally pause for a moment\nto inquire into the causes of this distinction.  It is to be expected\nthat a combination of many influences and agencies will be found to have\ncontributed to the result.  That it is really so the facts of our history\nabundantly prove.  The present state of Great Britain is, in the first\nplace, to be ascribed in no small degree to the peculiar character of the\nraces of whose offspring our population is in the main composed.  The\nthriving myriads who people the cities, till the fields, man the vessels,\nand constitute or rule the colonies of our country, are descendants of\nrobust and vigorous Teutonic tribes.  Saxon, Danish, and Norman were all\nallied, and possessed a general resemblance in point of physical and\nintellectual qualities, connected with specific differences, the blending\nof which, by the intermingling of these families, could not fail to\nproduce very decided effects upon the character of their posterity.  The\ninfluence of the peculiarities inherent in the natural constitution of\ndifferent races, once almost entirely overlooked by historians, and now\nliable to be exaggerated by writers of a certain school, has stamped the\nimpress of its reality and power with conspicuous breadth and vividness\nupon modern civilization in the contrast which exists between the people\nof Teutonic and Celtic origin.  Our condition, in the next place, is to\nbe attributed to the physical peculiarities of our native land\u2014to our\nclimate, which cannot have failed to affect not only our natural\ntemperament and health, but to some degree our mental phenomena, and to a\ngreater degree our social habits,\u2014to the configuration, soil, and\ngeological strata of our beautiful island: its scenery giving a certain\ncast and hue to the colouring of our imagination: its rich lands making\nus an agricultural community: its metallic and coal mines inviting us to\ntask our manufacturing skill: and its vast range of coast-line, with its\nfacilities for the erection of ports and the construction of harbours,\nimpelling us to engage in maritime enterprise.  Our condition is further\nto be ascribed to our insular position, which has led us to seek the\nempire of the seas, and often preserved us from being ravaged by\ninvaders; while it has given a stimulus to our commerce, with its\npeaceful and humanizing tendencies.  It is also to be traced to forms of\ngovernment and modes of society which prevailed during the medi\u00e6val age,\nthemselves springing from earlier political and social influences that\nflowed from Roman and German springs.  It is as true of nations as of\nindividuals, that the child is father to the man; and old England\u2014the\nEngland which is\u2014must have had its destiny in no small measure shaped by\nyoung England\u2014the England which has been.  From Roman law and usage,\nSaxon witenagemotes and courts of justice, Norman baronial assemblies and\ntribunals, and the welding or fusion of them together, so as to produce\nin some cases a mutual interpenetration,\u2014from these has arisen our\npeculiar kind of government, political and legal; which, with all its\nfaults, whether in principle or administration, is an agency to which\nunder Divine providence we owe no small degree of our stability and\npower.  The feudal training of a partly Saxon population, through so long\na portion of the middle ages, is a fact of great importance in our\nhistory, and of potent bearing on us even at the present hour; and it may\nbe worth while to notice that the modern European empires which were bred\nin the feudal school\u2014England, France, and Germany\u2014take decided precedence\nof the states to the north and south, which grew up undisciplined by that\nrude but effective process of education.  Our condition has been further\ninfluenced most powerfully by the history of the last four hundred years.\nBy the wars of the Roses, which weakened the aristocracy and strengthened\nthe throne, by the political bearing of the Reformation, the rise and\nprogress of the puritan party in the state, the Civil War, and the\nCommonwealth under Cromwell, all of which developed popular power, and\nfor a while trampled in the dust both crown and coronet.  To all this\nmust be added the Revolution of 1688, which adjusted the relation of the\nthree estates of the realm, so as to secure ever since a tolerable degree\nof harmony in the mutual working of principles and interests, commonly\ndeemed antagonistic.  Past changes are the secret of our present\nstability; the intestine wars of bygone centuries, which shock us as we\nread their story, were really the harbingers of the national peace,\norder, and security on which we recently congratulated ourselves when\nwild revolutionary hurricanes swept over the thrones and institutions of\nEurope.  Continental states, later in their hour of trial than ourselves,\nhave probably to go through somewhat similar eras of struggle yet, before\nthey can win the order and repose which we have received from the veteran\nchampions of English freedom, during the long fight of the seventeenth\ncentury.  And, to sum up many other influences in one sentence\u2014our\nnational position and character are to be connected with the study and\nexperience of our venerated forefathers\u2014with their knowledge and wisdom,\nacquired from what they read in the history of older nations, and what\nthey saw of modern ones\u2014with their genius and practical sagacity, the\nbooks they wrote, and the deeds they did\u2014with the inventions of art, and\nthe discoveries of science, and the collision of sentiments, opinions,\nand principles which have from time to time been freely expressed and\ncanvassed.  But the most powerful agency remains to be noticed.  Above\nall, our national greatness is the result of Christianity, which has long\nhad a strong hold upon the hearts of multitudes, and which has indirectly\nexercised a most beneficial influence on others who have had little\nregard for its doctrinal principles.  The sternness of those German\ntribes from whom we have sprung was not to be subdued; and those better\nqualities, which mark us as a people, were not to be produced by any\npower less than the divine power of the Gospel.  Christianity, during the\nmiddle ages, even under the disadvantage of working through a corrupt\nchurch, was the main stay of social order, and wrought out beautiful\nresults in individual character.  In its reformed developments it has\nmainly contributed to the best and most valued of our social\nimprovements.  Our noblest heroes have been inspired by its celestial\nspirit; our most precious institutions have felt the shapening touch of\nits divine hand; the best portions of our literature reflect the\nrefulgence of its light.  And what there may be of virtue, integrity,\nhonour, benevolence, and piety in our land, is the offspring of the\nheaven-sent truth written in the Bible.  It is not Christianity alone, we\ngrant, which makes us what we are; but, without Christianity, it is\nutterly impossible to imagine that our civilization should have attained\nits present zenith.  In connexion with the working of those marvels of\nour time\u2014electric telegraphs\u2014it has been found that when a piece of paper\nhas been dipped in a certain chemical solution, a stream of electricity\npassed over it will imprint the paper with beautiful tints and dyes.  So,\nwe may say, that if the other events and influences we have enumerated\nhave been like the chemical solution to the paper, preparing our country\nfor some high destiny, the introduction of the gospel, and its\ncontinuance among us, has been like the electric stream passing over the\nnation, covering it with the fair and beautiful colours which render it\nthe admiration of the world.  Nor should the early period of the\nintroduction and establishment of Christianity amongst us be overlooked;\nfor, if it had been delayed to a later period, it is obvious that the\ncircumstance must have proved exceedingly detrimental to our infant\ncivilization.  That early introduction and establishment we are apt to\nregard as a matter of course, though there was no anterior improbability,\nin the first centuries of the Christian era, of the religious fate of\nGreat Britain being otherwise than that of Eastern empires.  Our Island\nmight have attained a stereotyped condition, as India and China have\ndone, and neither received nor craved the Great Gift of God.  Then must\nour civilization however have been correspondingly poor, imperfect, and\nweak.  The arrival of Christianity in this western corner of the world,\nsome seventeen hundred years ago or more, to instruct us in divine truth,\nand as a loving nurse to foster and cherish our nascent civilization,\nthen exposed in these rough seas like an infant in an \u201cark of bulrushes,\u201d\nwas the result of a mission from Him, who is sovereign in all his ways,\nand who chose us for his high purposes; not because we were \u201cmore in\nnumber than any people, for we were the fewest of all people, but because\nthe Lord loved us.\u201d\n\nAfter reviewing the character and causes of our civilization, it is\nnatural to inquire what will be its coming destiny.  However some may\nidly talk, our civilization is far from being necessarily progressive.\nThe history of the great powers of the ancient world reads us admonitory\nlessons.  It is very affecting, after we have mused on Rome in her palmy\npride, and fancied we saw one of her great triumphal processions on its\nway to the Capitol, so expressive of the warlike genius of the republic,\nsweeping in a tide of living grandeur through the forum, so rich in\narchitectural splendour, to turn to a sentence like this in Eustace\u2019s\nTour:\u2014\u201cThe glories of the forum are now fled for ever: its temples are\nfallen: its sanctuaries have crumbled into dust: its colonnades encumber\nits pavements, now buried under its remains.  A herdsman seated on a\npedestal, while his oxen were drinking at the fountain, and a few\npassengers moving at a distance in different directions, were the only\nliving beings that disturbed the solitude and silence that reigned\naround.\u201d  Equally affecting is it when pondering the story of Athens,\nonce the fairest city of the earth, with her statues and temples and\nmemorial tombs\u2014her orators, philosophers, and poets\u2014the very home of\nartistic beauty and intellectual refinement,\u2014to hear a traveller remark,\nas he describes the present state of the once unrivalled Areopagus: \u201cLet\nus wade through the crisp and bearded barley to the Bema, whence\nDemosthenes was wont to thunder,\u201d\u2014and to think that where the murmur of\nhis vast audience was once heard no sound is awakened now but the\nrustling of the ears of corn under the passing wind.  Nor less affecting\nis it to read in the old Hebrew prophet, the son of Buzi,\u2014who saw visions\nof God by the river Chebar,\u2014the tale of the glory and the doom of Tyre;\nto see her \u201csituate at the entry of the sea,\u201d when the builders have\nperfected her beauty, and all her \u201cship boards\u201d are of \u201cfir trees\u201d\u2014with\n\u201ccedars from Lebanon\u201d for \u201cmasts,\u201d\u2014and \u201cthe oaks of Bashan\u201d for\n\u201coars\u201d\u2014and \u201civory brought out of the Isles of Chittim\u201d for \u201cbenches,\u201d\u2014and\n\u201cfine linen with bordered work from Egypt for sails,\u201d\u2014and \u201cthe\ninhabitants of Zidon and Arrad\u201d for \u201cmariners,\u201d\u2014and they of Persia and\nLud and Phut and Arrad are in her army men of war, who \u201chang their\nshields upon the wall;\u201d and the merchants \u201ctrade in her fairs\u201d \u201cin all\nsorts of things;\u201d\u2014and she is \u201creplenished and made very glorious in the\nmidst of the seas,\u201d and her \u201cwisdom and her understanding have got her\nriches and gold and silver,\u201d and \u201cevery precious stone is her covering,\u201d\nand \u201cthe princes of the sea\u201d sit on their thrones and wear their\n\u201cbroidered garments,\u201d\u2014and then to read her doom fulfilled to the letter:\n\u201cBehold I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come\nup against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up, and they shall\ndestroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers; I will also scrape\nher dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock; it shall be a\nplace for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea.\u201d\n\nTo minds of imagination and sensibility, more sombre than sanguine, it is\nnot surprising that with these facts in remembrance the future decline of\nthis great empire should seem probable; and perhaps by such minds a\npicture of its mother city in some coming age is painted so as to\nresemble her precursors in the path of grandeur and decay:\u2014And here and\nthere stand a broken arch of one of her bridges, the waters idly rolling\non, no richly freighted ships upon their bosom any longer; and yonder are\nher once proud senate halls, a mouldering heap covered with wild flowers,\na solitude like the Roman Coliseum; and around the spot where now the\nmiracle of modern art is crowded by the people of all lands, there\nstretches a solitary wilderness where the traveller rambles amidst\ntangled grass and brushwood, and sits down and muses in some quiet dell,\nleft by the dried-up lake of the Serpentine, and haunted by memories of\nthe fall of London.  Calm and intelligent reflection however suggests\nthat there is far less of probability than poetry in such anticipations.\n\nEngland is not like ancient Italy\u2014London is not the antitype of Rome.  On\nthis account, in the first place, that the whole world has changed, and\nespecially the condition of the western nations in reference to each\nother, since that memorable night when the trumpet of the Goth was heard\nat the Salarian gate, and armed hosts came rushing along the broad\nhighway, and the soldier flung his brand in the house of Sallust, and the\nshrieks of maidens and matrons mingled with martial shouts, and the\nsenators saw the old tragedy under the Gauls repeated\u2014Rome surprised and\ntaken.  An empire hemmed all around by fierce warlike tribes might be so\nbroken down; but, in the modern world, where are the Goths and Huns and\nVandals to be found?  And, even if they did exist, the insular position\nof Great Britain, and her maritime defences, would preserve her from the\nkind of invasion which prostrated in the dust the old mistress of the\nworld.  Only a great civilized power, having large means of transport at\nits command, could invade our shores.  To succeed, it must be a nation\neminent for skill and science, as well as for other resources,\nconsidering the ample means of defence which, by aid of electric\ntelegraphs, steam, and railways, the government of our country could at\nthe shortest notice bring to bear on the spot endangered by assailants.\n\nThe contrast between Athens and England, as it regards their dangers, is\nsuggested in a remarkable passage of Xenophon.  He remarks that\u2014\u201cAthens\nrules the sea; but as the country of Attica is joined to the continent,\nit is ravaged by enemies, while the Athenians are engaged in distant\nexpeditions.  If the Athenians inhabited an island, and besides this\nenjoyed the empire of the seas, they would, as long as they were\npossessed of these advantages, be able to annoy others and at the same\ntime be out of all danger of being annoyed.\u201d\n\nThe benefit of an insular position, which Athens did not command, is\npossessed by England; and, as Montesquieu observes, \u201cWe might imagine\nthat the Greek historian and philosopher was speaking of our own\ncountry.\u201d  Athens was finally crushed by the Turks; but whatever\napprehension there once was of the invasion of the West by Mohammedan\narms, no such apprehension can ever be felt again; and if any likeness be\ntraced between the old Turkish and the present Russian Empire, the latter\nthreatens the East rather than Europe, and an invasion of England by an\narmy that must march through the German States, or by an armament sailing\nfrom the Baltic ports, is among the wildest dreams of fear.  Then, going\nback to the fall of Tyre, under the desolating hand of a Nebuchadnezzar\nand Alexander, peril like hers, in reference to ourselves, seems next to\nimpossible; for the days of such conquerors are gone by for ever.  Even\nthe career of Napoleon was not the counterpart of them, nor could be in\nthe modern state of the world, with its large community of civilized,\npowerful, and independent nations.\n\nThe danger of our country, then, is not from the invader; what we have to\napprehend in the future is discoverable in another quarter.  There are\ntwo obvious possibilities which demand our attention: _first_, England\nmay be out-rivalled.  The youthful vigour of America, her art and\nenterprize, her intelligence, her ardent patriotism, her vast and\never-swelling territory and population, already afford some bold and\ndistinct indications of her future rapid advance\u2014the son promising to\nsurpass the sire.  France and Germany, too, are full of latent resources,\nand of that strong spirit which only needs wisdom to guide it in order to\ntheir unprecedented enrichment.  And who can tell what Russia will be,\nwhen thoroughly civilized?  Looking to the universal colonial\ndependencies of England, which alone can give her territorial\nimportance\u2014for her insular position prevents her from incorporating\nforeign domains as integral parts of her own country\u2014one can see the\npossibility of great changes in the East: and then looking to our\ncolonies properly so called, who can deny the likelihood of their\nthrowing off the leading-strings some day, not we hope without filial\nlove for their mother state, to march in their own strength erect along\nthe paths of their high destiny?  And in Australasia, especially, there\nmay spring up a new England formed in the providence of God to vie with\nand outstrip old England.  There is a _second_ possibility, from the\nthought of which we shrink.  Looking, on the one hand, at the amount of\nimmorality and irreligion which already obtains amongst us, and at sins\nfor which, on account of general concurrence in them, the nation at large\nmay be held guilty, we have ground of alarm.  But, on the other hand,\nwhen we take into account the extent of Christian virtue, piety, and\nbenevolence to be found in our land, we recognise grounds of hope.  Now\nit cannot be denied that the latter instead of overcoming the former\n_may_ leave it to prevail and triumph, and may itself decline.  A far\ndeeper depravation of public morals than we have mentioned may occur.  So\nmuch of national truth and honour as is happily preserved may be\nsacrificed to a base expediency.  Instances of commercial integrity may\nbecome rare.  Domestic life and manners may lose their present purity.\nInfidelity and superstition may divide almost all hearts between them.\nThen is the doom of the country sealed.  Mortals are short-sighted as to\nthe relative position of the different states of the world in coming\ntimes, the forecastings of the political philosopher are in many\ninstances disappointed, and the prudential measures of the wisest\nstatesmen often fail; but this is sure, that sooner or later a nation\nwill fall from the throne of her greatness, when she deserts the paths of\nvirtue and forsakes the counsels of God.  The sins of a people, if not\nrepented of, are certain ultimately to bring down upon them Divine\njudgments.  Nor should it be forgotten, that such ascendency as ours has\nits special temptations.  Plato, in his republic, guards against choosing\nfor his ideal commonwealth \u201csuch a site as by its proximity to the sea,\nand other advantages for merchandise, navigation, and naval warfare,\nwould be liable to render the citizens too wealthy and overbearing, and\nfaithless in war and peace.\u201d Commerce will be the mother of national\nvirtues when she is joined in wedlock with religion, otherwise she may be\nfruitful in an abundant progeny of vice and crime.\n\nOur danger, then, is internal rather than external.  And the same may be\nsaid of old Rome, for had she been faithful and virtuous she had never\nfallen under the barbarians\u2019 sword.  It was also true of Greece.  And as\nto Tyre, we are told on the highest authority, \u201cBy the multitude of thy\nmerchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou\nhast sinned: therefore will I cast thee as profane out of the mountain of\nGod, and will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the\nstones of fire.\u201d  We are convinced that only vice and impiety can ruin\nus, that only virtue and religion will prove our invincible safeguards.\nShould such a general state of depravity arise as that described by the\nprophet, when judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar\noff, and truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter, though\nno army should land on our shores, and no foreign navy should touch our\nfleets, and wealth and luxury should flow on, the curse of Heaven would\nbe on us, and our civilization would be corrupted to the core.  But let\nthe righteousness that exalteth a nation be ours, and then, however\nstrong and numerous our enemies, however prosperous and superior our\nrivals, the arm of God would be our shield\u2014though surpassed we should not\nbe dishonoured: but the destiny of our Empire would still be onwards\nalong the paths of moral civilization.\n\nAs Christianity has contributed so greatly to raise us in the scale of\nnations, so that alone can enable us to preserve our standing.  Our\nreligion is as dear to hope as to memory.  The influence of the gospel\nwill equally prove the preserver of the highest good amongst us, and the\nsure catholicon for the worst evils.  Whatever plans may be devised to\nimprove the physical and social condition of the people, the only remedy\nthat can touch the moral disease in the individual man, (and that, after\nall, is the root of every social mischief) must be looked for in the\ntruths of the Bible and the agency of the Holy Spirit.  No dream can be\nmore wild and visionary, more at variance with the ancient and modern\nstory of mankind, than to suppose that any changes in the government or\nlaws of a country will of themselves ensure the happiness and prosperity\nof a nation.  Political revolutions the most fair and promising have\noften proved abortive.  It is beyond all doubt a righteous duty to bring\nthe framework and machinery of our social world as near to perfection as\nit is possible; wise organization is eminently subservient to a nation\u2019s\nwelfare: but our strongest and best hopes for the future security and\nadvancement of the English commonwealth are firmly fixed on the personal\nregeneration of its members through the Divine power of the gospel of\nChrist.  Earnest, indefatigable, patient, humble, holy endeavours for the\napplication of that heavenly gift to the hearts of our countrymen are in\nthe first rank of our social duties.\n\nAnd looking for a moment away from home; taking in at one broad glance\nthe moral and religious condition of the British empire, what awful and\nstartling facts arrest our attention, full of irresistible appeals to\nChristian consciences.  \u201cOur queen rules over more Roman Catholics than\nthe pope, over more Mohammedans than the Sublime Porte, and over more\npagans than the whole continent of Africa.  If we ask, \u2018What is the\nreligion of the British Empire?\u2019 judging by numbers, the unhesitating\nreply must be, paganism.  It contains more Mohammedans than Christians of\nboth names, and more pagans than Mohammedans and Christians together.\u201d\nThese facts are indeed voices of warning!  What is to be expected, if\nEnglish Christians do not vastly increase their missionary efforts in our\nworld-wide dependencies, for whose moral and spiritual condition we must,\nfrom the circumstance of their dependency, be in a high degree\nresponsible?\n\nIn connexion with strenuous efforts at home and in our colonial\nprovinces, near or remote, for the diffusion of Christianity \u201cpure and\nundefiled,\u201d it is our solemn duty to abound in \u201csupplication and\nintercessions.\u201d  We are sure that prayer did save Israel, and might have\nsaved Sodom.  Its influence, as revealed in the apocalyptic vision of\nJohn, is so great, that it is seen shaping the course of history.  Great\nchanges come\u2014judgments, penal and purifying, among the rest\u2014as the result\nof prayer:\u2014\u201cAnd I saw the seven angels who stood before God; and to them\nwere given seven trumpets.  And another angel came and stood at the\naltar, having a golden censer: and there was given unto him much incense,\nthat he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden\naltar which was before the throne.  And the smoke of the incense, which\ncame with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the\nangel\u2019s hand.  And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of\nthe altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices, and\nthunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.\u201d  With that \u201cdoor opened\nin heaven,\u201d and the light from it falling on the page of our national\nannals, can we doubt that Christian prayer has had influence upon the\ndestiny of our empire?  Who shall unravel all the threads of influence,\nknitting up men\u2019s hearts in courage and heroism, which proceeded out of\ndays of prayer and fasting in Puritan times, and all the healing virtue\nbrought down by it upon a wounded and bleeding country?  And who can tell\nhow much England, in her hour of need, when under James the Second the\nthreatening clouds of papal despotism began to gather, was indebted for\nthe scattering of the storm to the voice of prayer?  And, since then, how\nmany critical junctures have occurred, when results have been produced\nnot to be adequately accounted for by any visible cause, and therefore\nindicating some other agency at work which worldly minds take no note of,\nbut which the devout will recognise in the wrestlings of holy prayer!\nThe throne of grace, under which our fathers took refuge in times of\nheavy trial must be our resort if we would preserve the religious\nprivileges they have handed down to us, and defend and enlarge the vast\nheritage of national good which they bequeathed.\n\n\n\n\nPART IV.\nASSOCIATIONS, SECULAR AND SACRED.\n\n\n    \u201cBy these mysterious ties, the busy power\n    Of Memory her ideal train preserves\n    Entire; or when they would elude her watch\n    Reclaims their fleeting footsteps from the waste\n    Of dark oblivion: thus collecting all\n    The living forms of being, to present\n    Before the curious aim of mimic art\n    Their longest choice: like Spring\u2019s unfolded blooms\n    Exhaling sweetness, that the skilful bee\n    May taste at will, from their selected spoils,\n    To work her dulcet food.\u201d\n\n                                                                 AKENSIDE.\n\nENDOWED as we are with a principle of suggestion\u2014one of the most active\nprinciples in the human mind, ministering greatly to the pleasures of\nexistence, and giving to men of enlarged intelligence the means of\nvarious and extensive gratification\u2014it is very natural, on looking at the\ngreat event of the present year, to cluster round it in thought a number\nof facts bearing in relation to it some kind of affinity.  Even the\nstructure and its contents are not without suggestive interest, while the\ngreat gatherings of the people to behold them excites the memory and\nimagination, and brings out many a picture of things that have been or\nthat shall be.  Associations are suggested, commercial and classical,\nromantic and religious.\n\nAs a simple exposition of art, the Exhibition reminds us, in the first\nplace, of the Expositions of Art in the French metropolis, which at\nintervals have taken place during the last fifty years.  We go back to\nthe times of the first republic, when after the tragedies of the\nrevolution, and their dire effect on industry and commerce, it was felt\nthat some stimulus and encouragement were needed to revive them; and the\ndeserted palace of St. Cloud, under the superintendence of the Marquis\nd\u2019Av\u00e8ze, was enriched and adorned with the productions of a people whose\ntasteful ingenuity no social disorders could extinguish.  The walls were\nhung with costly draperies from the Gobelin manufactory\u2014the floors were\ncovered with rich carpets from the looms of La Savonnerie, and, amassed\nin profusion and arranged with skill, there was a display of the\nvariegated porcelain of Sevres, that hive of curious industry which\nborders the spacious park of the palace we have mentioned.  Succeeded by\na second Exposition at the Hotel d\u2019Orsay, in the city of Paris, the two\nwere regarded by Napoleon,\u2014who, though flushed with his early victories,\nfailed not to discern that war without commerce would but exhaust his\ncountry,\u2014as sufficient to warrant a third and greater attempt, and\naccordingly the Temple of Industry, as it was called, was reared in the\nChamp de Mars.  It was of simple construction, adorned with oriflames,\nand the victorious tricolours of the first Italian campaign, and within\nthe walls there were exhibited for three days, some of the most beautiful\nworks of art the country could supply.  The temper of that great nation\nat the juncture was candidly expressed by the prime minister: \u201cOur\nmanufactures are the arsenals which will supply us with the weapons most\nfatal to the British power;\u201d and as we read his words we rejoice in the\nfar different relations of the two empires now, and the pleasant union\nand amicable rivalry of our Gallic neighbours with ourselves in the\npresent enterprise.  Other Expositions followed, but the ninth, under\nLouis Philippe, in the magnificent Place de la Concorde, in the year\n1839, eclipsed them all; and as the gratified monarch gazed on the\ntrophies of French ingenuity and skill, he exclaimed, \u201cThese are the true\nvictories which cause no tears to flow.\u201d  Nor can we, while these\nimposing scenes in the French capital and its neighbourhood pass before\nus, forget the humble attempts made in our own country in connexion with\nour valuable Mechanics\u2019 Institutions, to exhibit in some of our large\ntowns, especially Manchester and Leeds, the products of native industry.\nThey are worthy of honourable and grateful remembrance, as indications of\nthat indomitable and individual spirit of enterprise, which is one of the\nsecrets of our commercial prosperity.\n\nThe Exhibition is a great Bazaar.  It is, to a considerable extent, based\non the true principle of such establishments.  That principle is one of\nclassification, and therefore the term Bazaar is incorrectly applied to\ncertain marts in the metropolis which are but heterogeneous clusters of\nshops under a common roof.  The original principle is a classification of\nproducts according to the trades to which they belong; here it is a\nclassification of products according to the countries from which they are\nreceived.  The Bazaar, as essentially oriental, carries us away to Cairo\nand Constantinople, to Persian towns and Indian cities.  We find\nourselves in the crowded alley of some vaulted building, with shops of a\nsimilar kind presenting goods of the same general description, lining\neither side the way.  Provisions, wares, and fabrics, both mean and\ngorgeous, rude and ornamented, simple and ornate, are piled or spread\nforth to please and entice the passer-by, while, in some cases, the moody\nTurk, who sits cross-legged amidst his stores, smoking his pipe, is so\nabsorbed in the enjoyment of that soporific luxury, that he seems hardly\nto care about attending to the wants of his customers.  In Persia, we are\ntold, the buildings are of rich appearance, decorated with paintings,\nparticularly under the domes, with portraits of hunters and heroes, and\npictures of animals, real or imaginary.  Generally in the East these\nmarkets are places of immense resort, including the characteristics of an\nexchange, a news room, a debating theatre, a promenade, and a rendezvous\nfor idlers.  The gaiety of oriental costume affords a marked feature in\nthe promiscuous assemblages, while the noise of many voices, in various\ntongues and dialects, is like the echo of that strange confusion of\nsounds once heard on the plains of Shinar.  In this respect the mixed\nscenes and various languages in the Hyde Park Bazaar will be less\nsurprising to the Eastern visitors than to the people of the West.  It\nwill seem to them the augmented and multiplied counterpart of one of\ntheir own busy markets\u2014a city-like mart, an immense assemblage of shops\nbeneath one crystal roof\u2014and embosoming in the midst of it a pleasure\ngarden, with great trees, and fresh flowers, and gushing fountains\u2014the\nwhole the work, as they might think, of some of their most famous\nmagicians.\n\nThe spirit of industrial activity and commercial competition creates all\nthese scenes, and as we trace them to their source we cannot help\nnoticing the desire of acquisition, one of the original principles of\nhuman nature, which often and most generally kindles and keeps that\nspirit alive.  The desire of gain, regulated by justice and generosity,\nis to be distinguished from that love of money which is so strongly\nreprobated in the best of books, as \u201cthe root of all evil;\u201d but it cannot\nbe denied that the innate acquisitiveness of man which may be trained up\ninto a virtue is too apt to sink down into a vice.  Influenced by a moral\nfeeling, especially by those considerations which Christianity suggests,\nand by those precepts which Christianity enjoins, this principle prompts\nindividuals to gather only that they may prudently appropriate a\nbefitting portion, and generously distribute the rest; but apart from\nthese checks and guides, and stimulated by the sordid passions of man\u2019s\nfallen soul, the natural tendency to acquire, in a multitude of cases,\ndegenerates into the sin of covetousness, which is idolatry, and he who\nmakes haste to be rich becomes a worshipper of Mammon.  Nor can we here\nomit to notice what a wonderful spring of human energy; what a motive to\nexertion has the material wealth of this world ever proved; how, perhaps,\neven beyond the highest prizes of warlike ambition, it has more\nfrequently and continuously agitated the surface of society, and moved it\nfrom its lowest depths.  It has been like a strong east wind sweeping\nover the world from the earliest ages, and keeping the sea of civilized\nlife in constant commotion.  As we read the history of commerce, and\nthink of the mercantile cities of antiquity, Tyre, Corinth, Alexandria,\nand the rest\u2014as we trace the stream onwards through the middle ages, by\nthe way of Amalfi, Venice, and Genoa;\u2014as we descend to latter times, and\ntouch on Amsterdam, Bruges, and Louvain, and then come home and muse on\nthe rise and rivalry, the progress and changes of the great centres of\ncommerce in our own country;\u2014as we pause in each place to look at the\nbusy traffic going on within them, to the crowded quays, the well-stored\nwarehouses, the mart of the trader, the shop of the artisan;\u2014as we see\ngroups of merchants, mechanics, and mariners;\u2014as we listen to the buzz of\nmany lips, and the noise of unfurled sails, and vessels loosened from\ntheir moorings, the tramp of men piling up bales of goods, the click of\nthe shuttle and clangour of the anvil, we have an impressive illustration\nof the high estimate of that material wealth, which it is the object of\nall this energetic activity to produce and preserve.  Percival\u2019s\ndescription of the pearl fishery at Ceylon\u2014itself a branch of most\nprofitable traffic, and exhibiting a scene of bustle akin to that of an\noriental bazaar\u2014may be regarded as a parable of the great world-mart we\nare thinking of, and of the precious prize which the thousands who throng\nit all covet to obtain.  Several thousands of people of different\ncolours, countries, casts, and occupations, continually passing and\nre-passing in a busy crowd: the vast numbers of small tents and huts\nerected on the shore, with the bazaar or market-place; the vast numbers\nof jewellers, brokers, merchants of all colours and all descriptions,\nboth natives and foreigners, who are occupied in some way or other with\nthe pearls, some separating and assorting them, others weighing and\nascertaining their number and value, while others are hawking them about,\nor drilling and boring them for future use; \u201call these circumstances tend\nto impress the mind with the value and importance of _that object which\ncan of itself create this scene_.\u201d  On reading this description it\nsuggests another parable, a holy one from the holiest of lips.  \u201cThe\nKingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant seeking goodly pearls: who,\nwhen he hath found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he\nhad and bought it.\u201d\n\nWandering far back into the regions of classic antiquity, the finger of\nassociation points to Olympia and her games, those Greek celebrations of\nwhich such graphic sketches are preserved in the triumphal odes of\nPindar.  Though \u201cthe immediate object of these meetings was the\nexhibition of various trials of strength and skill, which from time to\ntime were multiplied so as to include almost every mode of displaying\nbodily activity, they became subservient to the interests of genius and\ntaste, of art and literature.\u201d  Statues were reared to the memory of\nsuccessful combatants, \u201cand the most eminent poets willingly lent their\naid on such occasions, especially to the rich and great.  And thus it\nhappened that sports, not essentially different from those of our village\ngreen, gave birth to master-pieces of sculpture, and called forth the\nsublimest strains of the lyric muse.\u201d  \u201cThe scene of the Olympic Festival\nwas during the season a mart of busy commerce, where productions, not\nonly of manual but of intellectual labour, were exhibited and exchanged.\nIn this respect it served many of the same purposes which, in modern\ntimes, are more effectually indeed answered by the press, in the\ncommunication of thoughts, inventions, and discoveries, and the more\nequable diffusion of knowledge.\u201d {91}  But these memorable institutions\nare suggested to us in the way of resemblance, chiefly on account of the\nvast and various concourse of persons which they periodically attracted.\nAt the time when the games returned, the banks of the Alpheus became a\ncentre of universal interest, and exhibited a pilgrim population typical\nof a congregated world.  The festival \u201cwas very early frequented by\nspectators, not only from all parts of Greece itself, but from the Greek\ncolonies in Europe, Africa, and Asia, and this assemblage was not brought\ntogether by the mere fortuitous impulse of private interest or curiosity,\nbut was in part composed of deputations, which were sent by most cities\nas to a religious solemnity, and were considered as guests of the\nOlympian god.\u201d  It is curious to observe\u2014in contrast with the inclusion\nof so many of the female sex in our gathering of the nations, the\ncircumstance illustrative of the different position of woman in society\nin the old classic world\u2014that, with the exception of the priestesses of\nCeres, and certain virgins, none but men, during the earlier periods of\nGrecian history, were permitted to appear in Olympia at the time of those\nnational festivities.  The history of this remarkable institution,\nthrough the many ages in which Greece was the pattern and mirror of\nartistic, intellectual, and social civilization, exhibited that\ncivilization in its rise, progress, and decay\u2014its spring-tide freshness,\nsummer pride, and autumnal beauty.  There might the hand of providence be\nseen, disclosing, expanding, and then folding up forms of thought, modes\nof association, and habits of life, which while they actually existed\ngave much of their own impress to the foreigners who were gradually\nfamiliarized with them, and will long continue, through the medium of\ntheir history and their remains, to refresh the imagination, stimulate\nthe genius, chasten the taste, and arouse the emulation of mankind.\n\nOther associations, which belonging to the medi\u00e6val ages may be grouped\ntogether under the class of romantic, next occur to our minds, bringing\nin procession before us a train of images nearer in point of time, but\nmore remote in point of resemblance.  We think of the rich old\npicturesque cities of Europe, which sprung up, after the fall of the\nRoman Empire, in Spain, and France, and Germany, and the Netherlands, a\nhardy and robust offspring, born in troublous times, cradled amidst\nstorms, thrown on the world in infancy to take care of themselves, and\ngathering, like individuals, strength and nerve and wit and prudence from\nthis rough and irregular sort of training:\u2014and forthwith the\nquaint-looking narrow streets are seen crowded with flocks of foreign\nvisitors to drive a bargain in the bourse, or to barter their wool at the\nstaple, or to mingle in the amusements of some civic festival.  And\namidst the concourse of merchants, and pedlars, and workmen may be seen\nthe knight and the squire, the monk and the minstrel.\n\n    \u201cQuaint old towns of toil and traffic, quaint old towns of art and\n    song,\n    Memories haunt their pointed gables, like the rooks that round them\n    throng.\n    Through these streets so broad and stately, these obscure and dismal\n    lanes,\n    Walked of yore the master-singers chancing rude poetic strains.\n    From remote and sunless suburbs came they to the friendly guild,\n    Building nests in Fame\u2019s great temple, as in spouts the swallows\n    build.\u201d\n\n    \u201cI beheld the pageants splendid that adorned those days of old;\n    Stately dames like queens attended, knights who bore the fleece of\n    gold;\n    Lombard and Venetian merchants, with deep laden argosies;\n    Ministers from twenty nations, more than royal pomp and ease.\u201d {94}\n\nAnd, then, Venice is seen, rising out of the sea\u2014a \u201cmazy dream of marble\npalaces, old names, fair churches, strange costumes, while the canals are\nlike the silver threads, the bright unities of one of sleep\u2019s well-woven\nvisions.\u201d  Within that great city\u2014the modern Tyre, her history full of\nwarnings pointed at pride, cupidity, ambition, and tyranny\u2014are seen her\nmerchant princes, with strangers from other lands, \u201cGreek, Armenian,\nPersian,\u201d meeting together in busy excited crowds to look on the wares\nand treasures supplied by her richly freighted ships; nor can we help\nglancing at the annual festival of that commercial republic, when, to use\nthe words of Rogers,\u2014\n\n          \u201cThe fisher came\n    From his green islet, bringing o\u2019er the waves\n    His wife and little one, the husbandman\n    From the far land, with many a friar and nun,\n    And village maiden, her first flight from home,\n    Crowding the common ferry.  All arrived:\n    And in his straw the prisoner turned and listened;\n    So great the stir in Venice.  Old and young\n    Thronged her three hundred bridges.\u201d\n\nAnd then these cities disappear, and give place to some curiously carved\nchapel\u2014a gem of architecture\u2014within whose dim aisles there gather groups\nof pilgrims from far-off places, to pay their vows and offer their gifts\nat the shrine of a popular saint.  Walsingham and Canterbury show eager\nand zealous worshippers, coming from distant towns and other lands, to\nkneel with ignorant and superstitions reverence on the altar steps, and\nto help by their genuflexions to deepen the indentations on the wave-like\nsurface of the floor.  And then again our thoughts wander away to\nMediterranean ports, and pilgrims are seen gathering there to go forth on\na more formidable expedition to the Holy Land, and as the vessel weighs\nanchor, the old church hymn, the _Veni Creator_, chanted by the sailors,\nis heard stealing over the waters, as they spread their canvass to the\nwind.  Nor can we forget that even these gatherings, with all their\nsuperstition, folly, waste of time, and pernicious moral influence,\nnevertheless enlarged the circle of human knowledge, and the domains of\ncivilization, and corrected errors in geography, and wore away prejudices\nbetween race and race, and promoted the interests of commerce and\nnavigation; and, towards the latter part of the medi\u00e6val age,\ncontributed, by the knowledge which many of those who visited Rome\nacquired respecting its corrupt and licentious court, to create and swell\nthat deep tide of anti-papal feeling which preceded the Lutheran\nreformation and promoted it when it came.  Far greater crowds than ever\nare seen, in the eleventh century, embarking: in the richly painted\ngalleys of Genoa and Venice, on their way to the East.  Zeal for the\nCrusades was the very spirit of the times, fanned in some instances and\nkindled in others by the eloquence of Peter the Hermit.  Europe\nprecipitated itself into Asia, and multitudes who marched on foot, as\nwell as those who crossed the Mediterranean, appeared on the plains of\nPalestine.  Rarely has our world, which has so often witnessed the\ngathering of armed men, seen such a host as met the eye of our Richard\nC\u0153ur de Lion when he reached Acre.  \u201cAround the city spread the camp of\nthe besiegers, a collection of warriors from every country in Europe,\nwith their separate and appropriate standards.  The walls of the place\nwere manned by its resolute defenders, urging their active engines of\nwarlike defence.  Beyond, at a visible distance, the powerful army of\nSaladin appeared covering the hills and plains: their tents radiating\nwith the gorgeous colours so precious to Turkish taste.\u201d  The Crusades\nwasted an immense amount of wealth, sacrificed human life to an awful\nextent, and were productive of intense misery in various forms.  But, as\nin the case of all great gatherings of the human race for a common\npurpose, the evils were in the main temporary, the good produced\npermanent.  They did on a large scale what pilgrimages did on a small\none.  They tended to undermine the system of feudalism and to sow seeds\nof liberty.  Men were waked as by a thunder-clap from the slumber of\ncenturies.  A movement was produced in society, the impulse of which\nnever died away, for from that era European affairs underwent a change;\nintellectual, moral, political, religious life began afresh to throb\nthrough the Western world, and never since have men completely gone to\nsleep again.\n\nTransported in imagination to Palestine, the eye travels from the\nprocessions and crusades of former days to assemblages in modern times,\nanimated by a like spirit of superstition; and among scenes of this kind\nsuch a picture as the following occurs on the banks of the Jordan, by the\nfountain of Elisha, detaining the fancy by its poetical interest, while,\nas an expression of blind and misguided feeling improperly termed\nreligious, it fills with melancholy reflections the mind which has been\nenlightened by true piety.  \u201cI estimated the number of persons encamped\nupon the plain before Jericho at 2,500, including a singular variety of\nlanguages and costumes.  There was scarcely a people under heaven among\nwhom Christianity is professed without its representatives here.  There\nwere Copts, Greeks, Armenians, Catholics, Protestants from Abyssinia,\nEgypt, Asia Minor, Turkey, Greece, Malta, Italy, France, Spain, Austria,\nPoland, Prussia, Russia, Great Britain, America, and I believe all or\nnearly all other Christian lands.  Cossacks were very numerous, and were\ndistinguished for their equipages and personal bearing among a motley\nassemblage, which could hardly claim to be less than semi-barbarous.\nThis was no mean opportunity to study customs and costumes, when a walk\nof two or three minutes brought under your inspection the Egyptian dining\nupon an onion and a doura cake, the Syrian with his hands full of curds,\nthe Armenian feasting on pickled olives or preserved dates, the Cossack\ndevouring huge pieces of boiled mutton, and the European and American\nseated around a box, serving the purpose of a table, covered with the\nusual variety of meats and drinks demanded by the pampered appetite of\ncivilized man.  As it grew dark, a multitude of fires was kindled\nthroughout the camp and in the grove adjoining, which threw their strong\nglare upon these very characteristic curious groups, and gave the fullest\neffect to the picturesque scene.  The red caps, the huge turbans, the\nvast flaunting robes of striped silk or scarlet, the coarse shaggy jacket\nand bag trousers of the Cossacks, the venerable huge beards and bare feet\nand legs of the orientals, all seemed part and parcel of the human beings\nwho lay nestled together upon the ground like domestic animals, or moved\nabout the illuminated area, thus varying and multiplying by every\npossible change of light and shade the phases and hues of all that\nappears grotesque and fantastic to an eye accustomed to the graver modes\nof the western world.\u201d\n\nAnd now that a chain of rather wild but not uninteresting suggestions has\nbrought us to the Holy Land, other thoughts, sacred and divine, bind us\nthere for a while, strengthened by the sight of many a foreign and\nhome-born visitor among the actual crowd, within and about the great\nCrystal Palace, unmistakably of Israelitish origin, the descendants of\nthe men who possessed the country in her better days.  And there, on the\nsummit of Moriah, stands an edifice devoted neither to war nor wealth, to\nthe advancement of art or to the gratification of pleasure, but to the\nservice of the God of the whole earth.  \u201cA mountain of snow,\u201d it seemed\nto the Roman Titus, \u201cfretted with golden pinnacles.\u201d  But, with an\nattractiveness surpassing that of material beauty, it revealed itself to\nthe lingering eyes of large companies at their holy feasts two thousand\nyears ago, as they at length touched the summit of some one of \u201cthe\nmountains which stood round about Jerusalem.\u201d  They came over hill and\ndale, through mountain pass and by river stream, singing the songs of\nZion, and rehearsing glorious things spoken of the city of God.  At many\na cottage door, and village border, and city gate, groups of Israelites\nyoung and old, with smiling faces and beating hearts, fell into the\naugmenting crowd; which, as it rolled on, resembled the \u201cswelling of\ntheir own Jordan.\u201d  They came \u201cupon horses, and in chariots, and in\nlitters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to the holy mountain.\u201d\nThither \u201cthe tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony\nof Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.\u201d  There was \u201clittle\nBenjamin with their ruler, the princes of Judah and their council, the\nprinces of Zebulun, and the princes of Naphtali.\u201d  They entered \u201cthrough\nthe gates into the city.\u201d  The Jew from \u201cDan\u201d met the Jew from\n\u201cBeersheba,\u201d and he who dwelt \u201cby the haven of ships,\u201d saluted his\nbrother from \u201cthe other side of the river.\u201d  Lover and friend,\nacquaintance and \u201ckindred according to the flesh,\u201d fell upon one\nanother\u2019s necks and kissed each other.  The old man with his \u201cstaff in\nhis hand for very age\u201d saw \u201chis children\u2019s children and peace upon\nIsrael.\u201d  The \u201cstreets of the city were full of boys and girls playing in\nthe streets thereof.\u201d  \u201cThere was a voice of noise from the city\u2014a voice\nfrom the temple.\u201d  \u201cThey went up to the house of the Lord.\u201d  The priests\nwere \u201cclothed with salvation, the saints shouted for joy.\u201d  \u201cThe singers\nwent before, the players on instruments followed after, among them the\ndamsels playing with timbrels.\u201d  \u201cThey praised his name in the dance, and\nsang praise unto him with the timbrel and the harp.\u201d  They \u201cbrought an\noffering and came into his courts.\u201d  \u201cThey came to the altar of God.\u201d\n\u201cThey compassed it round about.\u201d  They beheld \u201cthe beauty of the Lord,\nand inquired in his temple.\u201d\n\nOne year stands out in the history of those gatherings before which every\nother fades.  Then _our_ passover was slain.  Then the day of the world\u2019s\npentecost was fully come, and great was the gathering.  The multitude\nwithout the gates who were assembled to gaze on that spectacle before\nwhich, at its close, \u201cthe sun was darkened,\u201d saw an inscription, in the\nthreefold language, of which there was a pregnant meaning that Pilate\nlittle thought of\u2014\u201cIt was written in Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew,\u201d the\nthree great languages then spoken on the earth.  Men who had used these\nlanguages from infancy were there.  Representatives of the world were\nthere\u2014the Roman centurion was there\u2014Simon the Cyrenian was there\n{103}\u2014multitudes of the Jews were there.  And as they deciphered that\nstrange writing, the various tongues in which the title of the Divine\nSufferer was expressed was a sign that in Him, the Roman, Greek, and\nIsraelite would find a Saviour and a Lord.  The three languages \u201cwhich\nlike gold threads bind up the history of the ancient world,\u201d were here\nbeautifully entwined to tell the teeming crowd of one for whose coming\nall the changes in the story of their respective nations had, in the\ncomprehensive working of Divine providence, prepared.  The cross of\nignominy, at the sight of which they shuddered, was the threshold he must\nneeds pass to enter his kingdom and ascend his throne, there to sway over\nthem a sceptre at whose touch their hearts would bow and be rid of the\nburden of sin and guilt,\u2014while their mutual antipathies would melt away,\nand He who had brought them peace would make them one for ever.  \u201cThe\nRoman, powerful but not happy\u2014the Greek distracted with the inquiries of\nan unsatisfying philosophy\u2014the Jew bound hand and foot with the chain of\na ceremonial law,\u201d would find in Christ crucified the power of God and\nthe wisdom of God; and, in the superscription of his accusation, read\nwondrous words of \u201cpeace, pardon, and love,\u201d to all the dwellers upon\nearth. {104}\n\nSeven weeks afterwards and again there was a gathering.  \u201cThey were all\nwith one accord in one place.  And suddenly there came a sound from\nheaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where\nthey were sitting.  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as\nof fire, and it sat upon each of them.  And they were all filled with the\nHoly Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave\nthem utterance.  And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men,\nout of every nation under heaven.  Now when this was noised abroad, the\nmultitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man\nheard them speak in his own language.  And they were all amazed and\nmarvelled, saying one to another, Are not all these which speak\nGalil\u00e6ans?  And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were\nborn?  Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in\nMesopotamia, and in Jud\u00e6a, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia,\nand Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and\nstrangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear\nthem speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.\nAnd they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking\nbread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and\nsingleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the\npeople.\u201d  Then was the beginning of that ingathering of souls which the\nRedeemer of the world predicted when he uttered those amazing words: \u201cI,\nif I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me.\u201d  Then he\nbegan, and still he continues that infinitely gracious work, in the\naccomplishment of which he unites a fallen and divided race together by\nuniting them to himself.  The moral world has been, as it were, riven by\nan earthquake\u2014consumed by an internal fire\u2014and he undertakes to reunite\nand restore it.  He employs his cross as the point around which the whole\nmass of regenerated humanity is to collect: indeed, by the simple virtue\nof that cross, he accomplishes the change, and constitutes it the axis on\nwhich the \u201cnew earth\u201d shall rest and revolve.  The attraction is\ninvisibly going on, and the successful issue shall be at length\ndeveloped.  To him shall the gathering of the people be.  They shall come\nnot as captives, but as those who choose his service \u201cto worship before\nhim in his holy mountain.\u201d  \u201cThe abundance of the sea shall be converted;\nthe forces of the Gentiles shall come.\u201d  They shall \u201cfly as a cloud and\nas doves to their windows.\u201d  \u201cThe isles shall wait\u201d on him.  \u201cThe ships\nof Tarshish first, to bring his sons from afar.\u201d  \u201cHe will gather all\nnations and tongues, and they shall come and see his glory.\u201d  \u201cHe shall\nset up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of\nIsrael.  The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of\nJudah shall be cut off.  Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall\nnot vex Ephraim.\u201d  Thus the divided world shall be made one in a way\ninfinitely transcending the ambitious dreams of an Alexander or Napoleon.\nThe moral dispersion, of which that at Babel was the type, shall be\nreversed; men shall be united in religion and love: and the lines of\nhuman interest, like the radii of a circle, concentrating in spiritual\nobedience and the glory of Christ, shall no longer confusedly and in\nstrife cross each other as they do now, and ever must, while a base\nselfishness makes each man his own centre.\n\nLifted into this mood of feeling, so much loftier than that with which we\nbegan the chapter, we cannot close without turning a reverential gaze on\nother gatherings, in that state of being on whose precincts we and all\nthe multitudes around us every moment tread.  There is the gathering in\nthe grave, \u201cthe silent waiting-hall where Adam meeteth with his\nchildren.\u201d  \u201cThe chief ones of the earth, the kings of the nations,\u201d are\n\u201cbrought down there and the worm is spread over them, and the worms cover\nthem.\u201d  And \u201cthere the rich and the poor meet together.\u201d  \u201cThe small and\nthe great are there.\u201d  Who can count the sands on the sea shore\u2014and who\ncan cast up the number of the dead?  Vast as it is already, the concourse\nin the great city of the grave shall in a few short years receive\naccessions of myriads more.  The multitudes who crowd the streets of the\nGreat Metropolis, in their way to the Palace of Industry, and all whom\nthey represent in distant lands, will ere long descend to the \u201cplace of\ntheir fathers\u2019 sepulchres.\u201d  This globe, as it sails round the sun,\ncarries in its deep hold many a costly thing; but the dust of its buried\ngenerations is a freightage more precious than gold or silver!\n\nAlong with this there is the gathering of souls into invisible realms.\nIt is consonant with reason and revelation, that we should believe in the\nconscious existence of minds after their separation from the body.  While\nthe mortal remains are preserved by Divine Providence for a mysterious\nrestoration to life at the last day, the immaterial and immortal spirit\nenters into a separate condition of blessedness or woe, according to its\ncharacter in the present state of being.  \u201cLazarus died, and was carried\nby the angels to Abraham\u2019s bosom.\u201d  \u201cAbsent from the body, present with\nthe Lord.\u201d  The emancipated souls of all the holy dead, through the\nmediation of the blessed Redeemer, are gathered together in his immediate\npresence where there is fulness of joy, and at his right hand where there\nare pleasures for evermore.  \u201cTo that state all the pious on earth are\ntending; and if there is a law from whose operation none are exempt,\nwhich irresistibly conveys their bodies to darkness and dust, there is\nanother not less certain and powerful which conducts their spirits to the\nabodes of bliss, to the bosom of their Father and their God.  The wheels\nof nature are not made to roll backward, everything presses on to\neternity: from the birth of time an impetuous current has set in, which\nbears all the sons of men towards that interminable ocean.  Meanwhile\nheaven is attracting to itself whatever is congenial to its nature: is\nenriching itself by the spoils of earth, and collecting within its\ncapacious bosom whatever is pure, permanent, and divine; leaving nothing\nfor the last fire to consume but the objects and the slaves of\nconcupiscence: while everything which grace has prepared and beautified\nshall be gathered and selected from the ruins of the world, to adorn that\nEternal City which hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine\nin it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.\u201d {110}  And terrific is it to\nthink that as the multitude of the spirits of the just made perfect is\nthus ever augmenting, so also is there an increase of the crowds of\nfallen and lost beings in the abodes of despair.  How many, it is to be\nfeared, are hastening on, by their course in this world, not to paradise,\nbut to prison\u2014not to be with Christ, but to go with Judas to their own\nplace!\n\nAnd beyond these scenes of awful interest there lies another of like\ncharacter, to be witnessed at the end of time by everyone who may look at\nthese pages, because it will be the gathering of the whole human race.\n\u201cThe dead which are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of\nman, and shall come forth.\u201d  The sea shall give up the dead which is in\nit.  Death and Hades shall deliver up the dead which are in them.  The\ndead, small and great, shall stand before God.  The Son of man shall come\nin his glory, with all the holy angels with him.  Then shall he sit on\nthe throne of his glory.  And before Him shall be gathered all nations.\n\u201cBehold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him.\u201d  To think\nof all the multitudes who have ever lived upon the earth\u2014all who are now\nin heaven or hell\u2014all who are existing like ourselves\u2014all who are yet to\nbe born, assembled before the judgment-seat of Christ!  No such an\naggregate of human beings can have ever met before.  Compared with that\nfinal one, even regarded simply in reference to numbers, every other\nassemblage fades into insignificance.  The solemn incidents of that day,\nrelating merely to the material globe and the works of men, as predicted\nin the New Testament; the melting of the elements and the burning of the\nearth really appear, upon reflection, less startling and impressive than\nthe vast concourse of mortals which shall then be seen.  And, to add to\nthe wonder, all, with the exception of those who will be alive at the\ncoming of the Son of man, shall have passed through mysterious stages of\nexistence, through the hour of dissolution and the disembodied state, and\nshall bring with them to the great tribunal some knowledge of the secrets\nof eternity.  Something anticipative of their future and everlasting\nstate they shall have experienced; so that, not in suspense, but with\ncertain hope or fixed despair, shall they meet their God.  They will have\nlearned long before, that their moral history in this world had\ndetermined their eternal history in the next: that if not twice born here\nbelow\u2014born of the Spirit as well as of nature\u2014they must then die \u201cthe\nsecond death.\u201d  Thoughts and emotions, remembrances and expectations,\nsuch as in none of the world\u2019s great gatherings have been or ever shall\nbe known, will then be felt.  And, to complete this, the most affecting\nof all the associations which our subject has suggested, the mind passes\non to contemplate the purpose and issue of the whole.  Placed before the\ngreat white throne, every man\u2019s work shall be made manifest, the secrets\nof all hearts shall be revealed, that the rectitude of the judge may be\nseen in his final sentence of life or death.  No human adjudication can\nbe comparable to that.  \u201cGreat and marvellous are thy works, Lord God\nAlmighty; just and true art thou in all thy ways, thou King of saints.\u201d\n\nThe brightest of all visions next unfolds.  A structure of peerless\nbeauty rises above the ruins of the world, and within its gates there\ngather men from all lands, select but innumerable.  \u201cAnd I saw a new\nheaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were\npassed away; and there was no more sea.  And I John saw the holy city,\nNew Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride\nadorned for her husband.  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,\nBehold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, . . .\nand be their God.  And he showed me that great city, the holy\nJerusalem: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a\njasper stone, clear as crystal; and had a wall great and high, and had\ntwelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels . . .  And the twelve gates\nwere twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street\nof the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.  And the city\nhad no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the\nglory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.  And the\nnations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the\nkings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.  And the\ngates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night\nthere.  And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.\nAnd there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither\nwhatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are\nwritten in the Lamb\u2019s book of life.\u201d\n\nHere let the reader lay down the book, and in devout silence muse on\nthese \u201cfour last things.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nPART V.\nBENEFICIAL RESULTS, PROBABLE AND POSSIBLE.\n\n\n    \u201cAlbion! on every human soul\n       By thee be knowledge shed\n    Far as the ocean waters roll,\n       Wide as the shores are spread:\u2014\n    Truth makes thy children free at home,\n       Oh, that thy flag unfurl\u2019d\n    Might shine, where\u2019er thy children roam,\n       Truth\u2019s banner round the world.\u201d\n\n                                                               MONTGOMERY.\n\nPOSSESSED as we are of an aptitude and an inclination to speculate on the\nissues of any enterprise in which we take a lively interest, we naturally\nturn, when revolving in our thoughts the subject of our Glass Palace and\nour great gathering, to look at the consequences which seem likely to\nemanate from such a remarkable exhibition, or which may be elicited by\nwisdom and benevolence from the fact of such an assemblage of the human\nfamily.  There are temporal results of an advantageous kind certain, or\nalmost certain, to arise.  While we deprecate the all-absorbing interest\nfelt by too many in pursuits terminating upon our condition in the\npresent life; while we condemn an extravagant and idolatrous admiration\nof talent in invention and cleverness in contrivance; while we deplore\nthat in the present day there is, in some quarters, an unmingled\nenthusiasm about such matters, which almost looks like the worship \u201cof\nthe vice, the saw, and the hammer;\u201d while we look with pain upon the\ninstances around us, in which our fellow-creatures are under the supreme\nand disastrous guidance of what an inspired teacher calls the \u201clust of\nthe eye and the pride of life;\u201d while we bear in mind that the insatiable\nlove of gain, which is obvious enough in this commercial age, and is\nplainly the besetting sin of multitudes, must lead its subjects into\ntemptation and a snare, and many hurtful lusts, which drown men in\nperdition:\u2014yet, consistently with all this, in strict accordance with the\nspirit of our holy religion, which has \u201cthe promise of the life that now\nis and of that which is to come;\u201d we look with interest and thankfulness\nupon all that may improve, elevate, and adorn the condition of mankind in\nthe present stage of existence.  It seems impossible that this exposition\nof the works of all countries should not have a most favourable influence\nupon the taste, knowledge, convenience, and physical welfare of mankind.\nWhilst the sight of so many productions of art will exercise the\njudgment, inspire the admiration, and chasten and guide the sensibilities\nof the mind in reference to artistic beauty, we shall obtain an enlarged\nacquaintance with modern inventions, and thus derive information relative\nto what forms an interesting chapter in the history of human\nachievements.  Among the suggestions of philosophical and philanthropic\nminds, that of Douglas, for the establishment of a Great Society, which\nshould survey the compass and collect and arrange the treasures of human\nknowledge, a suggestion founded on Lord Bacon\u2019s germinant idea of a\n_philosophia prima_, is one of the most remarkable.  The Great Exhibition\nwill accomplish to a considerable extent one of the ends contemplated in\nthe project.  It will convey more intelligence, in reference to art, than\nany written description could do.  The operations of our \u201cRegent Society\u201d\nwill furnish a gigantic catalogue of the inventions of men, illustrated\nby the inventions themselves.  \u201cFew works,\u201d says the writer we have\nnamed, \u201cwould be more conducive to further advancement than \u2018a\ncalendar;\u2019\u201d\u2014here he uses Bacon\u2019s words;\u2014\u201cthan a calendar resembling an\ninventory of the estate of man, of all inventions which are now extant,\nout of which doth naturally result a note what things are yet impossible,\nor not invented.\u201d  Here we shall have the very thing\u2014the huge household\nbook of the world\u2019s furniture, bound in covers of crystal.  By its\ninfluence on the knowledge and cultivation of art the Exhibition will\npromote at once our individual enjoyment, the comforts of our home, and\nall the conveniences and elegancies of domestic life, and also tend to\nstrengthen and elevate our national importance.  What will benefit the\nrich may bless the poor.  \u201cThe discoveries which are the property of the\nhigher class in one age descend indeed to the lower, but slowly and\nimperfectly; and there is ample opportunity and scope for accelerating\nthe general diffusion of knowledge and inventions among all classes of\nsociety.  Even, in the most civilized countries, the mass of the nation\nhave been suffered to remain comparatively barbarous; and it will be the\ndawn of a new and happier era, when the condition of the multitude is\nconsidered with that interest which is due to those, the sum of whose\njoys and sorrows are to all that is felt by the rest of the community\nwhat the ocean is to the drops of rain that fall into it.\u201d\n\n\u201cIt would be difficult to point out any branch of art which does not tend\nto the prosperity of our country; those which in appearance are most\nremote in their influence, however indirectly, yet effectually contribute\nto the perfection of its manufactures.  The pursuits of immediate utility\nand of refined pleasure, however far separated from each other, alike\ncombine in exalting our national welfare.  It is not necessary, in\nrecommending the fine arts to public patronage, to point out how far they\nimprove and recommend to other nations the productions of manufactures,\nsince they have higher and more direct claims upon the national\nencouragement.  Still their advancement, and above all their diffusion,\nbecome of high importance in a country like Britain, to be and ever to\ncontinue the centre and heart of trade and manufactures.\u201d {122}\n\nWe may also advert for a moment to the connexion of the present\nenterprise with the pursuits of science.  In the history of human\nprogress it may indeed be remarked that art has preceded science; that\nPhidias came before Aristotle, and Michael Angelo before Lord Bacon; but\nstill science has ever proved the friend of art in those branches which\nminister immediately to the enjoyments of mankind.\n\nScarcely any specimens of modern ingenuity could be found in the\nExhibition which are not indebted for something of their beauty and\nadaptation, if not their very existence, to scientific knowledge.  The\npractical application of philosophy has given birth to the manifold kinds\nof machinery which at once abridge the toils and improve the products of\nhuman skill.  Now art, if it cannot pay back the debt it owes to science,\nmay be subservient to the interests of its patron.  So it has proved in\nmany instances already, and will continue to do, no doubt, as the\nnecessities of artistic invention give an impulse to philosophical\ninquiry.  The manufacture of watches long since led to careful\nobservations upon the effect of temperature on metals.  Glass-making, at\nan early period, occasioned examinations into the colouring properties of\nmetallic oxides; and the dying of woollens and silks has naturally\ninduced persons employed in that department to investigate the qualities\nof mineral substances as they bore upon the operations of their own\ntrade.  No sagacity can anticipate, no fancy conceive, the yet future\nenlargement of the sum of human science, especially in its minute\ndetails, to be derived from the busy activities of useful art.  All this\nthe present collection of the industry of the nations will be likely to\npromote; and, even with this limited view, one may regard it, in its\nrelation to the Illustrious Personage who may be deemed the founder of\nthe Great Institute, as worthy of a place among the \u201c_Opera Basilica_\u201d\nwhich Bacon desired to witness.  Some princes have sought to immortalize\nthemselves by war; some by purchasing the praise of contemporary poets;\nsome by erecting palaces, temples, and statues: but at length a prince\nhas arisen, who, to his lasting honour, seeks, by encouraging a noble\nenterprise, to foster the arts and manufactures, not only of his adopted\ncountry but of the wide world.\n\nBut the social effects of the great gathering are most important.  Vast\nmultitudes of the human race cannot be brought together for one common\npeaceful purpose without its tending to some desirable end.  There is a\nbond of consanguinity which encompasses all the descendants of Adam.\n\u201cGod has made of one blood the families of men.\u201d  There are sympathies in\nall human hearts like the strings of a concert of harps attuned in\nharmony: \u201cas in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to\nman.\u201d\n\nWhen men are marshalled under opposite banners in the battle-field, and\ntaught to look on each other as _natural_ enemies, deadly passions are\nevoked from the depths of the heart:\n\n    \u201cLike warring winds, like flames from various points\n    That mate each other\u2019s fury, there is nought\n    Of elemental strife, were fiends to guide it,\n    Can mate the wrath of man.\u201d\n\nBut when they meet amidst scenes of peace, to contemplate the glories of\nnature, or the beauties of art; where they are freed, for a while at\nleast, from the sophistry which would persuade them that the depression\nof one class or country is necessary to the prosperity of another; the\nkindly instincts of the human breast are likely to unfold and operate,\nand mutual amity and good-will to brighten and bless the interview.  We\nknow how the selfishness, pride, and irritability of men, after having\nfor a season been lulled to rest, may easily be aroused again: we are not\nunmindful of the possibility that, even through the Exhibition itself,\njealousies may be excited in some minds; yet still we cannot but hope,\nand we fervently pray, that after this peaceful congress of states, and\nthe amicable interchange of kind thoughts and good offices which\ngenerally, we trust, it will produce, there will be far more even than at\npresent an indisposition for war among the nations of the earth.  May we\nnot expect that, after this, America, the continental powers, and\nourselves will feel an increased reluctance to unsheath the sword?  Will\nnot fighting look more than ever like fratricide?  It was a custom among\nthe Romans to split in two, and divide between themselves and foreign\nvisitors who shared their hospitality, a small token called the _tessera\nhospitalis_, which was preserved from generation to generation in the two\nfamilies who formed the friendly alliance.  It became an heir-loom, to be\nenjoyed and used by remote descendants.  Fervently do we desire that the\nresult of the great gathering in the industrial mansion, the minor\ngatherings in other, and especially sacred, places of resort, and the\nprivate gatherings of foreign friends around English-hearths, will be\nlike the division of the _tessera hospitalis_ in old times, and that its\nmemory will be cherished and honoured through years to come.\n\nIt cannot be supposed that men should meet together from such different\nquarters without enlarging their knowledge of each other, of human\nnature, and the world.  Narrow and contracted modes of thought on certain\nsubjects incident to very circumscribed travelling will, we may expect,\nexpand into generous dimensions, in consequence of a visit from afar to\nthe British Metropolis; while the opportunities afforded us for\nintercourse with foreigners cannot but bring the knowledge of their\nmethods of life and social habits to our very doors.  By those who are\nskilled in the languages of other countries the means of improvement\nafforded this year are great beyond expression.\n\nMay we not add, that the intelligent observation of our country, its\nlarge freedom, its general order, its civil institutions, its commercial\nactivity, and, above all, its numerous benevolent associations, will be\nadapted to suggest valuable hints and reflections to strangers; by\ncreating comparison between what they witness here and what they have\nbeen familiar with in their own land, and by leading them to inquire into\nthe causes of difference between themselves and us?\n\nThese are probable beneficial results of the Exhibition; there are still\nmore important advantages to be contemplated among the things that are\npossible, the actual realization of which must depend upon combined and\nindividual effort.  Whether, in a moral and religious point of view, it\nwill terminate in blessing the world and ourselves must be determined by\nthe use we resolve to make of it.  England has created an unprecedented\nopportunity for doing spiritual good on a large scale to the other\ncountries of the earth.  A field of usefulness at home is now opened,\nwhich may, by careful tillage, yield a harvest to be reaped by multitudes\nwho shall return rejoicing, \u201ctaking their sheaves with them.\u201d  No one can\ntell where the undulations of the influence will terminate which the\nChristians in Britain may now put in action.  Evils relating to the\ninterests of morality and religion will no doubt be incidentally\noccasioned by this vast concourse.  Monsters in human form, who seek \u201cthe\nwages of iniquity,\u201d by pandering to the gratification of sensuality and\nintemperance, will make the months of our world-festivities the season\nfor plying all the bewitching arts of their deadly craft.  They will\nspread their toils with the utmost cunning, dress up profligacy and vice\nin the most gorgeous apparel, and deck their \u201cchambers of death\u201d with\nsurpassing luxuries.  The strange woman will \u201csit at the door of her\nhouse, in a seat in the high places of the city, to call passengers who\ngo right on their ways,\u201d and to \u201clead her guests to the depths of hell.\u201d\nThe harpies who live by the intemperance of others will not be slow in\nmaking provision for temptation, where the dissipated may \u201cstretch\nthemselves upon their couches,\u201d and \u201cchant to the sound of the viol, and\ndrink wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the chief ointments.\u201d  The\ngambling-house keeper will be also on the alert, to stimulate and keep\nalive a feverish avarice, or to excite some desperate attempt to repair\nan already ruined fortune.  In all these ways, and many more, evil\nagencies will be busy, even beyond their common wont, to seduce the\ninnocent, to kindle passions impure and vile in the breasts of the\nunsuspecting, and to rouse afresh the palled appetite and the jaded\ndesires of the man hackneyed in the ways of sinful pleasure.  Incentives\nto the breach of the sabbath will also be contrived; facilities for\namusements and excursions on the day of rest will be multiplied;\npleasure-gardens will be opened with new attractions; and steam-boats\nwill ply, and omnibuses travel, in augmented numbers.  The Sunday press\nwill, we fear, start on a fresh race for the favour of the worst portion\nof the public, by supplying more stimulants than ever to a vitiated and\ndiseased taste; and other publications of vicious tendency will be\nindustriously vended.  Against all these dangers we warn the reader.  If\nthe young and unexperienced, when they visit the metropolis under common\ncircumstances, need to be on their guard against the designs of the\nprofligate and unprincipled, with more than double force does that\nnecessity press upon them at the present season.  A much more than usual\nshare of caution, wisdom, self-control, and virtuous presence of mind\nwill be requisite, in order to preserve the visitor from falling a prey\nto such as \u201clie in wait to deceive.\u201d  And let every youth, whose piety\nhas been formed amidst quiet sequestered scenes, and has till now been\nsheltered by parental care, and quickened and trained by domestic example\nand instruction, seek, as he comes within the reach of new and unknown\ntemptations, the special protection of Divine Providence, and the holy\nsafeguard of the Spirit of God.  Carefully should he strive to fortify\nhimself against peril, by fixed and frequent meditation on the precepts\nand principles of the gospel; and, above all, it becomes him earnestly\nand often to present to God that memorable prayer, \u201cHold up my goings in\nthy paths, that my footsteps slip not.\u201d\n\nBut though mischiefs may be anticipated, yet it appears to us a vast\npreponderance of moral and religious benefit may be accomplished, if\nBritish Christians rise up to the spirit of the great occasion, and seek,\nunder the blessing of God, to turn it to that valuable account which\nDivine Providence seems now to suggest to thoughtful minds.  We repeat,\nthat England has created for herself an unprecedented opportunity for\ndoing spiritual good: and we may add that her guilt will be indeed heavy\nif she neglect to improve it.\n\n1.  The great gathering supplies singular facilities for making religious\nimpressions on the minds of our foreign visitors.  As a preliminary to\nthis, indeed an indispensable prerequisite, we must be careful to show\nthem courtesy and kindness.  It was held to be a religious duty among the\nGreeks to give friendly entertainment to a stranger, because it was\nbelieved he might possibly be a god in disguise.  An inspired pen\nenforces the duties of hospitality, on the ground that \u201csome have\nentertained angels unawares.\u201d  We look for no such guests; but we are\nassured that, whatever be their costume, clime, and speech, they who\nvisit us are indeed souls of Divine origin and enduring existence; and\nthe dignity of their nature is a sufficient reason why we should \u201chonour\nall men.\u201d  A sedulous and constant endeavour to treat them, wherever they\nmeet us, with marked respect, and with affectionate civility\u2014to answer\ntheir questions, to guide their way, and to assist their examinations\ninto objects of interest:\u2014not to do this in a careless manner, but so as\nto exhibit that true politeness which is described as \u201cbenevolence in\nlittle things,\u201d will tend to secure for us a vantage ground in all the\ndirect attempts we may make for their spiritual welfare.  It will bespeak\ntheir friendly regards; it will be on the surface of our character a\nbeautiful proof of the practical nature of our religion, and will\nrecommend to candid inquiry the principles from which it springs.  A\nproud, an indifferent, a suspicious, an antagonistic, or even a\npatronizing air of intercourse\u2014(one or other of which habits, or all in\nturn, some Englishmen are prone to display when travelling abroad)\u2014will\nat once alienate from us the people of other lands, and prevent the\nsuccess of our well-meant efforts, however vigorously employed, for their\nspiritual good.  We must look on them not as inferiors, not as\nindividuals worse taught than we\u2014nor as ignorant or foolish\u2014but as men of\nlike passions and powers, having heads as clear and hearts as warm as our\nown.  This propitiation of their favour is in a high degree important;\nand if, in the impetuosity of religious zeal, it be disregarded, the high\npurpose planned will be removed beyond the probability of accomplishment.\n\nTo secure great spiritual results, both combined and individual action\nare requisite.  The Bible Society has devised its methods for supplying\nforeigners with the word of life in all languages.  Means will be\nfurnished for sending home many a sojourner amongst us, like him of\nEthiopia, who returned from Jerusalem \u201csitting in his chariot, and\nreading the prophet Esaias.\u201d  And, if he should receive a favourable\nimpression of our civilization, as we hope he will, and be led to see\nthat its chief excellences are based upon the influence which the holy\nbook has wrought in English society\u2014as we trust he may\u2014then will he be\nthereby prepared, in some degree, to search out the blessed contents of\nthat volume which unfolds the promise of the \u201clife that now is, and of\nthat which is to come.\u201d  The Tract Society has also religious\npublications in various tongues for cheap sale or gratuitous\ndistribution.  And perhaps when prejudice, or an indisposition to afford\nsufficient time, may interfere with the reading of the Scriptures, a\ntract may obtain a perusal, and drop into the mind some germinant\nthoughts which may grow and ripen into the strength and beauty of\nspiritual life.  A special organization, moreover, has been contrived to\nsecure places of worship for \u201cdevout men out of every nation under\nheaven,\u201d and to provide preachers in foreign languages, to conduct\nearnest evangelical ministrations.  And is it too much to suppose that\nwhen they hear, \u201cevery man in his own tongue wherein he was born,\u201d the\n\u201cwonderful works of God,\u201d there will be some, who, like those assembled\non the day of Pentecost, will be pricked to the heart, and will receive\nthe word.  And let it not be forgotten that \u201cthe natural man receiveth\nnot the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him:\nneither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned;\u201d and\nmoreover that this spiritual discernment is one of the \u201cgifts for men,\u201d\nwhich an ascended Saviour gives in consequence of his having \u201cled\ncaptivity captive.\u201d  The written letter is not \u201cthe power of God unto\nsalvation,\u201d save as the Spirit takes \u201cof the things of Christ,\u201d and shows\nthem unto us.  Seeds of truth will not produce \u201cthem thirty, sixty, or a\nhundredfold,\u201d till the Lord give the increase.  There can be no pentecost\nwithout an effusion of the Holy Ghost.  But, while we feel the necessity,\nwe should by faith and prayer honour him who has promised the supply.\nGod is willing to do his part, if we do ours.  \u201cProve me now herewith,\nsaith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven,\nand pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to\nreceive it.\u201d\n\nBut associated efforts will not suffice.  Isolated action was everything\nonce.  Combined action is too exclusive now.  The one must be done, and\nthe other not left undone.  Each man must strive in his own sphere to do\ngood to the stranger from a far land.  He may distribute tracts, he may\nguide to the house of prayer, he may know how to drop a fitly spoken\nword; or he may be able to introduce the foreigner to a courteous,\nintelligent, and educated friend.  Persons of wealth and influence, and\nespecially such as, together with these, have tolerable facility in the\nuse of modern languages, possess talents for usefulness at the present\ntime, the value of which they can hardly overrate.  By judicious\nhospitality; by making a point of cultivating acquaintance with the\nguests of the nation, and selecting certain among them as guests of the\nfamily; by frequent and wise arrangements for this purpose; by\nentertainments, elegant but simple, generous but not extravagant; and, by\nmethods easily understood and adopted by those who possess the requisite\nmeans, many may be brought within the reach of the gentle, tender, and\nsoftening influences of Christ\u2019s blessed religion of friendship and\nlove\u2014may have images painted in their memory never to fade, and emotions\nkindled in their hearts never to be quenched, and\n\n                \u201cOft, while they live\u2014\n    In their own chimney nook, as night steals on,\n    With half-shut eyes reclining,\u2014oft methinks\n    While the wind blusters and the pelting rain\n    Clatters without, shall they recall to mind\n    The scenes, occurrences they meet with here,\n    And wander in Elysium.\u201d\n\nThey may discover that they were entertained by angels unawares.\nElements of piety, like rich odours, may steal over their soul, to leave\nbehind an undying fragrance.  Our Christianity, through our kindness, may\nbecome endeared.  In the reminiscences of future years they may strangely\nfeel that never were they so near heaven, as during the memorable moments\nthey spent around the domestic hearths, and at the domestic altars of\nEngland; and, stimulated by the recollection, they may embrace the truths\nand find the inward hidden life which will enable them to perpetuate and\nmultiply such hallowed scenes.\n\n2.  The great gathering affords an argument for making efforts to promote\nreligion at home, and presents an opportunity for the purpose\u2014\u201cWe are a\nspectacle to the world!\u201d  The supreme Governor of the nations, the Prince\nof the kings of the earth, has assigned us a rank amongst the empires of\nthe globe which cannot fail to attract the attention of mankind.  Our\nconstitution and laws, our literature and science, our commerce and art,\nour army and navy, present points of interest, forms of grandeur,\nspecimens of activity, and developments of power, which the other\ncultivated portions of our race intelligently study as great theorems in\nthe science of civilization; while our brethren in distant regions, still\nhalf barbarous, gaze on the signs of our glory, or listen to the tale of\nwhat we are and do, with a vacant and bewildering kind of wonder.  And\nmoreover the people, institutions, and language of this little isle have\nattained a sort of ubiquity.  They are seen, felt, heard, in almost every\nlatitude of both hemispheres.  Something or other British, some\nfoot-marks of our wide-spread influence, may be discovered on nearly\nevery shore.  \u201cWe are a spectacle to the world!\u201d  The Christians of our\ncountry\u2014embracing the true disciples and servants of man\u2019s Divine\nRedeemer, commissioned by his express mandate, and constrained by his\ninfinite love\u2014have united and are still employed in the sacred task of\nteaching to the ends of the earth the blessed name of him they worship\nand adore.  They send the missionary, the Bible, and the tract, to the\npagan people of the world\u2019s two continents, and to them that \u201care afar\noff upon the sea.\u201d  \u201cWe are a spectacle to the world!\u201d\u2014rendered so by\nProvidence, accepting and maintaining the position by our secular and\nstill more by our sacred enterprises, we more emphatically than ever\nassert the publicity of the post we occupy, by now inviting the\ninhabitants of the world at large to visit our land.  As a professedly\nChristian nation, then, glorying as we do in that title\u2014making a boast\nvery often of the purity of our religion, of the reformation of old\ncorruptions, and the brilliant beauty of its spiritual truths, \u201cwhat\nmanner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness?\u201d\nEngland should be the model nation for the world.  Will not some\nstrangers come, almost expecting to find us such?  Will they not look for\nstriking indications of the influence among ourselves of that\nChristianity which we preach to them as worthy of all acceptation?  Will\nthey not inquire, what is it doing for us?  And we do not fear but the\nintelligent and candid among them will recognise not a few of the\nbeautiful footprints of our religion in our institutions and our homes.\nBut will they not see something else?  Will they not mark, here and\nthere, broad spaces in our civilization where the power of our\nChristianity has never come\u2014spaces in society left uncivilized?  We need\nnot now point them out; they have been laid bare again and again, and\nurged on our notice by home missionaries and city missionaries, by\nmagazines, newspapers, and parliamentary records.  They have met our eyes\nand made us shudder, in revelations from the press, the pulpit, and the\nplatform.  Terrible secrets have been divulged respecting some\ndepartments of English life.  Facts have been stated indicative of the\nvice and irreligion of some portions of the community.  Meditating on\nthese things, we seem to hear, from the lips of the foreigner whose\nspiritual welfare we contemplate, those well-known words\u2014\u201cPhysician, heal\nthyself; whatsoever ye have done in Capernaum do also in _thy_ country.\u201d\nAnd the just retort makes us blush\u2014not indeed for our Christianity, but\nfor ourselves.  Our Christianity, wherever it has been purely taught and\nfaithfully applied, has wrought marvels on a scale fully proportioned to\nthe extent of our efforts.  What makes us ashamed is, that we have not\ndischarged our duty in reference to its diffusion among ourselves, any\nmore than we have done our duty in reference to its diffusion throughout\nthe world.\n\nThe presence of so many foreigners, whom we virtually challenge to come\nand inspect the working of our Christianity, does not really _increase_\nour obligation, does not bind us more than we were previously bound, to\npromote the religious interests of our own countrymen; but surely it\nshould powerfully _remind_ us of our obligation, should press it on our\nconscientious regard, should awaken us from our slumbers, should\nstimulate us now vigorously to do what ought to have been done long\nbefore.  While we see so much in our great towns and rural districts to\npain and humble us in the sight of men, much more ought we to be pained\nand humbled in the sight of God.  The observation of mortals is trifling\ncompared with his.  Their reproach a light matter placed beside his\ncondemnation.  For years has the eye of him who watched over ancient\nIsrael to see what they were doing with his truth, whether they obeyed or\ndishonoured it, whether they taught its doctrines and precepts to the\nyoung and ignorant, or left them uncultivated, a prey to unbelief, to\nsuperstition, or false philosophy\u2014for years has that eye been looking on\nEnglish Christians and noting down their culpable neglect.  Happy will it\nbe for us as individuals now, and for our country in all coming times, if\nthe great event of the present year should excite a prevalent attention\nto the remaining spiritual necessities of the kingdom\u2014if it should give\nan impulse to our schools, our churches, and our missions.  That is among\nthe possible advantages to be reaped; and earnestly is every Christian\nreader who may glance at these pages implored to take up, and ponder, and\ncarry out practically, with diligence, zeal, love, and prayer, the hints\nimperfectly suggested, that so the year may be signalized by an\nexhibition of Christian devotedness to the work of religiously benefiting\nour countrymen, for which we shall have the approbation of our Divine\nLord, the testimony of a good conscience, and the grateful remembrance of\nposterity, who will \u201crise up and call us blessed.\u201d\n\nAt the same time the assemblage of many persons from the provinces in\nLondon this summer, affords an opportunity, an unprecedented opportunity,\nfor attempting, in a humble and devout spirit, something bold,\nsignificant, and generally attractive of attention, with a view to the\nspiritual good of the multitude.  Let thousands upon thousands of\nappropriate religious publications be cheaply sold or freely given to the\ncrowds about the park, and the streams of passengers flowing through the\nprincipal thoroughfares.  And let the gospel be preached by well-known,\naccredited, intelligent, and earnest-minded men, in the spirit of the\npreachers in the day of Pentecost, not in spacious buildings only but in\nthe open air, wherever it can be done with propriety;\u2014judicious\narrangements being made for the purpose, that holy and apostolic zeal may\nnot, without prejudice and misrepresentation, be regarded as ignorant and\nrash enthusiasm.  The enterprise is commenced.\u2014Exeter Hall has been\nengaged for public services on the Lord\u2019s day through several\nmonths\u2014preaching out of doors is also contemplated.  The initiative\ntaken, let others follow up the work, till London and its environs be\npervaded with the light and power of the gospel.\n\n\n\n\nPART VI.\nLESSONS, PERTINENT AND PRACTICAL.\n\n\n    \u201cWith arm in arm the forest rose on high,\n    And lessons gave of brotherly regard:\n    Mercy stood in the cloud with eye that wept\n    Essential love, and from her glorious bow\n    Bending to kiss the earth in token of peace,\n    With her own lips, her gracious lips which God\n    Of sweetest accent made, she whispered still,\n    She whispered to revenge, \u2018Forgive, Forgive.\u2019\u201d\n\n          \u201cSilence had a tongue; the grave,\n    The darkness, and the lonely waste had each\n    A tongue, that ever said, \u2018Man, think of God,\n    Think of thyself, think of Eternity.\u2019\u201d\n\n                                                                   POLLOK.\n\nA CENTURY ago London was thrown into excitement by the shock of an\nearthquake.  In the streets, and for six miles round the city, slight\nundulations were plainly perceptible.  Houses were shaken, so that parts\nof them fell down; and ships in the river Thames were loosened from their\nmoorings.  Numbers of the terrified inhabitants flocked into Hyde Park,\nwhich, being a vast area unencumbered with buildings, was supposed to\nafford a less perilous position for the people than they could find\nelsewhere, in the event of their being overtaken by the dreaded\ncatastrophe.  Whitfield happened to be in London at the time, when the\nminds of the citizens were agitated by intense and distracting fears; and\nwith an eloquence, which was surpassed only by his zeal, endeavoured to\nimprove the terrific event by making it the occasion of appropriate\nreligious appeals.  One night he addressed a vast concourse in the Park,\nand while the people pressed together to hear him under the open sky\u2014and\nthe silence of the scene, the bright stars overhead, the dim shadow of\nthe speaker, like some impalpable visitant come on a warning mission from\nthe other world, and the occurrence which had brought them together\ncontributed to the effect of his discourse,\u2014he with his almost superhuman\nvoice which with mysterious intonations rolled into men\u2019s ears, and moved\ntheir hearts as with an earthquake, described to them the terrors of the\nlast day, and exhorted them to flee from the wrath to come.  Could a\nWhitfield now, in 1851, gather around him in the same spot the concourse\nattracted there under such different circumstances, he might with a\nlittle exercise of his ingenious powers of adaptation, with a slight\neffort of his talent for extracting spiritual lessons from passing\nincidents, address his auditory on duties of infinite moment, taking as a\nsuggestive text one of the bearings of the festival of art already\nnoticed in these pages; namely, its hopeful tendency to produce\nreconciliation and peace among the nations of the world.  We can fancy\nsuch a preacher at the quiet hour of eventide\u2014the sky, clear azure, with\na few fleecy clouds\u2014the emerald-like tree-tops bathed in the rays of the\nsetting sun, and scarcely moved by the gentle air\u2014all nature seeming to\nrepeat the angel\u2019s song, \u201con earth peace, good-will toward men;\u201d we can\nfancy him lifting up his voice to tell the crowd, softened and soothed by\nsurrounding influences, that professing as they do to meet in national\nfriendship, and to celebrate a feast of brotherly love, there are some\nother obligations to peace and reconciliation which come still nearer to\ntheir homes and hearts.\n\nFailing the preacher\u2014apart from the helpful influence of the scene\nimagined\u2014and debarred the aid of that sympathy which thrills through a\ncrowd when touched by the living voice of a loving fellow-man, we would\nattempt for a moment, through the medium of this little book, to enforce\non the individual reader two methods of improving the present event\nsuggested on slight reflection.\n\n1.  The professed character, and what we fain hope to be the spirit, of\nthe gathering, suggest a duty which concerns us in our domestic\nrelations.\n\nMen, some of them not long ago, in arms against each other, we see now on\nterms of amity.  Perhaps the Austrian meets in the park the Italian he\nhas faced in the field\u2014the Turk, the Egyptian at whom he aimed his\nscimitar\u2014the veteran Frenchman, the British soldier with whom he grappled\nat Waterloo\u2014but enemies or aliens no longer, they pass, if they do not\nrecognise each other, as friends.  This congress on pacific terms, with a\ncordial understanding, is a spectacle on which the eye loves to linger,\nand over which the heart of the philanthropist dilates with hope.  Now,\ndoes not this festival, without any far-fetched application, seem to say\nto every one of us, as members of a family, that surely at this time\nconsistency is added to the other grounds of duty which require us to\ncultivate towards those related to us by nature an unsuspicious temper, a\nfrank and open disposition, a desire to conciliate where differences have\narisen, and a determination to cement where cordiality prevails?  Should\nnot each endeavour to make his home\u2014whether mansion or cottage, hall or\nhut\u2014a sanctuary sacred to peace and concord?  Should not each man now\nmore than ever aspire to the fulfilment of the office and the enjoyment\nof the benediction described and pronounced by the Divine Teacher of\nlove, \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children\nof God.\u201d  Unseemly and inconsistent is it, while we are inviting\nforeigners to forget past enmities, to consign to oblivion by-gone\nstrife, for any of us to allow domestic jealousies and heart-burnings to\ntorment our breasts, which should be full of domestic charities and\nsympathies.  While thousands, of different colours, climes, and costumes,\njoin to bury the hatchet of strife under the Hyde Park elms, let those\nwho own a common parentage, who in childhood sat on the same knee, and\nwere nursed in the same bosom, or whose relationship, though not so\nintimate, is far from remote, between whom, alas, differences have sprung\nup, seek by mutual concession to arrive at a better understanding, and\nthus render the present year memorable in their domestic annals.  It\nwould be a beautiful incident to associate with this bright passage in\nthe history of the world a few lines relating to reconciliation and love,\nwhere private strifes had embittered hearts intended by nature and\nprovidence to be ever one.\n\nThe religion of Jesus Christ, as it is intended to bring together the\nnations of the earth in amity, is also meant to bind together the inmates\nof a home in friendship.  Wherever its laws are submitted to, and its\nspirit imbibed, there peace must reign, and the domestic circle be a\nrefuge from strife.  The gospel teaches lessons above all others suited\nto this end.  It points the master to God, the model of fatherly\ngovernment, and bids him remember that he has a Master in heaven.  It\nspeaks to the husband, and points to Jesus Christ, bidding the husband\nlove his wife \u201cas Christ loved the church.\u201d  It speaks to the parents,\nand charges them to train up their children \u201cin the nurture and\nadmonition of the Lord.\u201d  It speaks to sons and daughters, commanding\nthem to honour their father and mother, and \u201cobey them in the Lord.\u201d  It\nspeaks to servants, and tells them to \u201cbe obedient to such as are their\nmasters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of\nheart as unto Christ, not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as the\nservants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.\u201d  In this great\nworld of strife what should be so peaceful as a Christian home?  Amidst\nthe storms which rock life\u2019s ocean, where shall we find a harbour if not\nthere?  While divisions are rife, where shall we find union, if not among\nthe branches from a common parentage?  Scenes of domestic purity,\ninnocence, and love there are to be met with in many of the homes of our\nland, over which religion has thrown its shield, where a happy exemption\nfrom the evils which tear society in pieces is enjoyed; where surely some\nrelic is to be found of what Eden was; where the parent\u2019s care, like a\ndeep-rooted tree, spreads out its graceful branches, while the children\u2019s\nlove, like fragrant and flowery creepers, twists and curls tenacious\ntendrils around the venerable stem, \u201crecompensing well the strength it\nborrows with the grace it lends,\u201d and the dew of God\u2019s blessing, and the\nsunshine of God\u2019s smile, fall upon them one and all.  Happy scenes these,\nwhich Jesus visits as he did the feast at Cana, and the home at Bethany,\nteaching such families out of his own word, sanctifying them by his\ngracious Spirit, guiding them by his perfect example, protecting them by\nhis mighty power, comforting them by his unfailing sympathy, and\npreparing them for a better home of which he gives them glimpses as they\nread the Bible and kneel together at the footstool of God\u2019s throne.\nThrough faith in the gospel, and prayer for the grace of Him who is its\nsource and life, these scenes might be greatly multiplied: and who but\nmust desire it, and strive for its promotion, so that while this year we\ninvite the nations to meet as a family, the family may meet as the\nbrethren of Christ and the children of God.\n\n2.  The character and spirit of the gathering suggest a farther lesson\nconnected with our individual interests and our spiritual relations.\n\nWould we fain look on the present year as sacred to reconciliation and\npeace? let each one inquire whether he has ensured the enjoyment of those\nblessings in their most precious and enduring forms!  It is a fact, to\nwhich the consciousness of most thoughtful men bears witness, that in\nconnexion with the intellectual harmony of their nature, there is sad\ndiscord in their moral experience.  The heart is divided against\nitself\u2014its little world is full of rebellion and strife, torn in pieces\nby intestine war, like an empire in the anarchy of an interregnum, even\nas that clear-sighted Hebrew, looking at himself in the radiance of a\nlight which fell from heaven, most plainly saw, and mournfully confessed,\nwhen he cried, to his and our true Lord and Maker, \u201c_unite_ my heart to\nfear thy name!\u201d  That inward confusion indicates the rejection of a\nDivine law of order, and that fact explains the secret of many a man\u2019s\nmisery.  The material world out of which he gathers the triumphs of art,\nand the intellectual power by which he achieves his victories over the\nphysical, are in a state of unvarying subjection to law, and hence the\nadmired results of his formative genius and taste; but he himself, the\ninnermost and moral self, is out of harmony with law.  Hence the disorder\nand trouble which human beings carry with them everywhere, amidst the\nharmony and order of external nature; which, with a still small voice,\nreproves them for their disobedience.  Some lead mournful, miserable\nlives; they strive to be happy, but happiness flies from them.  All kinds\nof expedients are adopted to secure inward peace; but these all fail.\nThe disappointed ones still try.  Again cheated of the prize, they try\u2014it\nis in vain.  And do you not know the secret of your sorrow?  You lay it\nperhaps on circumstances, or friends, or on the world, or on nature, or\non God.  You invent causes and miss the right one.  Here it is lying\nwithin yourself, in your own heart and will.  Your inward life is not\nunder the rule of the great God.  His laws run in one direction, and\ncarry happiness with them.  Your soul rushes in an opposite direction,\nand dashes against these laws.  The collision is your misery and ruin.\n\u201cYou stretch out your hand against God, and strengthen yourself against\nthe Almighty.  You run upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses\nof his bucklers.\u201d  Man\u2019s heart, divided against itself, throwing off the\nyoke of law, is at emnity with God.  Divine relations are disturbed.  The\nbonds which alone could bind safety and peace to the human soul, by\nbinding that soul to the omnipotent and loving Father of all, are\nruptured and destroyed; and thus, giving up its Guide and Guardian, the\nwandering child is left to battle with storms in the dark ocean of evil\nover which it strives to push its bark.  How can there be security to a\ncreature who breaks away from God?  How can that bosom be at peace in\nwhich there is no love to him?  His law has sanctions, as all effectual\nand perfect law must ever have\u2014pain and trouble therefore follow\ndisobedience here and hereafter.  \u201cThe wages of sin is death.\u201d\n\nSuch being the facts of the case, the first desire of all should be to\nsecure reconciliation with God, with law, with conscience.  The gospel,\nand it only, reveals the method of this reconciliation.  It teaches us\nthat there is redemption in Jesus Christ; that God has set him forth to\nbe a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his\nrighteousness for the remission of sins; that whoso believeth in him is\njustified; that there is no condemnation to them that are in him; that he\nis our peace; that to as many as receive him he gives power to become the\nsons of God; that being made sons they receive not the spirit of bondage\nagain to fear, but the spirit of adoption, whereby they cry, Abba,\nFather; that his people are renewed and sanctified through his Spirit,\nthat dwelleth in them; that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in\nthem who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit; and that having\naccess by faith unto this grace wherein we stand, they rejoice in hope of\nthe glory of God.\n\nThis Divine reconciliation, inward order, and holy peace are our best\nqualifications for seeking to promote domestic reconciliation, national\norder, and the world\u2019s peace.  They are the proper preparatives for all\nusefulness, private and public\u2014for all works of love towards our\nfellow-men.  For how inconsistent it is to think of binding up the wounds\nof a family, curing the ills of the commonwealth, or bringing a divided\nworld together\u2014while the very soul, dreaming of these achievements, is a\nspectacle of sorrow to unseen beings; inasmuch as it is engaged in an\nimpotent warfare against its God, and is bleeding under fatal injuries\ninflicted on itself in a struggle so unutterably awful and insane.\nFraternity! concord! union!  These beautiful words come with a melancholy\nand mocking sound from any lips but those which have prayed for union\nwith God, concord with law, and fraternity with a holy obedient universe.\nHow touching also, even to tears, is it to think that any of the minds so\nrichly gifted by the Creator should devote themselves through life to\nartistic and intellectual toils, for the sole purpose of bringing into\nfair proportion and symmetry rude heaps of matter, or confused elements\nof thought\u2014while their own nature, in itself and its highest relations,\nis left \u201cwithout form, and void,\u201d like the primeval deep, its face\ncovered over with darkness.\n\nThese blessings to which we have referred alone can satisfy.  Other\nthings, however fair and good\u2014success in the formation of the beautiful,\nand even the production of the beneficent, leave a consciousness of want\nuntil the human spirit be reconciled to itself and God.  The soul wonders\nwhy the cup in which it has mixed such sweet ingredients should yet be\ndashed with bitterness; but so it must be while the vessel itself retains\nthe wormwood of its spiritual enmities.  Let the cup be cleansed; let the\nmoral nature be renewed and purified by a reconciling faith in the One\nMediator; and then shall the man, however disappointed before, find\nhimself blessed above all mortal blessedness.\n\nThese blessings too are of an enduring character.  It were to tell an\noft-told truth, if we described the limited existence of all works of art\nand genius; if we reminded the reader of the crumbling touch of time, and\npointed him to the all-enveloping ruins of the last day, when \u201cthe\nelements shall melt with fervent heat, and the earth and all the works\nthat are therein shall be burned up.\u201d  But these common themes are as\nindisputable and awful as they are common: nor should any one forget them\nas he looks on the palace of _glass_\u2014(how forcibly symbolic is that\nword)\u2014and on the manifold structures, possessions, and achievements of\nmen.  In contrast with such brittle objects, how strong in enduring\nstrength is that spiritual good to which, in the conclusion of this\nvolume, we direct, with intense desire and hope, the thoughts of every\nreader.  \u201cThe world passeth away and the lust thereof: but he that doeth\nthe will of God abideth for ever.\u201d  The Divine favour, so plainly\npromised to such, is an inheritance exempt from the condition of time,\nchange, and mortality.  It is a treasure brought down to us from another\nworld, and will be carried back there by him who finds it.  In the silent\nmusings of eternity the soul, reconciled to God through faith in the\nblood of Jesus Christ, will be able to look back with unspeakable\nsatisfaction on a course through this world, in which the only thing not\ndoomed to perish with itself was secured and appropriated.  \u201cI could not\nstay in that earth,\u201d will be the reflection of so happy a spirit.  \u201cI saw\nbut a little while what it had within it of the beautiful and the sublime\nin God\u2019s works, and in the works which God enabled man to accomplish; I\nleft them there to perish, and on the last day I saw them perish: but in\nmy passage I discerned, by the aid of the Divine Spirit, something better\nthan all that they signified to me.  I seized the Pearl of great price\nand have brought that away.\u201d {161}  On the other hand, how inexpressibly\ndreadful must be the recollection of the opposite class of human\nsouls,\u2014of all unreconciled, unregenerate, earthly, sensuous, and even\nmerely intellectual ones,\u2014who will be for ever tortured with the\naccusation of their own mortifying and fatal folly, because they will\nhave passed through a world of perishable objects with _only one_ thing\nimperishable, and in striving to enjoy them forget that, and after a life\nof toil, ambition, and hope, came away with _nothing_.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n             Stevens and Co., Printers, Bell Yard, Temple Bar\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                            _Just published_.\n\n                            THE ROYAL EXCHANGE\n                                   AND\n                         THE PALACE OF INDUSTRY;\n                                 OR, THE\n                 POSSIBLE FUTURE OF EUROPE AND THE WORLD.\n\n                 Foolscap 8vo.  2_s._ extra cloth boards.\n\n        FRENCH AND GERMAN EDITIONS OF THIS WORK ARE IN THE PRESS.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n                        THE INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION.\n\nBooks and Tracts suited for distribution at the present season in the\nfollowing languages:\n\nENGLISH.      FRENCH.       DUTCH.        SPANISH.\nSWEDISH.      GERMAN.       ITALIAN.      PORTUGUESE.\nDANISH.       RUSSIAN.      MODERN GREEK.\n\nMay be obtained at 56, Paternoster Row, and 164, Piccadilly; also of\n\nNISBET AND CO., 21, Berners         P. HANCE, 14, Upper Gloucester\nStreet, Oxford Street               Place, Chelsea.\n\nSOHO BAZAAR, Soho Square,           MILLER AND FIELD, 6, Bridge Road,\nCounters Nos. 536 & 537.            Lambeth.\n\nHANBURY AND CO., 70, Edgware        J. ROBERTS, 2, Arabella Row,\nRoad.                               Pimlico.\n\nJ. GROOM, Soho Bazaar.              W. H. DALTON, 28, Cockspur\n                                    Street, Charing Cross.\nJ. F. SHAW, 27, Southampton Row.\n                                    T. VARTY, 31, Strand.\nB. SEELEY AND CO., 2, Hanover\nStreet, Regent Street.              MRS. PRESS, Depository, Church\n                                    Street, Hackney.\nC. HASELDEN, 21, Wigmore Street.\n                                    W. HANDS, Clapham.\nS. J. LADD, 10, Jonson\u2019s Pl.,\nHarrow Road.                        G. W. MEDES, Camberwell.\n\nH. FASE, 1, Edwardes\u2019 Terrace,      J. H. JACKSON, Islington Green.\nKensington.\n                                    W. D. THOMSON, 138, Upper Street,\nJ. L. PORTER, 43, Sloane St.        Islington.\n\nW. F. RAMSAY, 11, Brompton Row.     T. K. GORBELL, 16, Hereford\n                                    Place, Commercial Road East.\n\n                                * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES.\n\n\n{14}  \u201cThe internal columns are placed twenty-four feet apart, while the\nexternal ones have no more than eight feet (a third of twenty-four) of\nseparation; while the distance between each of the transept columns is\nthree times twenty-four, or seventy-two feet.  This also is the width of\nthe middle aisle of the building: the side aisles are forty-eight wide,\nand the galleries and corridors twenty-four.  Twenty-four feet is also\nthe distance between each of the transverse gutters under the roof; hence\nthe intervening bars, which are at once rafters and gutters, are\nnecessarily twenty-four feet long.\u201d\n\n{54}  See an interesting lecture on the British Empire, by the Rev. Wm.\nArthur.\n\n{91}  Bishop Thirlwall\u2019s History of Greece.\n\n{94}  Lines from Longfellow\u2019s Belfry of Bruges and Nuremberg are here\nblended.\n\n{103}  Cyrene was a Greek colony.\n\n{104}  Life of St. Paul, by Conybeare and Howson, p. 32.\n\n{110}  Robert Hall.\n\n{122}  Douglas, Advancement of Society, p. 151.\n\n{161}  See Foster\u2019s Discourses, second series, p. 128.  The passage is an\nimitation, indeed partly a quotation, of one of his.","title":"The Palace of Glass and the Gathering of the People: A Book for the Exhibition","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":28941}