A BOOK FOR THE EXHIBITION. BY THE REV. JOHN STOUGHTON.          Humani generis progressus,    Ex communi omnium labore ortus, Uniuscujusque industriæ debet esse finis:                Hoc adjuvando, Dei optimi maximi voluntatem exsequimur.          The progress of the human race, Resulting from the common labour of all men, Ought to be the final object of the exertion of each individual.             In promoting this end, We are carrying out the will of the great and blessed God. LONDON: THE RELI

The Writer of the following pages has, from the first announcement of the project, taken a sunny view of the nature and tendency of the Great Exhibition.  Originating in the disinterested suggestions of the Illustrious Prince Consort—designed and adapted to promote the interests of art and commerce, and the fellowship of nations—supported by persons, who, in addition to the distinctions of rank or wealth, are remarkable for knowledge, benevolence, and piety—promoted generally from a desire to ad

“The bard beholds the work achieved,    And, as he sees the shadow rise    Sublime before his wondering eyes, Starts at the image his own mini conceived.” Kirke White . Five centuries ago there might have been seen in the streets of old London, one of those gifted mortals who are now and then sent into the world by the Father of spirits, to stamp their name upon the age in which they live, and to enshrine its memory amidst the splendours of their own genius.  With a deep and luminous insight int

“Fair land, by time’s parental love made free, By social order’s watchful arms embraced:— With unexampled union meet in thee, For eye and mind the present and the past; With golden prospects for futurity, If that be reverenced which ought to last.” Wordsworth . The allusions we have made to Chaucer and his dream, in connexion with the Crystal Palace, suggest some very obvious but interesting reflections on the difference between the order of civilization which existed in his day, and that which

             “The barrier flood Was like a lake, or river bright and fair, A span of waters: yet what power was there, What mightiness for evil and for good! Even so doth God protect us, if we be Virtuous and wise.” Wordsworth . The invitation we have given to the world, to send its treasures to enrich and bedeck our Crystal Palace, and its tribes to visit us, for the sake not only of inspecting that great emporium but of witnessing our national conditions under its various aspects, implies a co

“By these mysterious ties, the busy power Of Memory her ideal train preserves Entire; or when they would elude her watch Reclaims their fleeting footsteps from the waste Of dark oblivion: thus collecting all The living forms of being, to present Before the curious aim of mimic art Their longest choice: like Spring’s unfolded blooms Exhaling sweetness, that the skilful bee May taste at will, from their selected spoils, To work her dulcet food.” Akenside . Endowed as we are with a principle of sug

“Albion! on every human soul    By thee be knowledge shed Far as the ocean waters roll,    Wide as the shores are spread:— Truth makes thy children free at home,    Oh, that thy flag unfurl’d Might shine, where’er thy children roam,    Truth’s banner round the world.” Montgomery . Possessed as we are of an aptitude and an inclination to speculate on the issues of any enterprise in which we take a lively interest, we naturally turn, when revolving in our thoughts the subject of our Glass Palace a

“With arm in arm the forest rose on high, And lessons gave of brotherly regard: Mercy stood in the cloud with eye that wept Essential love, and from her glorious bow Bending to kiss the earth in token of peace, With her own lips, her gracious lips which God Of sweetest accent made, she whispered still, She whispered to revenge, ‘Forgive, Forgive.’”       “Silence had a tongue; the grave, The darkness, and the lonely waste had each A tongue, that ever said, ‘Man, think of God, Think of thyself, t