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    INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF 130 . 2;

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    So makes himself his own consuming prey ; A ' or any living creatures doth he breed : But all that are of others bred , doth slay ; And with their death his cruel life doth feed , . 3 fbught leaving but their barren . ashes without seed * . " Fantastical instances like the . « e make science pleasant and easy , and philosophy " not harsh and crabbed , as dull fools suppose , but musical as is Apollo's lute . " And in the light of Spenser's verse we can illustrate the transitions in nature , while he so tunefully describes the process by which fire converts to air , and air to water , and water to earth ; meanwhile , spring is followed by summer , summer by autumn , and autumn by winter ; each with its months so gradually changing into the other , that the alteration of the periods is scarcely marked till felt . Then there is the transition of day and night , how insensibly promoted by the silent Hours , who are " the porters of the gate of Heaven : "—

    " And after all came Life ; and , lastly , Death . " Nature settles the question in her own ' -manner , acknowledging the unstedf ' astness of things , but arguing : that , nevertheless , they are not , being righUy weighed , truly changed , froni their first condition , but only bv such transitions " dilate their being , and work their own perfection , " and so , in fact , govern all the apparent mutations to "Which they are liable , by an unchangeable purpose and with irresistible power . There would , therefore , at first sight , appear to be no special peculiarity in describing a » y age as an " age of transition . " lira general sense , the saying is true of every time and moment of time . Yet there may be ' special forms of transition that distinguish . one period from another , and '' -mark it as extraordinary . Geology , for instance , refers us to transition-periods , and calls in ¦ " the testimony of the rocks" for corroboratioriof the fact . Hxiniun society may thus have

    its transition , basaltic and vulcanic systems , the signs of which may serve nominally to qualify different epochs of social formation . Human character . Jilso , may undergo different developments , and the individual ¦ ¦ exhibit-different phases at certain epochs- of existence . If , in the pursuit of truth , an individual mind feels itself at first in a labyrinth of great perplexity , alternately in states of darkness and light , — -if at onetime it is anxious for 'faniej' and at another careless about it—ii-now it&els itself behind the age , arid now : before It- if now it is solicitous for the : W-Di * lfl * s reception of its diseoveries , and iio > y willing to await a better opportunity—if at one time it prides itself on its scientific wealth , and at another disregards its acquisitions in this , kind as ' mere . " dross in contrast with tlie higheiv philosophy to which it may have attained , and abandon its former fields of endeavour altogether , — -these points of transition must be accepted as ' *¦ cardinal * ixnd prerogative ; ' specialties in the different eras of a man ' s life , and every good biographer will dwell on them as replete

    with instructive and entertaining suggestion . Nations have their biogrnphies as well as individuals , and in tlie life of the former are distinguishable epochs , in which the greater changes to which they are liable are prominently marked and symbolically illustrated . That in which we live has indeed ginned a special appellation . It is called an Intellectual Age , and its triumphs in the field of science attest the justice of the title . But its -tendencies are tp a more advanced stage . It is becoming / though it has not yet become , philosophical . The transcendentalism ofThe leading writers of America , and of our own leading journalists , is

    not to be questioned . The technicalities of the , German systems are now frequently used , and sometimes even sportively applied . Meanwhile , practical politicians substitute ideal and social aims for the mere partisan objects of former periods . They seek to stamp the action of Reason upon the world , and govern it by juster laws and more charitable arrangements . Nor is it only that parties arc held in abeyance in favour of national interests , but national interests are daily made to give way to cosmopolitan ones . The mind has evidently been placed on a higher elevation , and thus extended its horizon . Its eye now apprehends not only the prospects of a sect or of a people , but of the woi-ld ., '

    a variety of novel shapes and appearances in order to its ultimate restoration ,-7-a result sure to arrive , provided the scientific force be long enough continued , and not miserably thwarted by the timid and tyrannical in high places . ; . . ¦ The- political conditions of society will readily accommpdate themselves to its intellectual development . It needs no words to prove that intelligence is the great magician , and converts , PBOSPEEO-like , the barren , coast into an enchanted island , and the world into a Paradise . Such are the wonders that it is hourly performing , that the tendency both of the wise and simple is to look forward hopefully , trusting in human perfectibility , and believing even in some future cosmical Utopia . We look for a new heavens and a" new earth . The great heart of humanity indeed throbs with this sublime expectation . It desires a New Jerusalem , and undoubtedly it shall have it . _ .

    The fear that so terribly alarms the political mind is that we may be going too fast . This fear is unreasonable . A glance at history coiivinces us that the times and seasons are ordered . Providence brings about its ends , not only by mysterious means , but at leisure . Between each great epoch the intervals are measured by large cycles . Some five centuries elapse before the leaven succeeds in permeating the whole lump , and producing the desired " strike . " Men are indeed inmatient of these long intervals , and explain Scripture prophecy by shorter periods , antedating the millennium by more than a thousand years , and always announcing its advent as near at hand . It was so * even in Apostolic times , and is so in these . But Providence is not in such haste as man .. The " saints under the-altar " still cry , " How long , how long ? " Heaven , however , still proceeds slowly and surely ; laying the bases carefully of an empire that , when established , is designed to last for ages smd ages .

    But pain is always an accompaniment of periods of transition . This pain we are always suffering in some degree . We are always in a state of transit . But people take pleasure in travelling , though it does put them to trouble and expense . In fact , that word " pain " is a most equivocal vocable . One poet , who was always complaining of his sufferings and wrongs , tells" us that " pain aiid pleasure are two names for one feeling . " There can be no doubt that they are merely corresponding opposites , and that we must accept either as an inevitable law , Applicable to all conditions of the individual and all statesjof society . ^ Thepai n , moreover , ofa crisis is less than the perpetual torment of the small changes that are associated with every minute of the day . An unexpected earthquake , though it dail tation of

    ruins all , is less fatal to ' human peace than the y expec bankruptcy to the merchant who cannot make headway ayainst illluck . Away , then , with such" repinings . If vve justly denominate the age wherein we live as an - ' " ¦ age oftransition , " let us accept it with philosophical equanimity as a " great fact , " and endeavour to get abreast of it , and the society which it designates . But as all wholes are composed of parts , the lest counselwe can give is perhaps to advise ' each individual to pay proper attention to the more minute transitions which necessarily occur in his own life and being . The great transition from nothing into birth , which all have . suffered , is beyond the control of the sufferer ; but the final transition into a life to come is one for which we should all be prepared . It is a grand idea—a sublime truth—that' we must all pass ¦ from Time into

    'EtenTityT ~ Ijetr ~ etu-lr * bTr ~ profcmrndly ^ mpressetl- \ yith-the—lUTmowal significance of his individual destiny . It is nothing less than this ; , and with it the whole world presents truly nothing that may be justly regarded as its parallel . Every man is marching onward and upward with this aim , whether conscious or not ; butter , however , that he should cultivate a consciousness of it than " accomplish :, hi * final transition in the dark .

    And if tins be an intellectual age , such must be the signs thereof , for the intellect itself is but a state or bridge of transition . It is the way over from the senses to the renson . The mind is travelling along tljat bridge even to this goal , and no other . The French had , as they called it , an age of Reason , but it was a crude anticipation and hasty caricature . It was an uueonsidered and impatient embodiment , arbitrarily introduced , of an idea bub imperfectly understood . The age of Reason is yet future . We perceive the precursors of its advent ; but it has not yet come . Our readers may have gathered from our above l'emarks , and especinlly from t )» o $ o cited with the authority of Lord Bacon ' s name , that there are two kinds of transition , tho natural and the artificial . The " skilful minister of nuturo" may " apply force to matter , and by design torture , and vox it . " Thin same skilful minister is the Scientific Man , and his influence on tho present ago has been marvellous . Look at his mastery of steam ! neo how ho

    has subjected tho sunlight . tohis dominion I . mnrlc how the eleclrio fluid obeys his bidding ! Hu raises valleys nnd ho lowers hills ; rihr causes that ( according to Mother Sju [ ij ? t 6 n ' s prophecies ) tho carriages in which we are conveyed ahull go over tho tops of tho houses . Then notice the reactions that take pluce from these material changes ; how they call out moral enterprise , and now social adaptations , so that society soon rights itself notwithstanding ; and all tho perils once dreaded from new experiments nnd new inventions Aide and vanish like the dreams and shadows of the night before the dawning and increasing glory of the day . Where the slow-minded feared the " annihilation" of the social structure , tho " necessity" to which tho latter was " brought under" merely caused its transformation into

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    mi-IE Council of the Society of Arts , at the opening or tlio present - * - session in November hist , announced their intention to take such steps as were deemed necessary to promote tho holding- of a Univtrsul Exhibition of tho Industry of all Nations in London in 1862 . The Conmil , sis the ¦ promoters . of the first International Exhibition held in Hyde Park in 1851 , in proposing to hold a second in 18 ( 52 , are merely fulfilling the intention which was received by the . Royal Commissioners as tho conditions on which they were appointed trustees of the surplus funds . The Society of Arts , in order that

    the Exhibition of 18 G 2 should become a reality , proposed a few weeks since to raise a guarantee fund of £ 250 , 000 , and little has since been henrd of it , beyond an occasional report that tho fund was progressing favourably . Wo arc now informed thnt n giuiViintee has been obtained in excess of that sum , and contributors continue to send in their names most freely , nnd for sums which in tho aggregate amount to from five to ten thousand pounds daily . Thero is little if any doubt that tho fund will shortly amount to not Jens thnn half a million of money .

    Surely no strong-tsr evidence enn bo desired of tho degree oi support which tho Exhibition of 18 ( 52 is destined to receive , if mHiiuijicturbrs niM largely come forward to support it , in its prcliiniiniry utiige . That such support is natural , looking at tho extended busis upon which tho commerce and industry of this country must hi future be carried on , if it is lo compote successfully upon a froe-trado basis with tho industry of tho world , fow would venture to deny . England is no longer able to buy up exclusive intelligence of tho requirements of foreign markets . In this nge of railroads , steamboats , and telogrnphs , her seaboard no longer enables her to surpass her neighbours in rapidity of supply . England , if she is to mmntain Ivor position ns a iminn-

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    570 The Leader and Saturday [ June 10 ; 1860 .

    International Exhibition Of 130 . 2;

    INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF 130 . 2 ;

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1860, page 570, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2352/page/14/