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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    we are apt to lose sight of them for the rest of our lives. That the promotion of arts and manufactures, under judicious arrangements, leads to increase of human comforts, and tends to lessen the sum of human misery, is another fact, neither so simple nor so sub¬ lime, but which, being now generally admitted, may likewise be safely premised; for neither arts, nor manufactures, nor legislation, nor any human science, can remain stationary : all, like the precious fluid of our arteries, when once stagnant, deteriorate and decay. “ Change is but another name for Nature : The world exists by it, and but for change All matter would to Chaos back again, To form a pillow for a sleeping deity.” If the object of the Exhibition were merely to promote the gain and prosperity of the great nation which unanimously adopts you as one of its brightest ornaments, that indeed might serve as a motive strong enough for such spirits as the Gallic Fox, or the mis¬ called English Solomon. But, however palatable such an object might be to the industrious pursuers of com¬ mercial wealth, it would not only be inadequate, but most unprincely. Such an incentive would not bear fire enough to kindle in your mind the noble ambition of identifying yourself with a scheme that has already cost vou no small labour and intense anxietv. Neither •/ * is your aim bounded by the mere wish to give an im¬ pulse—an onward movement—to the improvement of arts and manufactures all over the world. Reflecting men recognise and give you credit for a nobler purpose ; and while some doubt, and all wish well to your un-