The Philosopher's Mite to the Great Exhibition of 1851.

Date:
[1851?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Philosopher's Mite to the Great Exhibition of 1851. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    on Icarian wings, his flight, uniformly found to be short and imperfect, is followed by a rapid descent, and not unfrequently by summary destruction. Even language, that vast piece of diversified mosaic, that most wonderful work of man’s ingenuity, has accumu- ' lated only bit by hit, and, like all other complex fabrics, the slow growth of the genius and industry of ages, acknowledges the varied labour of millions. The sacred story of the tower of Babel hath both a meaning and a moral. While such considerations carry with them no reasons for inactivity or in¬ difference, they proffer a strong one for caution and observation, not merely in the English sense of the word, but rather in the old Roman meaning of a sharp look-out. Since the time of Edward III. we know of no invitation to foreigners so unlimited as that of your Committee. It would be interesting to you to read that of the royal monarch—you will find it in the library in Windsor, and you will observe that its grasp was small, when compared with that of your great international summons. If, at that remote period, the conveniences and accommodations of the English hosts were less, so also was the population and the number of the guests. If English accommodation is now greater, it is equally true that your great river is tainted, and no longer the pure and silvery Thames of 1344. The same remark will be strengthened by reference to all the subsequent periods of epidemy, occurring in the last two centuries. We hold it strange, that while in 1665 your annalists were labouring to trace the plague from the Mediterranean,