Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding fronn Getty Research Institute https://archive.org/details/artfaithinfragnneOOtrou ART AND FAITH, IN FEAGMENTS FROM THE GREAT EXHIBITION AETS AND MANUFACTURES IN 1851, I By GEOEGE TEOUP. ‘ LONDON» PAUTEIDGE AND OAKEY, PATEENOSTEE EOW. EDINBUEGH : CHAELES ZEIGLEE. GLASGOW : THOMAS MUEEAY AND SON. MDCCCLII. a 0 ^ PEEFACE. I did not intend, nntil after six of the following essays were published, to write more than seven or eight altogether, or to bring them into a collective form. The consequence is, that while they possess unity of purpose, they do not present a continued and general statement, but are correctly de¬ signated “ fragments.” The original plan of publication as • tracts, necessarily, by confining the space, contracted the m- guments often into mere indications of truths that might be more fully demonstrated. Part of the series was written during, and others after the close of the Great Exhibition of Manufactures; which is. therefore, occasionally mentioned as existing, and sometimes as past. They do not describe the productions exhibited, unless where references of that character are necessary for their immediate objects, namely, as expressed on the sepa¬ rate covers, to illustrate three great factsFirst, that as Art must be founded npott, and work with, the material pro¬ vided in Nature, therefore it must have all the tendency justly ascribed to the latter, of elevating the mind from the things made to the Maker; Second, that the progress of art and mechanism fulfils the prophecies contained in the Bible, and affords a continually increasing stream of evidence in favour of its claim to reverence, as the Word of God ; Third, that all the improvements of the present age accelerate the mter course of mankind; the power of civilised men for good or evil- and the responsibility of Christians to promote every- where a knowledge of the only faith that has ever raised the social condition of the human race, or that ean afford to them peaee in life, and rational and secure hope in death. In pursuing these objects, I have referred less frequently to bare infidelity and its assertions, than to the more danger¬ ous form of unbelief, originating, perhaps, in Germany, and spreading among numerous classes in this country; which divides the Bible into parts, accepting and rejecting them according to the convenience or the prejudice of the indivi¬ dual; constitutes “ reason” the grand referee on questions of faith, rejecting all that it cannot comprehend; and having imbibed a false interpretation of Nature, deems many doc¬ trines in the written Revelation opposed to facts in the Re¬ velation of Creation and Providence, or, as otherwise express¬ ed, in the works of Creation and Providence. Holding that reason is a good guide, so far as it goes, I desired to point out the obvious truth that a Scriptural statement is not opposed to, because it may not be comprehended by, reason; for on that rule we must reject those facts occurring hourly and daily in Nature, which reason cannot comprehend or science ex¬ plain; and to direct attention, on the evidence furnished by the materials of Art and Industry, for the idea that the written Revelation is confirmed and reflected in the Revelation of works. The various tracts were written in the intervals of other engagements which chiefly occupied my time, and pre¬ vented, along with other causes already stated, the adoption of a systematic arrangement. G. T. CONTENTS. PACK ' 1.—Modern Travelling . 1 2. — The End or Labour . ' . 17 3. —The Pr^Tgress OE Knowledge ... ... ... S3 4. —Silver in and out oe the Mine .., ... ... 57 5. — Rails AND EailWAY Engines ... ... ... 73 6. — Iodine . 89 7. —The Poisoned Air . 113 8. — The Euel in the Earth . 129 9. — Swatches EROM the Loom ... ... ... ... 145 10. —The Seed IN THE Eurrows ... ... ... 161 11. —"Weeds and Wild-ElWers . 177 12. —The Eorest Trees . 197 13. — Art and Insects ... ... ... ... ... 221 14. —The Eleece AND THE Cloth ... ... ... 237 15. —The Granite Rocks ... ... ... ... 253 16. —Elint AND Sand IN THE Eurnace ... ... ... 269 17. —Diamonds and Pearls . 285 18. —Gold and Silver ... ... ... ... ... 301 19. —The Crystal Palace . 317 ART AND FAITH TN FRAGMENTS FEOAI THE GEEAT EXHIBITION. f ! _ I MODERN TRAVELLING. t 1 I The Author of au interesting volume, published some years j since, under the title of The Testimony to the Truth; or, the ! Auto-Biography of an Atheist, says, at pages 153 and 154:— I “ There are tens of thousands throughout the less educated I classes who can give no manner of reason for it, who, biassed ' merely by the natural enmity of the heart, and by knowing that objections have been put forth against the Christian re- 1 ligion, surrender themselves, both in thought and conduct, to I the notion, or rather, to term it more justly, to the hope that i religion and priestcraft are convertible terms. This is parti- i cularly the case with the population of large towns, and with such as have been their inhabitants in early days. I am in- ! dined to think the reason of it has been overlooked. It ap- . pears to me to be a generic tendency where men are herded ' much and closely together, arising out of the constant con¬ templation of the artificial.” i The accuracy of this opinion might be doubted, without ; questioning the existence of that speculative infidelity which A 2 MODERN TRAVELLING. envelopes many active minds amongst the artizans of large towns. The cause may not be correctly stated, but the result remains; and even the brief explanation may not be altogether unfounded. A great poet wrote long ago, that “ God made the country, and man made the town.” The line is generally received as an accurate and graphic description of the differ¬ ence between town and country. We know at once why there must be a vast difference between them if the country is fresh from the Creator’s will, and the towns come dark and dabbled from the creature’s hands. The distinction would be plain and undeniable if the statement were true; but it is inaccurate. God has no less, and man has no more to do with the construction of a gorgeous building than with the preparation of a field of flax or rye. The cultivation of the country, and the formation of cities and towns, had a com¬ mon origin in man’s necessities and his Maker’s orders and purposes. The country in a wild state—a forest or a prairie—is raw material; but a cultivated country is the work of art; and a town is formed by many works of art. The practice of high art is not discouraged, but is inculcated in the Bible. The temporary ecclesiastical works of the Hebrews in the wilderness displayed a knowledge of many arts, and required the skill of able workmen. The working plans given in the sacred writings of the Tabernacle, and “the instru¬ ments thereof,” imply the knowledge of high art, and the possession of fine materials, on the part of the workmen; which are partly explained by their Egyptian experience, and would be otherwise unaccountable amongst the members of pastoral and wandering tribes. When the Hebrews had been settled for some generations in Palestine they acquired wealth, and many of their works of art, but especially their Temple, and “ the instruments thereof,” were magnificent. The move¬ able erections of the wilderness, and the matchless Temple of MODERN TRAVELLING. ;5 the metropolis, were not hostile to religion, for they were formed on patterns supplied from heaven. Art and skill have been often perverted into opposition to religion; but this has been the fate of all the faculties of man, mental and physical. The power of speech—(James 3d c., 9th and 10th vs.)—the press, as experience daily shows; the facilities of locomotion, the freedom of public meeting and public speech, the ordinary and extraordinary means of social intercourse—even worship itself—have all been perverted to evil ends by some men, and made, in several ways, the instruments of advancing error. Nobody calls them evil on that account, or says that they should be suppressed or withdrawn. The processes of art, the progress of manufactures, and the increase of towns, can all be employed for good purposes. Men have made many towns, so far as their share of the construction goes, on a very bad pattern, but not much worse than their manufacture of the country. Both are bad, and “ manlike,” in their need of amendment and reform; and both may be reformed. The prevalence of infidelity in large towns, mentioned by the author already quoted—that is, its prevalence over a certain portion of their inhabitants —is not denied, and the probable cause as¬ signed, as matters now stand, is not questioned, but the appa¬ rent necessity of the case, from the existence of temptations to infidelity in the pursuit of artizanship, is groundless; for that artizan only superficially considers his “ craft,” who feels from it any disposition to doubt the truth of “ Revelation.” “ The Jubilee of Industry,” as the Great Exhibition has, amongst its many other names, been termed, furnishes a fair opportunity for eliciting the close connection between Art and Eaith.” The Crystal Palace and its purpose are both novel and original. They are the first of their respective classes, and from the rumours prevalent in society, it is possible that they may be the last. The Exhibition, as a com- 4 MODERN TRAVELLING. mercial specu.ation, has paid well. It has remunerated many exhibitors, by securing orders for their goods. It has repaid the nation in supplying the idle with an instructive lounge; and the industrious and intelligent with a valuable exposition of modern skill. But it has disappointed the extravagant hopes of many London tradesmen, by abridging “ the shop¬ ping” of the great metropolitan season, and materially con¬ tracting the usual circle of fashionable dissipation. Two classes, therefore, both very powerful, may look with suspicion on the proposal of a second exhibition. The ordi¬ nary tradesmen of London consider that their sales have been bad; and those who depend peculiarly upon a gay season, pro¬ claim themselves injured men. “ The Crystal Palace” is the first, and may be the last of its kind, for its purpose; but that is a temporary question, not any further connected with the object in hand than as it shows the propriety of pressing all the good out of this convocation of nations that it will yield, for a similar opportunity may not again occur. The moral benefit of the Exhibition may live long. It will, in its own way, promote good-will and peace amongst European nations. Intercourse amongst the* citizens of dif¬ ferent countries must render war between their Governments unpopular. The beneficial consequences of intercourse appear in many historical passages. The enmity of the Britons, the Saxons, and the Normans, in England, is now almost a for¬ gotten tradition. The feuds of the Celts and the Saxons in Scotland are only remembered in ballad literature. The quar¬ rels of England and Scotland have long since passed into a union of perfect friendship. The bitter sectional feelings of races in Ireland will be subdued by the same influence. In all these cases the different parties live under one Government —possess a common interest—and form portions of the same state; but their mutual dislike was not overcome by these cir- MODERN TRAVELLING. cumstances. The hostile feelings of England and Scotland were not exhausted by the Act of Union. Living men shared them and remember them, as living men shared and recollect the fanatical enmity of 1843 in Ireland to the Sassenach. The popular feeling in this country to the French thirty years since was not more favourable than popular French feeling was believed to be lately to ‘‘perfidious Albion,’’ and her chil¬ dren. Any measure, or movement, or policy, calculated to subdue these mutual well-springs of bloodshed deserves sup¬ port and thanks. Gratitude is due for anything that acts the part literally of a life-preserver. The greatest compliment paid to England in a foreign legislature is not to be found in the eulogistic remarks of M. Thiers, or M. Lupin, on this Exhibition, on the pliancy of our aristocracy, or the steadiness of our people—but in the sarcastic assurance of a heathen senator in a legislature of the United States that “England would not be kicked into a war.” England has not yet reached that particular point of forbearance; but the days will come when no nation will submit to be “ kicked into a war”—when there will be none to do the kicking; and friendly meetings of representatives from all nations must hasten that time. But what has this to do with religion? The par¬ takers and the promoters of this exhibition are not all religious men. Many of them have no warm feeling on the subject. Some of them believe in Mahomet; others worship Bhud; many trust in the Pope and the Saints ; and a multitude of our East Indian contributors venerate Vishnu; while a considerable number of persons, actively interested in this business, hold only a negative opinion on the matter of religion, and care for none of these things; for “ the world, by wisdom, knew not God.” What, then, have their convocation, their industry, their objects and pursuits, to do with religion ? The answer is plain. Beligion pervades the world, and touches all actions, 6 MODERN TllAVELLlNG. including those of its opponents. A man might as wisely strive to get quit of the atmosphere as of this principle. He cannot get out of its way into a region of stagnant silence, but gathereth or scattereth with or without his own pleasure. The “religion” referred to here is an obvious contraction of the word’s wide meaning. It is the creed contained in the Bible, founded upon the general prevalence and the intelligent study of that Book, and depending for its existence on the truth of this Scripture. If that be untrue, this religion is worthless. Its existence is hazarded on this single question— “Is the Bible true?” There are many means of trying the question, and marvellous ingenuity has been employed by both parties in the plea. Common occurrences sometimes confirm or destroy great assertions, and circumstantial evidence occasion¬ ally becomes unimpeachably strong. The evidence to the truth of the Bible accumulates with the course of ages. The spirit of the Book has always opposed the fashionable and prevalent evil of the world. In an age when “mighty men of valour” were held in the highest esteem, it announced the destruction of “the craft by which they had their wealth}” for “He maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth, breaketh the bow, cutteth the spear in sunder, and burneth the chariot in the fire,” was recorded by a monarch no less distinguished as a warrior, than as a literary man and a politician. Again, when the empire of the world had been gained, and was maintained, by the bravery and discipline of European war¬ riors—when war was the acknowledged road to fame, and power, and wealth, “ blessed are the peacemakers” was pro¬ claimed against the learning, and the practice, and the pride of society, from a nameless mountain-side in Palestine, but the words were destined never to be forgotten. Everywhere, ill those Scriptures, the spirit of peace is to be traced, some¬ times piercing its way like the springs on the top of our MODERN TRAVELLING. 7 granite mountains, in circumstances apparently hostile to its progress; sometimes springing up beautiful and clear in a bar¬ ren time, covering the arid sands around with fresh green ver¬ dure ; and again feebly struggling, and almost imperceptible, through the tangled jungle of evil which it preserved from utter destruction, but ever progressing until it flows broad and deep through the text of this book. Slavery was the general practice of the world; and is yet, in some of its many forms, pursued by various nations, and supported with a vehemence that attests its profit; and yet a grand mission of the Book, from the days of Moses downwards, has been directed against the cherished crime of the powerful and the wealthy, preaching ever deliverance to the captive. “ Liberty, equality, and fraternity,” blazoned on the ban¬ ners often of men who used the language to destroy the ideas it conveys, are, in their only practicable, and only valu¬ able meaning, taught in those Scriptures which were published and read when a plea for the poor was not the road to popu¬ larity with the powerful; and if now the advocates of even- handed justice to the poorest stand well with the world, their position confirms the truth of the Bible, and fulfils part of its most valuable evidence, its prophesyings against all human probability, not alone of events, but also of opinions. A Hebrew youth was seized by the conquerors of his coun¬ try, and carried by them, in his boyhood, from his native hills, which he was never more to look upon. Distinguished by mild dignity, by strict integrity, by business habits, as men say, by greater acquirements than were common in his age, and by genius well applied, he rose over the obstacles inter¬ posed by his captive and conquered condition—the state of slavery—to the highest honours amongst the vanquishers of his country, and amongst those who, in course of his long life, vanquished them. He was indebted for none of his steps 8 MODEEN TEAVELLING. upwards to a flattering, glozing, lying tongue, whicli, on the Tigris then, no doubt, as on the Thames now, often helped politi¬ cal adventurers more than aptitude or talent for business. He was not promoted on account of deceitful and supple bending to the wave of fashion; for this man from his youth was an eminent and stern non-conformist to the practices and the worship prevalent in the land of his captivity. If the language of the eastern world, three thousand years ago, resembled that of the western world now, he was called a bigot, an enthusiast, and a fanatic. We may be sure that he was deemed cold, eccentric, stern, and unsocial in his habits. He was singular at evening parties, and took neither wine nor strong drink at dinner. The golden image, which in all ages has ever mustered armies of idolaters, received no worship from him. Although he ranked high in political affairs, yet, on the only recorded occasion of his presence at the nocturnal dissipations of the court, he went, when invited, to read letters of fire, and pronounce the stern doom of a degenerate king, au expiring kingdom, and a riotous metro¬ polis. The world’s history contains the name of no more remarkable man. The courtiers and courtezans feared tlie noble presence of the politician who frowned on them. In temptations he stood faithful and unfaltering. He possessed great genius and extreme sagacity. He had read carefully the human heart and knew the world well. He desired to leave a record of extraordinary communications made to him. Often, when he retired to his chamber, with its window open towards his old home, his thoughts would wander to the banks of the Jordan, the brook Kedron, and the mountains around Jerusalem. And yet, the scenery of his fatherland must have been dim and indistinct in his natural memory. It would be sadly blotted with a boy’s tears, and interwoven with a boy’s sorrow. He tells us little of those early years of his, but the great man was once a lisping infant. The olive and the vine MODERN TRAVELLING. 9 were around his father’s residence. Other boys and dark¬ eyed sisters played beside him, or kept with him the quiet sanctity of the Hebrew Sabbath. The memory of his mother, and of the Hebrew Prince, his father, probably slain at Iliblah, had mingled with, and struggled in these old recollections. He had no printed Bible, or books adapted for the young, although he belonged to the Royal family of Judah; but his mother taught him the Hymns of Zion, and the wonderful history of his people. She told him of the Pather of the Paithful, of the Great Law-giver, the^ divided sea, the cleft rock, the crystal stream in the wilderness, the manna from Heaven, the quails from the East, the mysterious death on Pisgah, the dry chan¬ nel of the Jordan, the fall of Jericho, the feats of the Judges, the early prayers of Israel’s great politician and teacher—the last President of the Republic; the bravery of the first King, the friendship of his heir-apparent; the chivalry, the genius, and the poetry of his own ancestor, who was taken from tending the ewes to wear the crown; the wisdom of youth, and the folly of age in the king and preacher—all these wonderful incidents of Hebrew life were told by the matrons of Judah to their boys; and one may safely assume that the mother of this Hebrew captive, moving in the highest circles of society in Jerusalem, and taking precedence in the county of Jewry, where her * country mansion stood, was a lady of extreme accomplishments, and of fervent piety. All these kindly, though sad remem¬ brances, were shaded by the sorrowful events of a ruthless invasion, and by such scenes of bloodshed, that, out of this great and happy household, only one, this young slave boy, was left, and he was alone—or, if others survived the sack and storming of Jerusalem, they were dead to him; for we know not that the captive ever met again one of his family in all his long life. In these hours of meditation, and prayer, and retirement, 10 MODEUN TUAVELLING. this credible and respectable man, more intelligent and saga¬ cious, more trusted and wiser than any other philosopher, or politieian, or statesman of the East, said that he received ex¬ traordinary communications from his Creator, calculated to comfort him, and those of his people to whom they were told, and to enlighten believers in all ages. He recorded them, and his work forms part of the written Hevelation. Many persons, without reading his writings, rejeet the claim of a sacred origin made for them by their author; yet the book of Daniel should be read. It is a beautiful composition. No heathen poet ever evinced an imagination so grand, yet so pure, as that manifested by the Hebrew statesman of Babylon and of Per¬ sia in this book. He repudiates all claim to genius, learning, or wisdom, on account of this work; and says, that the state¬ ments therein are not evidences of his sagacity, but were communicated to him in an unusual revelation. His character entitles him to credit; for he was a man of blameless life (6 c. 5 V.), of economical habits (1 c. 12 v.), of great learning (1 c. 17 V.), without ambition (2 c. 49 v.), and he did not court riches (5 c. 17 v.). He deserves credit from his position in life. He was a great statesman, ruling over the province of Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar; a faithful politician, for he plainly and pointedly reproved his Sovereign’s caprices and sins; he was remembered in the reign of a new monarch, at* the hour of dismay and sorrow, when the Queen of Babylon urged the King to send for the certainly discarded, and pro¬ bably disgraced, Hebrew statesman, after other advisers had failed to meet that Sovereign’s need; he was a man of busi¬ ness integrity, a man of figures—not only Premier, but Chan¬ cellor of the Exchequer to tlie Persian Emperor, and his ledger contained the revenue accounts for one hundred and twenty pro¬ vinces. The public deservedly respect the memory of many de¬ ceased statesmen; but greater were the rise of this Daniel and MODERN TRAVELLING. 11 his career, than those of our Chatham, Canning, or Peel. They all began life at a considerable elevation, but he was a slave. They all dwelt amongst their own people, but he was a cap¬ tive stranger amongst strangers. It is evident, therefore, that he was a man of extreme genius and wisdom ; or that his own statements are correct, and that he was animated and inspired in a very extraordinary manner by God. He staked the veracity of his own account of the matter upon the ful¬ filment of certain predictions. Now, when the events fore¬ told have occurred, there are chapters of his book that read like faithful abridgments of history; but others remain to be fulfilled, and some are in progress of fulfilment. Let us sup¬ pose that being a great man, endowed with profound fore¬ sight, knowledge of the state of nations, and vast prudence; he might have estimated accurately the tendency of events, the spirit of races, and the current of politics; but if he had not been a sincerely honest man he would not have proclaimed disagreeable prospects to the monarchs whom he served, and the nations over whom he ruled. He addressed his writ¬ ings chiefly to the scattered Jews, but he flattered no preju¬ dice of theirs, he offered no hope of great national prosperity, or sectional power. He foretold the foundation of a perma¬ nent kingdom, but not a Hebrew state, and he hazarded the ‘acceptance of his statements on an assertion, which, as a pru¬ dent, well-informed man, he would not have made, if he had merely wished to palm a deception on credulous brethren. He wrote for Hebrews in part only; but the men gene¬ rally amongst whom he lived shared those prejudices of his own race that he outraged by the prediction which nearly closes his book:—“ Many shall run to and fro upon the earth, and knowledge shall be increased.” But knowledge was then chained within a mysterious circle. Even the na¬ tural sagacity of Daniel could not foresee William Caxton 12 MODEEN TSAVELLING. toiling with his large types and clumsy press in Westminster. Knowledge could not easily be increased while a single book was of greater price than the yearly wages of a labourer. Many men of science in Chaldea with whom Daniel was ac¬ quainted, considered the increase of knowledge an abridgment of their induence, and could not deem the prophecy welcome tidings. Others were probably guided by better principles. The knowledge of God w^as not exclusively confined to the immediate descendants of Abraham. The period cannot be now ascertained, but, perhaps, for a long period, the wor¬ ship of the true God was cherished by many, although we cannot tell the number, of the citizens in those broad and fertile lauds on the Euphrates and the Tigris which formed the cradle and the nursery of the human race. Daniel and his friends may have met with Chaldeans who sympathised with their views. They may have revived and trimmed in their captivity a small light, scarcely perceptible, and rapidly waning amidst the corruption of the world’s heathen metro¬ polis. Alike under the Babylonian and Aledean empires, they were made the means of giving an impetus to truth; of vin¬ dicating it before the camp and court of Chaldea and Persia: and forcing, more than once or twice, the public homage of their haughty conquerors, and the victors of their conquerors, to the faith of the captive Hebrews. Many long years intervened, and the memory of the Belshazzars and Nebuchadnezzars was fading from the earth; the green grass and the wild flowers had grown, and bloomed, and faded, and withered often over the huge graves of buried Nineveh; the hammer of the whole earth was broken, and men had long ceased to frequent the desolate ruins of Chaldea’s cities; the Persian empire had been dis¬ placed by the Grecian, and the Grecian had been, in its turn, overthrown by the Homan ; when a party of learned men from that mysterious East commenced a pilgrimage, somewhat like MODERN TRAVELLING. 13 the great Patriarch, knowing not whither they went. They probably formed part of a “ regular succession,” from the days when men mourned over the early grave of Haran, at Ur of the Chaldees; or the time when the wearied statesman relaxed his mind from its terrible burden of accounts and business of one hundred and twenty provinces, to converse with Medean astrologers and inquirers, and to teach them the Hebrew creed. Men of that class—of the school of Daniel—may have sympa¬ thised with the prophecy that “knowledge shall be increased,” while others believed its increase detrimental to their “ craft;” and nearly all the Hebrew captives, in their cold and haughty prejudice, considered the assertion dishonouring to their race and their religion. A clever man would not, therefore, have uttered anything so improbable, and unacceptable, if he de¬ sired to deceive; and yet Daniel was unquestionably a man of great talent. The first part of the prophecy was, if possible, more improbable and unpopular than the last. Three classes of men ran to and fro in those days—the captive, the con¬ script, and the tyrant. Even the mercantile class, who formed a fourth estate of tourists, were despised by the Hebrews. “ I dwell amongst my own people,” was the boast of respectable persons in Judea. Our Oriental origin is sufficiently attested by the habits of even the last generation. The man who lived sixty to seventy years in a Scotch village, within six miles of the sea, within twenty-five miles of three large towns, and had never seen the ocean or a larger collection of houses than those where he was born, until a cheap excursion train carried him away, in the July of this Exhibition year, would not have been a curiosity thirty years ago. Scottish matrons, in the posi¬ tion of the Shunemite, twenty years since, said as content¬ edly, “ I dwell amongst my own people,” and counted it one of manifold mercies that they had never lost sight of their own parish, or slept without its boundaries. In England and in 14 MODERN TRAVELLING. Ireland, generation after generation, for years innumerable, have been born, have lived and died on the same farm, and felt the antiquity of their possession a certificate of character. Hebrew families had an equal fondness for their own land. Its possession was secured to them and theirs by their pecu¬ liar political economy. Their view of the blessing attached to one commandment rendered a wandering life, in their estima¬ tion, equivalent to a proof of guilt. To the associations com¬ mon to all races, and the patriotism that intensely guided their conduct, they added a distinct religious sentiment; for distance from Jerusalem deprived them of religious ordinances. Daniel could have said nothing more unlikely in his age, or more unpopular to the people for whom, in the first instance, he wrote, than that Many shall run to and fro upon the earth,” towards the end; and, if he had consulted his natural sagacity, with the intention to mislead his readers, he certainly would never have ventured that prediction. It is very clear, therefore, that this able and honest man wrote as he was moved by the Spirit of God; or, that he laboured under a de¬ lusion, altogether so incompatible with the discharge of that immense worldly business entrusted to him, that the idea was never seriously suggested; and would pre-suppose a coincid¬ ence and fulfilment far more wonderful than the truth. Daniel’s style vindicates his claim. An intelligent reader of the Douay version will have little difiicnlty in marking where the gilding begins and the gold ends. This prophet finds in the Crystal Palace one witness to his statement. It stands in Hyde Park, one of many undeniable proofs to the truth of the Bible. Late in the year 1849, the design of forming this Exhibition was finally arranged. Early in the year 1851 artizaus, and the product of their art, were collected from the most distant regions to this metropolis. The invitation was sent out, and accepted; the finest work MODERN TRAVELLING. ]5 was carefully and tediously prepared aud conveyed here, from the most distant countries, in shorter time than would have been required twenty years since to carry a message from London to Delhi, and bring an answer back. Matthew Henry explains the passage which we have quoted, by referring it to the zeal with which people shall “run to and fro” to procure, aud read copies of this book, and thus increase their knowledge. The commentator proposed that means for its fulfilment. The Author, to whose dictation Daniel wrote, takes a direct plan. He has not induced men “ to run to and fro” for the purpose of giving new testimony to his word, or for any object connected with its evidences. Modern travels in Eastern lauds were not undertaken to establish Scriptural veracity; but they have heaped up fresh evidence in its favour. The Eultons and Watts, who watched the infancy of steam power, did not consider themselves engaged in illustrating Biblical statements; but Daniel had completely provided for their achievements. The speculators in railway shares who are enriched by the losses of thousands of families, or who have been ruined by commercial mistakes, never dreamed that their new roads were to be new proofs for the Bible. The originators of this Exhibition had no similar idea in their minds. Still they have all laboured towards the same grand conelusion. The Exhibition is not, in itself, directly connected with locomotion; but is its monument, raised by the facilities for, and the practice of, travelling in this age. It was not more possible in the days of Matthew Henry than in those of Daniel. It could not have been erected and furnished at an earlier period than the present. It celebrates the new era on which we have entered, when men move from one country to another, at a cost in money and time so small that it would have been deemed incredible fifty or thirty years since. It directs attention, there¬ fore, in a pointed and special manner, to changes that have 16 MODERN TRAVELLING. grown rapidly on the world; and to the fact that all these changes were foretold, and are literal fulfilments of prophecies, fitting into their places with perfect precision, as if they had been designed only to occupy them. The Exhibition will be regarded with enhanced interest by those who deem its existence an evidence of changes foretold in the Bible. New sectaries demand a new revelation; and yet “ new revelations” occur daily in the fulfilment of sayings that of old were dark. Other persons require evidence for the Divine Authorship of the Scriptures; yet they reject the plain proofs afforded by predictions of events which occur, and opinions which are avowed around them. Their own appearance proves the Bible’s accuracy. They are predicted beings and foretold existences. Their opinions also were foreseen and pre-published, like the prevalent opinions against oppression, slavery, and war. That fact will not prevent some of them from reconsidering their position; and many others from dis¬ covering, in current events, accumulating grounds for their faith, and additional persuasions to read the Bible.” Tlie girders across the roof of the Crystal Palace are painted blue. They give the roof, from the east or the west gallery, the appearance of sky blue, by entirely concealing the glass between them. This result of skilful colouring can only be observed from a proper point of view; and the beauty of the Bible is only discernible from a right position. A writer of higher genius than any living man had one mode of studying the Scriptures, which has always proved successful. No modern scholar can be ashamed to copy the example of the Prince of Poets, whose verses are the household hymns of the civilised earth, and have been the resource of many troubled and mourn¬ ing hearts in every age and clime. His plan is stated in four words, 119th Psalm, 12th verse—‘‘ Teach me thy statutes.” AKT AND FAITH, IN IRAGMENTS FR03I THE GREAT EXHIBITION. THB SND OF LABOVB. Alay-day morn of 1851, in London, was peculiarly favourable to a great pageant and a vast crowd. A thin veil of light clouds, spread over the sky, acted the part of a universal parasol, without materially lessening the genial heat of the first summer day. The Exhibition is placed in an extreme corner of the metropolis. The noble park selected for this congress of industry and peace is, indeed, generally visited at all seasons by strangers, and is a fashionable promenade in the West End; but, in other respects, the site is ill-chosen for the metropolis, and, necessarily, for visitors. Good reasons, unconnected with centralisation, may have induced the selec¬ tion. Wide approaches were absolutely necessary, and they alone counterbalance many disadvantages; but the locality and the cause of its selection, are foreign from the object pursued here, although they made many grateful for the shade cast between them and the fierce glaring sunbeams; for no ordi¬ nary crowd had assembled there. An estimate of numbers in a case of this nature must be erroneous. A multitude of human beings stretching over a vast expanse, equal to the power of vision, is a noble spectacle. Nothing more tends to humble any one man. He learns, if he studies rightly, his personal insignificance and weakness. He is carried upwards to One who counts the atoms in the field of living beings; and the men must be involved in heartless confusion who dis¬ believe His existence and His providence, if they think. Many B 18 THE END OE LABOXJE. of them do not think. Thought to them, in these circumstances, would he torture. They would “smile no more.” The finest tapestry from the most famous looms 3 the richest silks of Lyons or of Macclesfield; the costliest diamonds of India’s mines; the purest pearls from eastern oceans’ depths; the dyes of Tyre, and the gold of Ophir; the highest proofs of genius graven in marble; the brightest fiights of imagination pencilled on canvas; the fin¬ est mechanism of our oldest artizans; the greatest thoughts of scientific men, fixed in metal; all huddled together in miserable confusion on some vast plain, and trampled into unsightly mire beneath the hoof of blind, unthinking, and therefore inexorable, fate, would fill all hearts in the world with sadness. What a scene of more than Yandal barbarism would that form! And yet the multitudes—the million assembled together in these green parks, crowding beside the still waters, gathering around the noble trees, gazing on that novel home of art—were far more valuable than the treasures it contains. They were greater works of art than those they had produced. Man is fearfully and wonderfully made. The mind is a wonderful, and the soul is a fearful, being. Then the supposition that “ this one million” and “the one thousand millions” like them on the earth, were crumpled together, like scorned weeds, on the globe’s surface, merely to be trampled into forgetfulness and oblivion by an “ inexorable fate” must be a thought of permanent and poignant anguish. It is a grim and terrible idea —an imagination of inexpressibly woeful folly. A prudent per¬ son might comprehend infidelity crowned with ashes, faded with grief, wrinkled with mourning—an infidelity bent with sorrow, clothed in saekcloth, wet with tears. A Niobean kind of infidelity might be comprehensible and pitiable; but the Epi¬ curean system, the thing of paint and patches, of revelry and wildness, is cruel or insane; for surely, amid the destruction of the highest products of power, the greatest of created beings THE END OF LABOUR. 19 known to us, this “ dare-all” jollity and mirth are more cul¬ pable and farther misplaced than Nero and his fiddle above the flames and smoke of Rome on fire. This gathering of people was a memorable scene, after the forebodings of disorder and revolution—or, at the least, a great riot—that had preceded foreign visitors from East and West to our shores. The same number of persons in few other countries could have been safely trusted with the care of themselves, for all the military or policemen present there were sufiicient to assist, but not to secure, order and regularity. A million, probably, were in the different parks, but not quite thirty thousand were enabled to enter the building; yet the nine hundred and seventy thousand without were apparently cheer¬ ful, contented, and happy. A similar scene could only have occurred in one other country, which is an extension of our own; and in some of the smaller countries, in proportion to their population, whose people generally follow the same faith—for order and peace are more connected with ‘‘faith” than with “ race. ” Those who admired the demeanour of “ the people,” formed under the influence of our Christianity, liad a plain question before them; for if the system, most imper¬ fectly wrought out, and in a multitude of cases entirely neglected, were faithfully observed, and more generally adopted, a measureless gain would be secured for time. The work, or man’s part of the work, would be amply remunerated. Capital could not be placed in any other way to the same ad¬ vantage. No imaginable investment affords the same large, safe, and sure returns, even in time. Even in this short speck of being—this world’s life—no other speculation yields the same, or nearly the same, per centage, apparent in ledgers, and appreciable by Mammon himself. This argument would be umiecessary, except forthefact already stated,that our Cliristi- anity is so imperfectly wrought out, that even the profit or 20 THE END OP LABOUR. loss, in gold and silver, of doing good is worthy of considera¬ tion in the meantime. The opening of the Exhibition has had its many vulgar liistories written on the same form with milliners’ advertise¬ ments, in the newspapers, on the morning after some great ball; and many histories of a more useful character, for it was not only an imposing, it was a singular, event. No living man had seen anything resembling it before. None who witnessed it may probably ever see its rival again. It was a congress of peace. George III. was a good man; unlike his predeces¬ sors on the throne, he was not personally inured to war; but he faithfully represented his age. Imbued with strong passions, he hated certain harmless practices, and certain nations, not all bad, with considerable vehemence. He shared very fully the popular feeling of his time. If he had been told that his grand-daughter, wearing his crown, with his sceptre in her hand, would open a friendly meeting of blacksmiths and weavers, and other craftsmen, from all nations, in Hyde Park, assisted and surrounded by the representatives of many Governments, including those of Hepublican Prance and the United States, he would have been miserably troubled, if not entirely broken in spirit; for the ceremony would have ap¬ peared to him equivalent to an abdication; and yet the throne never rested more steadily than on that day. The supposi¬ tion reflects no discredit on the discernment of that monarch, for, probably, there were not one hundred persons present under thirty years of age, whose grandfathers would not have expressed the same opinions on this subject. The Commissioners for conducting this Exhibition, adopted as its motto a text of Scripture, “ The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” That was one act of homage to the Bible, The business was opened with prayer by the ecclesi¬ astic of highest standing in England; and that was another act THE END OF LABOUE. 21 of homage to the Author of the Scriptures. The vicinity ot the Crystal Palace may have been more than usually crowded on Sabbaths, hut the building has been closed; and thus, by a third act of public homage to the Author of Time, foreign gentlemen, who try to save working days by throwing public business and public spectacles on Sunday, have learned that the “ busiest people” on the earth can afford leisure for their artizans and labourers to examine this vast magazine of work, without appropriating “time” which belongs not to the em¬ ployers or to the State, and with which, therefore, they cannot be at once honest and generous; for it forms no part of the employers’ or of the pubKc property. The Crystal Palace was certainly incomplete on May-day. Work had to be done both on the exterior and the interior of the edifice. The impossibility of opening it on that day had been fervently believed by many. After the event was fixed, the same persons said that it would be closed thereafter for days or weeks. They were disappointed in both state¬ ments. The building was opened on, and kept open after, the precise day that had been named for previous months; and it was in better order than its contents. Yery many exhi¬ bitors were unprepared. The goods of some of them were frozen up in a Russian port. The manufacturers of Belgium, of France, and Germany, who were not delayed by frost, were not less out of time than the Russians. Packages had arrived; but they were not opened. Workmen had come; but they had not prepared their stands. Hammers and saws had been ; busy in the edifice during the night; but their work was left un¬ finished. Packages of goods, and specimens of art, the fairest ! products of the chisel, the loom, and the needle, that had ' occupied busy hands for months in their preparation, were ; undisplayed; because they were a few days, or even a few 1 hours, too late. Large spaces in the galleries were bare and 22 THE END OE LABOUK. blank; and the American railway bridge was not quite half built. All these arrears were supplied in course of time; yet, upon its opening day, the Exhibition carried a fresher and gayer appearance than even after all the shortcomings of dilatory competitors had been repaired. Any comparison between the events of time and those of eternity; between the proceedings of man and of his Maker; between the judgments of earthly sovereigns and those of the King of kings/’ is dangerous, for it may run into profanity; yet the contrast of small things with great is lawful, and may be useful, when cautiously drawn. The necessity laid on tra¬ vellers to prepare for journies over a part of the world, is cor¬ rectly used to enforce the prudence of providing for that great journey out of this world, which all men must make. The acquisition of learning, during youth, at school, has been fairly employed to illustrate the necessity of education for the future manhood of existence after the great change. The nervous anxiety felt by men accused of great crimes, when the court is opened, and the judges assembled, and the jury are sworn; in which, before, and by whom, they are to be tried for death or life, for honour or dishonour, has been employed to show, in faint colours, the dread and fear that will fall on men when the awful opening of the last judgment shall consume the earth, roll up the sky, and strike out the stars in its great light. The 12fch chapter of Daniel contains the remarkable prophecy. Many shall run to and fro on the earth, and knowledge shall be increased.” The prophecy appeared to be improbable, and it was certainly unpopular, when that great man recorded his predictions. It is fulfilled before our eyes, in our country and age, by plain and unquestionable realisation. The Crystal Palace and the Exhibition are monuments of its fulfilment, for the one would not have been erected, and the other would not have been formed, unless the words written by Daniel THE END OF LABOUE. 23 nearly two thousand five hundred years ago, had been true words. The singularity of the prediction, and its exact and literal accomplishment, evince the fact that Daniel’s statements are those of inspiration. The same chapter contains another equally singular prediction. The proved truth of the one compels the reception of the other. If the 4th verse turns out to have been written, as Daniel always declared that it was written, by the counsel of God, we must yield the same ho- mage to the 13th and last verse, “ But go thou thy way till the end be, for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot afc the end of the days.” That is a promise of life to come made in favour of, and to Daniel personally. The 2d verse claims the same consideration and credit as the 4th or the 13th, and is of greater interest to mankind generally : And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to ever¬ lasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Daniel was a fearless man, and yet more than courage was necessary in announcing the truths that he was required to deliver to the world. The immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body are widely different facts. An acute reasoner, of ordinary powers, will demonstrate the necessary immortality of the soul from the books of creation and pro vidence. The Chaldean literati seem to have discovered this truth; or, it is very probable, that its existence was never lost amongst them. They were well prepared, therefore, to receive any further assurance of the soul’s immortality; but, although in the customs of the Egyptians and some other Oriental na¬ tions, faint traces of hope in the resurrection of the body may be discovered, yet this doctrine is not easily deduced from na¬ tural philosophy, and is not one that the Chaldean philosophers would receive with greater respect from Daniel, than the Athenians when they heard it proclaimed in the piercing and searching eloquence of Paul. 24 THE END OE LABOUR. The purpose and sequence of the resurrection are more im¬ portant to us than the event itself. Some commentators change the word in our version “ man/^ into “ the multitude of those/’ &c., that is to say, “ all those who sleep in the dust;” and this explanation corresponds with all the other announcements on this grand event—the grandest and the greatest that has yet to occur on earth. There can be only a dim and distant resemblance between judgments now and that terrible review of time. The great Exposition of the world’s actions and industry wdl terminate the present state of being, and comprehend all men and all time. The entire human race will be preseot there, and only a few living men can be present at any meeting now. All who are present then must be competitors; but only a few can compete for prizes here. Defeated or neglected candidates now may try again, and be successful; but the destiny of that day fixes the state of existence for ever. Our competitions admit a medium. An article may have more than average merit without establishing a claim to extraordinary consideration; but the awards of that compe¬ tition are in two distinct classes—“ some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt;” and they present no other alternative. The decisions of judges and juries now may be erroneous; but those of the great reckoning must be right and true. An often successful appeal now rests to the public, from the opinion of professional men, regarding any product; but the last competition has no appeal. Deficient intelligence may prevent the formation of a fair opinion at present; but the Judge who will decide destinies for eternity knows all things and thoughts. A rejected ar¬ ticle now may be pushed on the world by great activity, al¬ though its merits are circumscribed ; but a life rejected then is crushed for ever. Goods appear in this Exhibition of THE END OF LABOUE. 25 Industry in whicli the exhibitor is not deeply interested—for they are not staples of his trade; but the man’s entire stock will be placed under review at that Great Exhibition of the world. Companies and individuals occupy places in the Crystal Palace who can make, and who do produce nothing them- selves, and only borrow or buy from others; but the grand Exhibition will be closed against all appropriations; and men have to approach it, not with their neighbours’, but with their own, attainments. The day was decided, and published, on which this Exhi¬ bition would be opened long before it arrived. Opportunity was afforded for the necessary exertions; yet a large propor¬ tion of the contributions were behind. The time is deter¬ mined for the world’s greatest assemblage, but it is not pub¬ lished. The day on which each individual’s preparation will be closed is also fixed, and also unknown. The apparent un¬ certainty, in point of time, of an event secured in point of fact, operates in two distinct directions. It incites one class to activity, and lulls another into delay. But the narrow pur¬ pose of these pages does not necessarily include the consider¬ ation of that tendency. They are written merely to fix attention on the curious circumstance that this Crystal Palace, this ob¬ ject of universal interest, in demonstrating the truth of oue pre¬ diction, apparently improbable at the time when it was uttered, affords new evidence of the accuracy of another prediction, in the same chapter, written with the same ink, the product of the same inspiration. “ The end,” like “ the beginning,” is an indefinite expression put for a period of uncertain duration ; but there will be an ‘'end of that end,” and the grandest pageant yet to be accomplished will open, pass away, and close, in the sight of all men. This extremely incomplete and puny illustration is the first, and possibly may be the last, of its kind; that grand display must be the first and the last 26 THE END OF LABOUE. meeting, on one field, of tlie whole human family. They will meet once, “meet to part, hut never to meet again.” The object of the assemblage strikes sentimental considerations far out of sight; and thus, that sad characteristic of the great and final “ world’s convocation” is forgotten. A certain solemnity pervades works of art that have in themselves nothing inconsistent with that feeling. The work of a lifetime would be very dear. Works of that character do not exist; lives are never spent on one thing; still, the work of ten or twenty years is a solemnity. The worth of years centered in, because expended upon, the production of a book, or a picture, or a statue, an improved machine, or a new invention, gives it a great interest. This Crystal Palace contains many works of that nature. A millenium of a thou¬ sand men could not have prepared the riches of art within its thin walls. Many of the specimens are more curious than useful. Quilts, with millions of stitches, neither better nor handsomer tlian other quilts with no such stitchifying, may have occupied years of a life unworthily; still, this kind of needlework is rightly considered solemn, in its way. The loss of a lifetime is frightful; the misappropriation of half a life is proportionately lamentable, But the specimens in the Exhi¬ bition generally exhibit improvements of taste or of utility. Time has been evidently spent in vast quantities on trifies, without rendering them more agreeable; but a still greater amount of time has been employed in effecting real improve¬ ments. In presence of the application, industry, and skill, amassed together there, one feels, or should feel, an intelli¬ gent solemnity. Contrast that with the review of all time; the aggregate actions of men since their race began; the re¬ sults of the living, and disciplining, and teaching, of several thousand years; and the analogy becomes almost imperceptible. A broad difference exists between the servile fawning of a THE END OE LABOUK. 27 slave, or the deceptive flattery of a dishonest man, and the respect which dignity and rank, or learning and genius, de¬ serve. The two feelings have not the most distant relation¬ ship. The honourable and legitimate feeling had ample seope on this May-day. After a large allowance for dull mediocrity and fashionable life, several thousand persons—two or three thousand, surely—might have been found in that hall, for whose existence the world was better, happier, or wiser. Life affords few assemblages so distinguished. Thousands of men who have indented their steps on history, cannot often meet together in one generation. Tor that reason a deep and pro¬ per interest was attached to the meeting; but this recent as¬ semblage of the gifted or the good fades immeasurably before that one future eongregation, in which all historical names will certainly be represented. Society, as now constituted, requires differences of rank and station. In all political and social organisations these distinc¬ tions arise, and fairly demand consideration. “ Honour to whom honour is due,” is a reasonable and Scriptural adage. The grovelling principle which leads its victims to despise dominions,” and “ speak evil of dignities,” is not the prac¬ tical sturdy independence which courteously vindicates a right, but something else, and very different, of which the world will never be “ one whit” better. High civil ofB.ces honour their occupants, and many of the latter honour their office. An as¬ sembly that brings together many great, but, especially, many good and public characters, possesses a thrilling interest. The opening of this Exhibition, and its subsequent progress, dis¬ played that attraction. The influence of crowns and coronets was wisely thrown around the ^^fete of industry.” The barest imagination must have felt the interests of the hour when, un¬ der a wide-spreading English elm, surrounded with the nobles, by birth or deed of her own and of other lands, in this strange 28 THE END OE LABOHE. mansion of art and industry, the Queen of earth’s greatest em¬ pire pronounced that the magnificent School of Arts was opened. A short time hence reality will displace prophetic vision; and gathered on the world’s burning brow, the benefactors and the conquerors of nations; the patriots, the traitors, and the tyrants; the aristocracy and the democracy of our race, in one vast assemblage will wait, in earth’s most thrilling hour, the revelation of their motives and the sentence of their doom. “ Equality” is vainly sought in the infancy of life. In its literal meaning, “ Equality” is obviously unnatural, and forms no consequence of liberty or of justice at present. It can thrive here, only by drawing on its certainty hereafter. Men never meet in any competition, through time, on equal terms; and, but once, and then only, in a limited sense, can they ever assemble on terms of equality, arising out of universal weak¬ ness and worthlessness; for a painstaking man will search his own thoughts, and discover that he, at least, has a poor array of material improved, and work completed against the solemn inauguration of eternity. “Fraternity’* is another motto of the day, more reasonable, if rightly appreciated, than its pre¬ decessor, and more practical. “ Fraternity” can be realised in time; and at the close of time, all will feel, if they have not learned during its currency, the “ brotherhood” of want and woe, remov¬ able only by means which may be neglected or may be obtained, and the neglect or the possession, then and ever, will separate this fraternity, rendering it possible no more. The Crystal Palace contains many curious machines. The trophies of science in all ages, the results of all that has been achieved, are gathered within its fragile walls. Many of these machines evince power which our ancestors denied the possibility of attaining, not from ignorance, because many of them were able and learned men; like a living lecturer and writer on mechanics, who staked his scientific reputation on the assertion that steam- THE END OF LABOUR. 29 power could not carry vessels over the Atlantic, and in twelve- months crossed that broad ocean on a steam-ship. If some man of high attainments and character were to declare that on some early day, unforeseen by astronomers, the sun would be totally eclipsed for an extent of time unaccountable in the ordinary course of the planets ; and that upon a second day, still farther advanced, the sun would be then and for ever darkened, and the moon would not give her light, the realisation of the first prediction would certainly compel the most incredulous per¬ sons to believe the second. The predictions of the Bible possess that description of value in greater strength than any single statement can command. They form a series which embraces all time; and men who see one after another realised, by means that commentators, who expended years of labour and research in endeavouring to unfold them, did not anticipate, may still deny the divine authority of the Bible, despise its warnings, neglect its injunctions, or reject the help promised there to those who seek the assistance needed by all in prepar¬ ing for the end; but they must do all these things at their own peril. One body of unbelievers sought a sign from Heaven, but they had many signs and contemned them. Another cotterie say now that they would believe anything that could be demon¬ strated ; but a demonstration more complete than that which makes evidences out of the common occurrences of life and the state of society—compelling many men without their consent, yet by their acts, to provide their own evidence—could not be imagined. A third and numerous class have an irrational trust in some indefinite ideas that they willbe overlooked andforgotten, or pass easily through the grand review of mankind. These impressions are extremely unreasonable. The two revelations of Creation and Providence prove that we shall have to deal with a great and perfect Power. Men do not readily realise the necessary consequences of perfection. They do not pos- 30 THE END OE LABOUR. sess the attribute, and cannot see its results, without rigid thought, which affords only a dim conception of their nature. Perfection cannot be reconciled with a single omission; and not even the least regarded person amongst mankind has any reason to expect the mercy of forgetfulness. (Matthew 10th c. 29th and 30th vs.). The mercy of forgiveness is attainable on distinct terms, which by no means infringe the necessary justice of perfection. Those persons who want to establish a claim to this mercy require to “ believe,” and this saving faith is clearly described (James 2d c., 19th to 26th vs.). The expectation of mercy in a general way, without any terms, is irrational, is vain, and is unfounded. The persons who indulge it, have generally a vague leaning on the New Testament, and subscribe to the idea conveyed in the title of a work by a celebrated philosopher of the last generation—“Not Paul, but Jesus. ’ ’ They were answered by anticipation in Matthew, 25th c., list V., and in subsequent verses; and Pevelation 20th c., 15th V.; 21st c., 27th v.; 22d c., 11th, 14th, and 15th vs.; and many other passages. No reason is given for mis¬ apprehending the grounds of judgment. Men’s laws are often hidden in a jungle of words and a labyrinth of forms; but the laws that will regulate the eternal fate of mankind are distinct. Men’s terms often admit different interpretations; but the terms offered to mankind in this case, unlike the time in which they have to be considered, embraced, or rejected, are plainly spe¬ cified. All researches in art or nature, in history or science, ultimately cast the light of new evidence over the Bible’s truth. Each age in succession receives its evidence in con¬ temporaneous events. The testimony may be despised or overlooked, but it cannot be refuted. The truth testified will remain although it be neglected. Its promises and its threatenings will be alike vindicated, although the first may be contemned, and the second despised. THE END OE LABOUR. 31 The judgment of men will not wait the convenience, the irresolution, or the procrastination of their “ fraternity.” The court sits on the day fixed, and the criminal may, on cause shown, obtain one delay, but he must not ask for two. The place and the time of a competition involving honour without dishonour is announced, and is not changed to please lagging candidates. Men love punetuality in others, although they may neglect it in their own practice. “ The end” of time, and the opening of eternity, will come as punctually on those who sleep, as on those who watch and “ work.” “Watch and pray” was the injunction of the Greatest to the oldest of His disciples. The request was negleeted, and the disciple fell to rise again. Other disciples, endowed with less natural strength, must stand at least in equal danger if they despise the words spoken to one and meant for all; but these pages are intended not for disciples, but doubters, who even resent with some disdain, as injuries, the common warnings addressed to them. They are not superstitious. They do not fear priest¬ craft. They are not to deny themselves and live in bondage for the sake of fables. They prefer glittering delusions to peace, and safety, and truth, because they are intelligent men—and rational too—intelligent and rational in their own esteem. A distant clock has chimed the midnight hour while we write. The window is uncurtained, and it overlooks the pinnacles, the turrets, and roofs of a huge city, half asleep. The brilliant harvest moon shines from a blue clear sky over them, and turns the damp dew in dark eorners to diamond drops, as if the old churehes and houses were spangled over with pearls. An indistinct sound like that of many bees, or of the distant ocean, rises from this crowded locality even in sleeping hours. A similar, but a more distinct, sound is near at hand. One of the most curious and remarkable insects of our northern clime is bustling round the gas-burner, circling round and 32 THE END OF LABOITH. round, and dashing downwards and upwards, saved often only by the guardian glass, which obstructs his path to ruin, and imparts, as he thinks, hardship and injury to his fate. One can suppose that those frequent blows which he inflicts on liimself against the friendly but warm glass, are considered by him heavy calamities and great hindrances to that perfect happiness which he sees, or thinks he sees, beyond. His family are all extremely interesting. Their long films of wings, the great stretch of limb, and the peculiarly symmetrical body and head, render them always favourites with the young, and sub¬ jects of curious study to all. The ‘^spinner” should be saved, and we try to save him. It is a thankless and vain struggle. He considers himself persecuted and in danger. His efforts become more energetic or more frantic. He has found the narrow entrance of the glass globe. Reckless of results and the last warning, he dashes downward, and is lost. A fair life is sunk in search of pleasures that turn to pain and sorrow in the using. Thus has it ever been, and even thus it will ever be, with the dying insect’s race. Underneath the shining turrets, and the spangled roofs, and the glittering pinnacles, sparkling like whited sepulchres in borrowed light, on those narrow streets o’er which the fair moon casts shadows, there are, even now, many darkly shaded hearts, because there are many attractive but sparkling delu¬ sions; and reckless of efforts, and obstacles, and warnings, wil¬ ful souls are circling and fluttering around them, dashing at last on destruction, and they are lost—for ever lost; for “ the spinner’s story” is a common fate. Thus it has ever been, but thus it will not ever be, with mankind; for while Daniel de¬ clares that “the multitude of those who sleep in the dust shall awake,” yet an intermediate time is foretold by Habakkuk, when “ the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” AKT AND FAITH, IX FEAGMENTS FROM THE GREAT EXHIBITION. THE FEOGBESS OF KITOWZiEDGE. '* Knowledge shall be increased.” That was the cheering announcement made in a metropolis, whose population included many slaves—in an empire whose provinces were retained with the sword—by the first citizen of the capital and the Premier of the nation. “Knowledge shall be increased”— a promise that not only embraced the extent and variety of knowledge, but the number of persons to whom it would be communicated ; made at a time when only a very few indivi¬ duals were acquainted with the elements of education; for we have no reason to suppose that many Assyrian soldiers could read and write, although the Chaldeans were, unques¬ tionably, more enlightened and refined than any other nation of their age, or of many succeeding ages, in the arts of life, in the literature and the science existing in their time—with the probable exception of the Phoenicians ; for the Egyptians, as their monumental records testify, had faUen into a more de¬ grading idolatry than the Chaldeans; and a more complete form of tyranny prevailed on the Nde than on the Eu¬ phrates before the time of Nebuchadnezzar. The terms of that monarch’s proclamation, touching the golden image on the plains of Dura, imply a dread that passive resistance might be offered to his orders, and that his people were not previously, or always previously, accustomed to obey implicitly com¬ mands of that nature. Daniel was endowed with great natural sagacity. We learn, incidentally, in the works of other pro- c u PEOGRESS OE KNOWLEDGE. pliets, that he was just and wise, to a proverb. Many of the | prophets never fully comprehended the predictions which they uttered. The nature of inspired prophecy does not, neces¬ sarily, infer that the mere instrument of publication should ! clearly comprehend the extent of meaning attached to his \ words. We are even told that, like less notable men, some | of the prophets unhappily knew better, and knew more, than : they practised. Daniel, like Elijah and Isaiah, may have i more fully understood the meaning attached to his statements I than some of the other prophets. This opinion might be sup¬ ported by the language often repeated in his book ; for it is, perhaps, scarcely necessary “ to seal up’’ that which the holder cannot read, although the person more likely than any other living man to interpret its meaning. The light cast to him over the long vista of futurity, animated and cheered a spirit burdened by a load of care, and of early calamities. Daniel’s comfort and encouragement would be chiefly derived from the nature of the knowledge which he foresaw spreading among, and animating the vast multitudes of western men, after the cities which he governed were sunk into deserts and swamps. Through a dark and lengthened period of despotism and igno¬ rance, the politician’s eye, brightened by his prophetic power, may have pierced. The imaginationwould gladly picture Persia’s Premier in his library by day, on the river’s bank at evening, by his orrery at night—for the literati of Chaldea were nearly all astronomers—espying, by the miraculous gift that brought distant ages close to his mind, happy millions during the end,” dwelling on the mountains or the plains of the ultra¬ classic rivers of Asia Minor; for although some ancient cities j will never be rebuilt, yet civilised men will again inhabit those ' lands which formed the birthplaces of Art and Paith. Religious knowledge was the primary object of the pro¬ phet’s predictions ; but many prophecies have two meanings PROGRESS OP KNOWLEDGE. 35 and two realisations, one spiritual and another temporal. This prophecy belongs to that numerous class, and possesses this characteristic. Several commentators, while explaining the spiritual meaning have almost overlooked the temporal fulfil¬ ment, although the latter forms the most intelligible evidence of Scriptural truth to ordinary men, and is, therefore, ex¬ tremely valuable. Keligious knowledge is the chief object contemplated, but general science is closely allied to religion. The prophet and politician, in our time would have been an earnest advocate for the diffusion of useful knowledge. If Shushan had enjoyed the advantage of presses and types, its Chancellor of the Exchequer would not have taxed them. The religion that will not compel its disciples to employ all lawful and prudent means, with earnest enthusiasm, for the elevation, in comfort and knowledge, of “the multitude,” is extremely de¬ fective, and men should not hazard their own safety on that kind of creed. Art certainly progresses in the footsteps of Christianity; not alone, or chiefiy, in the forms described by Lord Lindsay, in two large volumes, as Christian art; but in the means which conduce to the general comfort of society. The Great Exhibition, like many other matters of a kindred, but minor character, has been misrepresented by some of its ad¬ mirers. More good will fiow from this council of industry, it has been said, than from all manner of religious and ecclesiastical councils. Sweeping statements of this nature are easily made, and they wear a smart appearance of clever originality, like a bad sixpence, that has rubbed little in the world, being only new from the rogue’s hand, although it may be offered in circulation by the deceived and not the deceiver. Arts, civilisation, instruc¬ tion, and science, are the fruits of religion, neither the only nor the principal, but evident and undeniable, results of the Chris¬ tian faith. They exist, certainly, where Christianity is unknown; as, on some isles far within the Arctic circle, wheat has been pro- 36 PROGRESS OP KNOWLEDGE. duced, as a curious and rare plant. They existed in Babylon during its prosperity. The merchants of the earth dwelt there, and they were princes. Its manufactures of cloths were unrival¬ led in the East; and its operatives produced all articles of luxury that the wealth of the East could purchase. The inven¬ tion of printing has even been aseribed to the Babylonians, in so far as they were enabled to make impressions from an en¬ graved block. Recent travellers assert that they used bills of exchange, or symbolic money, which represented value, although possessing no intrinsic worth. The higher branehes of art were cultivated on a scale of skilful magnificence. Ba¬ bylon had able politicians, eminent manufacturers, enterprising merchants, learned scholars, skilful artists, and successful warriors; yet the people were enslaved; great public works were not made for them; they constructed ivory palaces, and dwelt in mud hovels; they produced fine cloths and rich dyes, who had only rags to wear; and the boasted civilisation of ail ancient and classic cities or states accomplished Little for the morality of any class, and nothing more for the ma¬ jority of the population than new refinements in cruelty, and new rivets for their chains. A celebrated philosopher and politician, in a great nation of ancient and heathen times, ad¬ vised the murder of slaves after they reached decrepid age, as an economical measure. Christians, in name, undoubtedly pursue his political economy and his social system, at the pre¬ sent day, in some quarters of ihe world; but they act in direct opposition to the principles which they profess, if they even take the trouble of professing any religion. Christians by cour¬ tesy, and slave buyers for consumpt and use, in Cuba, and other states where ignorance scarcely furnishes the apologies which exist in Cuba, cannot be considered representatives of the Christian faith. In no kingdom or republic, at any period of the world’s history, has knowledge been so increased as to PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 37 give freedom, and the possible enjoyments of existence to tlie labouring population, without some influence, more or less marked, from the worship of the true God in the manner directed by Him in His Word. This influence was not neces¬ sarily confined in early ages to the immediate descendants of Abraham, and still less obviously to those of Jacob ; but before many centuries elapsed from the return of the Hebrew race to I Palestine, they enjoyed greater general freedom and happiness than any other nation whose records in an authentic form, or whose traditions have been preserved. At the present day reli¬ gious influence is stamped on national products. The work of the Oriental Asiatic, the Chinese, or the Hindoo, displays indus¬ try, neatness, patience, and sometimes taste, but unimproved and worn-out; for their mode of working, and the principle on which they work, have not been changed for very many ages. The Babylonian merchants imported Hindoo products equally fine, if not finer, than any now exhibited in London from Anglo- India. The Hindoos refuse to improve. Even under British teaching they will scarcely clean cotton, to compete with the produce of the United States. Their religion opposes the in¬ crease of knowledge; but neither more injuriously,nor violently, than other forms of idolatry. A visitor to the Exhibition, by the principal entrance, will find Tunis first upon his right hand; andtliis department illustrates these statements. Two or three Moors sit cross-legged on a carpet, unusually elevated, and they are unwilling to walk. They have charge of some beau¬ tiful productions in ornamental embroidery for harness, and saddles, and swords. Many persons express doubts of the genuine and Tunisian character of these implements of Oriental luxury and magnificence, when they contrast them with the blankets, and other common things, such as tin-wares, made there for the million. They forget that “ the million” do not form a recognised power in Tunis; which represents faithfully 38 PROGRESS OE KNOWLEDGE. the celebrated States of antiquity. Many students of ancient history read civilisation for despotism, after the despots became rich. The visitor may pass out of Tunis into Switzerland at this Exhibition. Switzerland occupies towards surrounding States a geographical position, resembling that of Palestine among its ancient and bordering nations. The Swiss have few national advantages for manufacturing purposes. The raw material used by them, is imported at foreign ports in foreign vessels. Their political position has incurred often the en¬ mity, and always the jealousy, of neighbouring powers. They have overcome these formidable obstacles to commerce and manufactures. They exhibit the finest needlework, and some of the richest fabrics in the world’s collection. Many of the most ingenious specimens of artizanship are from Switzerland. The Swiss are professedly Christians. Their cantons formed the refuge, at one period, of continental religion. The foot¬ steps of faith were upon their mountains, and in their deep valleys. Faith gave them freedom, and liberty gave them art, because it created a home-demand for its products in the comfort and intelligence of the people; and so, we find the Swiss more successful in articles that the means of the middle- classes enable them to buy, than in those exclusively adapted for the extremely rich. The contrast between Tunis and Swit¬ zerland exhibits the increase of artistic knowledge in connec¬ tion with faith, and consequent freedom. The Crystal Palace contains the most complete representa¬ tion of the world’s progress in art, and the world’s state, ever effected. Its products are not the work of the present generation alone. Men walked by the Nile three thousand years since who have contributed to this great display of art. The complicated and costly spinning machines from Glasgow, Leeds, and Manchester, display no new principle; they are improvements on the mode and the rapidity of spinning, but PEOGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 39 the principle is unchanged since Roman matrons collected their households together to ply the distaff, and female opera¬ tives complained of low wages at Raamses or Thebes. The brass, and iron, and steel-work from different parts of Britain admit no competition; but the models of the vast furnaces employed here in the metallic trade suggest the inquiry whether Tubal Cain’s works were of a similar class, although on a smaller scale, for they must have proceeded on the same princi¬ ple ; since he was the originator of mining and the metal busi¬ ness, and deserves to be properly regarded as a contributor to the Exhibition. An ingenious inquirer identifies the Tubal Cain of the ante-diluvians with the Grecian Telchin, the Italian Vulcan, and the Scandinavian Dwalinn ; and he insists that the different names are gradually corrupted pronunciations of the same sound. The theory is respectably supported, and shows the advantage of scientific inquiry in illustrating the Scriptures, for although some persons might reject this iden¬ tification as fanciful, yet others of a similar nature are clear and distinct. The metallic department of the Exhibition not only demonstrates what men are doing now in that branch, but also all that mankind have effected for five thousand years. Look at it from, that high point of view. Arise from the low ground, where only the living contributors and their last finished works can be seen, to this fair mountain top, and look back¬ wards, over the two hundred generations of planning and toiling artificers, whose united ingenuity and strength have accom¬ plished the existing excellence on this field of art. Their names are forgotten, while their works exist. They had not instinctive certainty to guide them to materials, and the mode of working them. Their exertions, and the success of their labours, are the results of reason, painfully and slowly established, after many experiments and numerous failures. The consequence of their reasoning and their working survive in those beauti- 40 PROGKESS OF KNOWLEDGE. ful adaptations of matter to matter, which have brought from the rough ore the long enduring and highly polished tools of Sheffield, the jewelled ornaments of Edinburgh or of London, and the more useful and more wonderful mechanisms of Glas¬ gow, and the Lancashire and Yorkshire towns. Art has achieved marvellous changes; but can the art be more endur¬ ing than the artist ? Do the means of drawing that shapeless lump of hard and friable ore into the thin and subtle wire that may be bent and twisted like animal or vegetable thread, and then to temper it into the sharp and fine needle, without which all our textile fabrics would only produce clumsy garments, to be worn after the fashion of the Celtic plaid, or the Indian blanket—do the means survive to benefit mankind ? And have the nameless discoverers for ever perished ? The Exhibition contains many musical instruments, display¬ ing the most pleasing artistic skill and taste, although the locality is unfavourable to the correct appreciation of their musical powers. The best class of musical instruments are made needlessly expensive by ornamented cases, which give no additional value to their tones. “Pianos for the people” have been advertised at twelvemonths wages of a labourer. The people have, therefore, yet to claim their share in that description of instruments. The splendour of the harps, organs, and pianos, exhibited, results from gradual steps in art; but the grand principle which gives value to the two great divisions of musical instruments, represented by the harp and the organ, has undergone no change for five thousand years, since Jabul first began to handle them before the flood. The principle of all great improvements has been at once discovered, although the gra¬ dual adaptation of different means for its exercise have some¬ times changed its appearance, but they never changed its nature. The production of thread from animal or vegetable substances has always proceeded on the same system. Their conver- PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 41 siou into fabrics by the single loom, to be found on lone St. Kilda, or the most complicated and effieient power-loom of Manchester, is effected on the same principle. The small furnace of the African miner, and the hollow pyramids in which British iron-masters smelt ore, have an intimate family; resemblance. Knowledge in all these trades, necessary for man’s existenee, has not changed, but it has rapidly increased. That circumstance confers on this Exhibition a greater interest than when we merely regard it as 4be work of the present generation. It is venerable as the work of all generations. Its achievements are shared by the most remote ages. It contains the legacies of science from land to land, and from race to race. The Assyrians are unrepresented in the world, but the arts in which they excelled are not, like them, obliterated. The Tyrians have passed from the earth; but the dyes of Tyre remain, and have been improved. Other great trades have all come to us from distant ages and remote lands. Europe has increased the knowledge derived from the East, but our present position in arts and manufaetures is built upon the foundations laid by ancient nations. The greatest change effected is not in the quality, but in the quantity of art, and artizaoship. Knowledge and its results, are more widely diffused in the present than in any former generation. An¬ cient nations had schools of philosophy, and the Hebrews had schools of prophecy; but Europe has first established schools for the people. Ancient cities had more magnificent buildings than any of the present day. Modern architecture has nothing so stupendous as the ruins of the Tower of Babel, or the Pyramids of Egypt. We have no monuments equal to the Colossus of Rhodes. We have nothing in this country to match even Cleopatra’s Needle. The ruined columns of Baah bee, or Thebes, would eelipse our new Houses of Parliament, for which the value of a province has been paid. These facts are, PEOGEESS OP KNOWLEDGE. 4 ^^ certainly, of minor importance compared with the general dif¬ fusion of comfort. Onr public buildings are raised by free¬ men, and the stupendous works of antiquity were reared by slaves. The pavemeiited streets of auy large British town are more beneficent, and greater works than all the Egyptian Pyramids. Even the sanitary arrangements and works of an¬ cient cities were effected by intelligent despotism ; and the ne¬ glect of similar objects in our cities arises partly from a jealous anxiety for the liberty of the subject, and some misapprehension regarding the division of public from private rights. The increase of knowledge has been attended with immense advantages to society. An artizan now commands conveni¬ ences that the Barons of Runymede or Boswell never expected to enjoy. Two centuries since a country nobleman’s journey to Court required a preparation of weeks; and artizans from the most distant English towns have visited this Court of In¬ dustry within a single day. Two centuries since the parish Bible was chained to a pillar in the parish church; and now it might, and should, be found in every cottage of the land. Two centuries since very few individuals in a parish could read and write, and now the want of those qualifications is justly deemed a reproach. Two centuries since those who could read had few channels of information open to them; and now even village libraries are larger than those of colleges in old times, and literature is one of the cheapest commodities in the mar¬ ket. Two centuries ago tropical produce was either confined to the manor house, or entirely unknown; and now it forms part of every cottage meal. The price of purchased clothing at the Revolution rendered even substantial yeomen contented with home and with rough manufactures. On these leading features of society, knowledge has increased with substantial benefit to the religious and social interests of mankind. “ The thirty years’ peace” has contributed many trophies to know- PHOGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 43 ledge. Thirty years since a little vessel came sharply round a point of rock that, running into the German Ocean, protects a small harbour, where a few ships load or unload, and nume¬ rous fishers beach their boats and spread their nets. The strange vessel showed no sail. The tide was ebbing; but the mystic craft consulted neither tide nor wind. A column of thick smoke rose from what seemed to be a clumsy and short mast. Rumours of monster vessels that ran by wheels upon the sea, had reached the quiet village; but they vmre disre¬ garded. One weekly journal even then supplied the villagers with news and politics. Buonaparte was faii'ly settled at St. TIelena, and the foreign intelligence had become dull. Tliat journal, therefore, as several well-informed readers believed, had circulated the paragraphs regarding the fire-ship to renew the waning interest of its subscribers ; who did not consider them better founded than the “ Arabian Nights’ Entertainments,” or the “ Adventures of Robinson Crusoe,” which old people were known not to accept as true. But then the vessel came, agi¬ tating the sea with its wheels, and moving forward against the power of the wind, and the turn of the tide. The intelligence spread over the country round with telegraphic speed. Before night* fall farm-houses and hamlets were deserted. All classes flocked from a distance of many miles to examine this curious phenomenon, and gaze at the hardy men who dared to ven¬ ture on the ocean as its guides. Neither of the two annual fairs brought a greater crowd than the first steam-boat. It entered the harbour, without imparting confidence to cautious mothers, who kept their children at a distance from the burning ship; for who could tell what might happen ? Aged elders, bent with years, solemnly shook their grey heads, and as¬ serted that the world had grown to a great pitch of wicked¬ ness, when men thus dared to oppose Providence, and fight against the will of the Almighty, exhibited in the run of the 44 'PROGRESS OP KNOWLEDGE. tide and the current of the wind; and they agreed together that the thing would come to nought, and would not prosper. They forgot for the time their simple faith that God could even make the wickedness of the wicked to praise him in sub¬ serving his purposes; but they lived to see that this was not “ the wickedness of the wicked,” for, ere another summer ran its course, a regular line of steamers was plying on their coast; and, although only a little speck of time has passed since then, the increase of knowledge in the employment of steam-power has smoothed many obstacles to tlie missionary of Christianity, and will hasten the world’s conversion. The missionary can follow the footsteps of the merchant; but in many instances the Bible has preceded the ledger. Thirty years ago, the student rose early to his books, the labourer to his spade, the artizan to his bench or his forge, and the factory operative to tend her wheels. The winter mornings were cold and dark. The tinder in the box was damp or done, the flint was broken, the steel was lost, and patience was often exhausted in procuring a feeble light, that sometimes perished in failing to kindle the ill-trimmed lamp, or awake the stubborn coals through their allies, turf or wood, which, contrary to their nature and pur¬ pose, seemed sulkily to delight in cold and darkness; so the labourer, and the artizan, and the young female operative, were often compelled to leave their homes for their toil without seeing light of any kind, for time waited for nothing—not even for damp tinder; but the student was obliged to hammer out light and warmth from unpromising materials, at any cost of time, for the light, at least, was indispensable for his engagements, although the warmth was often too expensive for his means. Now, a cheap stock of Are is ready for use in a small paper box. One moment lights the match, another turns the gas- jet, a third communicates heat to the fire-kindler; and, sooner than the cover could have been taken from the tinder-box, the PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 45 room glows with a cheerful light and a warm fire. The in¬ crease of knowledge in this domestic department is not prized, because the old teasing mode of procuring light is forgotten; but it has increased the comfort and convenience of many per¬ sons, it has reduced the temptation to commence the day with an ill-regulated feeling, and saved time to the scholar, equal, on the average of a winter’s week, to one hour, and on a life¬ time, to a large capital saved from the rubbish of hours. Ten years ago some men proposed to employ electricity in carrying messages. Their plan was ridiculed as preposterous, I but it has been successful. One cannot easily throw ojff old , habits in an office of the Electric Telegraph Company. We re¬ quired to send a message, some time since, to a friend, who was ! very many miles away. The message was written out, and i handed to the messenger, and, having ‘‘ counted the change,” j we expressed a hope that no time would be lost in forwarding I the intimation. The operator at once replied, “They say, sir, that your message is seat off, and the answer will be here directly, for they have only a few yards to go, from the other side, and if you take up a newspaper for a few minutes you may have the reply.” This was the practical interpretation of the common phrases, “ lightning speed,” or, “ quick as thought,” but it shocks a person’s equanimity, as yet, for w^e are not accustomed to the work. Following the advice given, and taking the newspaper, it seemed probable that the London corn market might be got over ere the return travelled through a dozen of parishes, and three or four counties ; but this was a mistake, for the reading was cut short at “ fine malting barley,” some distance from the end of the report. “ Knowledge has increased,” and the ends of the earth, like the ends of the kingdom, will be united together by a chain of fragile copper wdre. The question put in Montreal is answered from New Orleans in an hour. The querisi, shivering 4G PEOGEESS OP KNOWLEDGE. in a Canadian winter, wants information ; and tlie respondent, perspiring under a tropical sun, remits it by an operation that in itself occupies so short a period, that the swift messenger beats even time, and the information travels faster than the earth moves. The results of this new agent are not developed, and cannot be foretold. Any person might draw upon ima¬ gination, and paint a future of cheap telegraphing; but those who watch the operation of cheap travelling will fear that the probable truth might read like an extravagant romance, and wait the issue, not in hope, but in security, that “ the increase of knowledge,” in all departments, will accelerate the eman¬ cipation of men from old errors, and introduce the period of universal faith and peace promised to the troubled earth. The Exhibition of works of high art to the labouring classes would be of little domestic importance, if they could not com¬ mand copies; but any person with a twenty or thirty years’ memory, who will throw it back for a moment on the stucco statuettes, which, resembling nothing more than Madagascar or New Zealand idols, with the tatooing faithfully copied, were yet rapidly sold by itinerant dealers, to ornament the “ chimney-piece” in the “ ben end” of farm-houses and artizans’ homes, must acknowledge that improvement in this respect has made gratifying progress. At the moment when a desire to render all classes acquainted with works of genius, in art, has been manifested, we have obtained from the East a curious gum, which, plastic in the workman’s hands like molten lead in a mould, retains its impressions faithfully and gracefully in any form. We have learned to gild low metals with the most precious, by a momentary process, that incorporates the rare with the common; but renders the pure predominant; while the sun has been pressed into the public service as a copyist, and light has become the most accurate and rapid limner. All these changes will increase the feeling in favour of neat and PEOGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 47 tasteful ornaments—a large benefit, though many deem it a small matter; for it aids in making home attractive to the artizan, and bestowing on this class all the advantages, in one respect, that the richest once exclusively possessed. “ Knowledge shall be increased,” but it is not many years since books were luxuries. The number-trade circulated stan¬ dard works at a great expense, in sixpenny-worths, which were dearer, by one or two hundred per cent., than the same or simi¬ lar works in cheap editions at the present day, and yet were not more profitable to the printer and the publisher. New ma¬ chines that can be advantageously wrought only by steam- power, and the process of stereotyping—both modern improve- ji ments—have been made the instruments of cheapening know- j ledge, and communicating to all classes who will use them :| the advantages in literature that were, after the invention li of printing, and even within a short period, accessible to the ; rich alone. These facilities for spreading facts, or falsehoods, ' have been used for both purposes; but, as has been stated in I a previous tract, all the faculties of mankind have been, on jj some occasion, or in some way, perverted to evil purposes, without reducing the responsibility, or the value of their pos - I session. A day in Class 17 of the Exhibition, or even an i| hour, will satisfy any man that great progress has been re- I cently made in various departments connected with the art of II printing; that great improvements are yet to be effected ; that I incalculable benefits have resulted to mankind from the im- j provements and inventions already in operation; and that I they have been the means of inculcating religious knowledge ij in quarters that could not have been reached, and to an ex¬ it tent that could not have been overtaken, without this or a similar agency; and although Class 17 in the British Depart¬ ment is mentioned as exclusively devoted to the tools of litera¬ ture, yet from many countries specimens of new instruments 48 PEOGRESS OE KNOWLEDGE. in printing, or of progress in that art, have been sent, which prove the extent of its influence over all civilised nations. The Religious Tract Society alone show religious publications in all the languages of Europe ; and in many, if not in all, the languages of Africa, America, and Asia. Several of these publications have been printed in one hundred and ten different languages. Their circulation has been, since the commence¬ ment of the society, five hundred and twenty-four millions of different handbills, tracts, and works. Each of these issues, according to their plan, has contained “ a clear statement of the method of a sinner’s recovery from guilt and misery, by the atonement and grace of the Redeemerand has recognised another grand fact, ‘'that the Scriptures are the only standard of Eaith.” The number of separate copies issued by this society is extremely great—five hundred and twenty-four millions of copies; but the society commenced with the close of the last, and we are now over the middle of the present, century; while, during that period, nearly four times this number of immortal souls have been lost or won. Two thou¬ sand millions of human beings, linked to all men by the strong bonds of “Equality in sin,” and “Fraternity in blood,” have come into time, and gone into eternity, since the commence¬ ment of the society; and even if its publications had been equally divided among mankind, so far as they went, they could only have supplied a small proportion of the world’s in¬ habitants. Other soeieties and individuals have laboured in the same direction, but only a small proportion of the tracts circulated could have been disseminated without the recent accelerations in the rate of printing by improved appliances; and in no department has the progress of knowledge in art become more obviously instrumental to increase a know¬ ledge of the truth, than in this profession. Many of the Society’s publications are extremely short, but they are addressed to PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 49 persons who cannot, or who will not, read lengthened essays with care. Others of them are written in a remarkably simple tone, sinking beneath a fair standard of style; but they are addressed to an uneducated class, who can barely spell their way through the plainest syllables. Other works in their catalogue are the products of literary research and literary talent. All are elevated by the truths which the Society promise to assert and maintain in each of their publications. Another great society, in one department, exhibits transla¬ tions of the Scriptures in more than one hundred and seventy dialects and languages. This selection from the Bible So¬ ciety’s stock forms the greatest achievement in philology on record. It is the most formidable collection of learned efforts to grapple with and subdue ignorance ever made. It forms, alone, a remarkably interesting Exhibition; and, backed by types of many different languages in Class 17, affords indisput¬ able evidence of “ the increase of knowledge.” . A recent writer, of the German school, argues against the belief in a special Providence, on the ground that each special act of Providence would be a miracle; forgetful that a miracle is a contravention of an established rule, and that if a “ special Providence’’ be the law, its existence is not a miracle, although its suspension at any time would be miraculous. The argu¬ ment illustrates the common error of beginning at the con¬ clusion. Desirous to prove that a special Providence does not exist, or, in plainer language, that God does not interfere with the general business of life or with small matters, but, having set a machine in motion permits it to roll on, this writer assumes at once that he is correct, and raises a fragile edifice of argument on the frail foundation of this assumption. Professing to believe the Bible, he yet forgets its statements, and therefore it is not very wonderful that he forgets or tres¬ passes on the rules of logic. 50 PEOGUESS OE KNOWLEDGE. He supports his views by stating, that of five hundred translations of the Scriptures none are alike; but that, if a special Providence were employed for any object it would cer¬ tainly have been exerted to keep the translators correct. Many obvious answers occur to this statement, and some of them, effective for its destruction, would carry the writer much be¬ yond his present position. The matter is noticed here, slightly out of order, to point out the peculiarity of Scripture.. No other work has been translated into so many different languages, yet its power is never lost. In every translation it bears a charm different from any other book. The style is never de¬ stroyed. The classic poets have all been translated, and the differences in the various translations are bewildering. Dante’s “Inferno” has been often translated, and the various readings in the translations involve the poet’s meaning. Goethe’s “Faust” has been translated by ten or twenty persons within as many years, and if the poet could see their works, he would have difficulty, occasionally, in recognising his ideas. The writings of Shakspeare, Scott, and other authors, have been translated from English into various European languages, and their best thoughts have sometimes been badly rendered. Any person well acquainted with two languages will at once confess the difficulty of rendering one into the other with the force and strength of the original. The translations of the Bible have a remarkable virtue under this ordeal. The preservation of an author’s style is a translator’s greatest difficulty; but by some means when a, competent person, in a proper spirit, seeks necessary direction and guidance to translate the Scripture, the style saves itself. These writers of the Bible speak in all languages, as no other authors speak. A fact so singular rather proves the exercise of a special Providence in the mat¬ ter, and an original virtue in the Book that no other work ever possessed. The 1st chapter of Proverbs, 7th verse, con- PROGRESS OE KNOWLEDGE. 51 tains a passage whicli is often repeated, in different forms, through all the Scripture—“ The fear of the Lord is the be¬ ginning of knowledge.” That sentence, and all others of a kindred character, are clearly applicable to religious and saving knowledge in their primary signiBcance. It does them no dishonour to add that they have a secondary appli¬ cation. Daniel’s intimation, ‘‘Knowledge shall be increased,” is a prophecy. Solomon’s assertion, “ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,” is a statement then and always true; and although chiefly, yet not alone of religious, but also of temporal, knowledge. “ The fear of the Lord” was the moving power towards the translation of the Scrip¬ tures, but that opened the way to the extension of other know¬ ledge. After the Scriptures men translated minor works through the knowledge attained in qualifying themselves for the greater. The latter, therefore, carried in its train to those for whose benefit it was accomplished, other and most valuable informa¬ tion. “ Knowledge is” thus “increased.” A translation of the Seriptures into foreign languages forms often a key to sub¬ sequent inquirers. Many persons study a foreign language with a copy of the Bible in that tongue before them, and their object is thereby greatly faeilitated. In more departments than those immediately and ostensibly connected with religion the fear of the Lord is shown to be the beginning of know¬ ledge, not less clearly than any other demonstration that men have completed. The distinction between the contributions of Switzerland and Tunis, and the stationary or retrogressive characteristic of Hindoo and other Oriental art, were previously mentioned ; but we value this Exhibition as an evidence of national pro¬ gress in all parts of the world. The lines that separate Eng¬ lish and Erench art, or the Austrian and Prussian contribu¬ tions, are not so perceptible as those that divide Africa and the 52 PBOGEESS OF KNOWLEDGE. Alps; and many more pages than remain in this section, would be required to trace them; but they exist, for one grand rule extends over all the Crystal Palace. Civil liberty has never survived for a long period, in any nation, without a con¬ siderable infusion of the fear of the Lord.” Experience and history demonstrate the necessity of this element for the se¬ curity of national liberty and privileges. When a vast majo¬ rity of the population in any land are slaves of sin, they are also slaves of men. The Erench "Republic exists at present by physical power. An immoral, or an ignorant society, re¬ quires to protect itself from sificide by an array of bayonets. Great wealth may in that stage command great luxuries, and exhibit the highest refinement in ornate arts; yet a large number of the people will want many things essential to a comfortable existence. To the Exhibition Erance sends finer works of luxury than the United States, although the exhi¬ bited pianos and phaetons of the Union are sufficiently expen¬ sive ; but for adzes, axes, reaping machines, or tools of any description, the States stand higher than Erance. The agri¬ cultural labourer of the Union is well paid, and the farmer proprietor is not in debt. They both command the best in¬ struments therefore, pay well for them, and save money by the outlay. The conditions are wanting in Eance and the practice is necessarily different. The vast extent of the Aus¬ trian Empire, and the variety of races included within that general title, enables its commissioners to make a highly in¬ teresting exhibition by themselves ; and Paris is rivalled by Vienna in the excellence of cabinet-work and costly furniture. The articles connected with the machinery of Roman Catholic worship, stained glass crosses, and figures used in the arrange¬ ments of that Church, are all executed with great care and skill. The glass manufactures of Bohemia are superb, but Bohemia was at one period, not long ago in the history of the PEOGEESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 53 world, a country standing high, in enlightenment and in civil and religious freedom. The remarks regarding furniture are equally applicable to a considerable part of the silk manufac¬ ture, which has the advantage of native raw material. The percussion-caps of Austria are ingeniously guarded against accidents from damp or from any similar cause. Splendid munitions of war are furnished for the army. The best j colours shown in woollens are in cloth prepared for military cloaks ; and the middle-class articles—the goods that citizens I buy, or substantial farmers require—are altogether indifferent. Austria has shown, most indisputably, that her subjects can I work up to those of any other European state when a demand f offers for their labours; but they excel in articles of luxurious, of military, or of superstitious life, because they are chiefly I employed in these departments. Their products reflect the j characteristics of social life in the East of Europe. I The articles from the districts of Germany, embraced in the j commercial league of the Zolverein, are more numerous than I those from the Austrian empire, and the character of the pro- ! ducts is widely different. The Northern and Western Ger- j mans evidently bear a nearer resemblance to Britain than their j Eastern allies. They are beaten by the Austrians in those j classes of goods destined for luxurious families, in which the I latter approach, and occasionally surpass, the French; but they I afford evidence of greater comfort among the middle and pro- I ductive classes, and thus correspond with all the information possessed in this country regarding the social circumstances of the Eastern and Northern Germans. The distinction of race between Berlin and Vienna is very small. The political distinction is not extremely wide, but the difference of cha¬ racter is great; and while the Northern Germans entertain very crude notions of the requirements of their faith, they oc¬ cupy a better position in that matter than the Viennese; and 54 PROGRESS OF KNOWLEDGE. it is, apparently, tlie only cause of difference between the cir¬ cumstances of the two nations. The number of articles shown from the United States is comparatively small. The Union buys more than Austria or Prussia, for its people are chiefly farmers, or yeomen, tilling their own land. The Southern States are pervaded with the curse of slavery, and the Northern with other evils; but the spirit of the Pilgrim Pathers lingers in the North and East. The productions in the United States department are not nu¬ merous ; but they are distinguished by excellence. They are prepared by British tradesmen, or the sons or grandsons of emigrants from this country. An artizan does not lose his craft by crossing the Atlantic; and we expect work of a high character from that quarter; but adaptation to the wants of a numerous middle class, in circumstances of comparative free¬ dom and prosperity, is the prevailing characteristic of the con¬ tributions from the Union. A thorough examination of the Exhibition, for the object now only indicated, would show an intimate connection between the acceptance of a useful faith and the advancement of use¬ ful art—between the practice of religion and the prosperity of nations. The products of Ireland occupy a most respectable place in the British department; but the fine linens of Ulster, which are not excelled in the world, are produced by the de¬ scendants of men who were persecuted, and fled from their own land to find an asylum for their faith and families in the wilds of Antrim and Down, and converted them into cultivated fields. Art in Ireland, when it ministers to the comfort and the happiness of society, is chiefly in the hands of the mino¬ rity of the population, who are Protestants, and orderly, peace¬ able, and shrewd men. The manufactures of England have been deeply indebted to the tyranny of Erench Kings and of Italian Pontiffs for their success. The revocation of the edict PROGEESS OF KNOWLEDGE. 55 I of Nantes establisted the silk manufactures of Spitalfields, and improved the cutlery of Sheffield. The British department 1 of the Exhibition is necessarily the most extensive. It ex- ! ceeds all the world besides, for obvious reasons; but its grand I characteristic is the adaptation of art to the wants of many, j The British manufacturers excel in the production of goods j suited to the means of their neighbours and their workmen. I That feature in their productions illustrates the tendency of in- \\ creased knowledge to bestow increased advantages on all classes ! —to equalise the mercies of existence, not by pulling down the rich, but by pulling up the poor; while, as a rule, without j casual exceptions, the inquirer will find the comfort and pro- ; sperity of a nation inseparably linked to its faith and practice. ' Some good men have been disquieted by the progress of knowledge, and the speculations of theorists. The two i causes have no connection. Science and speculation are not ; twins. Some time since astronomers speculated on the state j of the Nebulae, which were said to be worlds in course of ! cooling, or preparation, until Earl Bosse’s telescope resolved them, and overthrew the ingenious theories previously pub¬ lished. The discoveries of geologists, in their crude and in- 1 complete state, were employed to cast discredit on Scriptural ! history. Farther inquiries confirm that which they were ex- : pected to destroy; and new facts, as they appear, will sup- > port the only information given of the work of creation in ' Scripture. “ The ruins of ancient cities” were once examined I in a hostile spirit to other historical parts of the Bible; but subsequent researches have resulted in notable and valuable evidence of their truth. Witnesses have been exhumed from the mounds of the Euphrates and the Tigris, where they have been concealed for twenty-five centuries, to confirm Scriptural I statements; and that source of evidence is now only denoted, I rather than exhausted. The increase of knowledge in any 56 PROGRESS OP KNOWLEDGE. department never can injuriously affect truth. The supposi¬ tion involves an evident contradiction. The progress of science fulfils prophecy; and, in its onward movements, accumulates new evidence to the truth of all the claims made for the Bible. A singular passage, in one of the most magnificent poems ever published, closes with the words “ At evening time it shall be light.” The extract is taken from Zechariah 14 c., 7 v. It does not conclude the subject, but one of the verses or sections. Some persons consider the entire prophecy ful¬ filled and symbolical; while others regard it as unfulfilled and literal. The words previously quoted have, without any re¬ ference to these differences, a general and a personal applica¬ tion. Souls tossed for years in toils and troubles, and doubts and fears, marred by transgressions and spendthrift dealings with time, to whom the day was neither clear nor dark—“ not day nor night”—-have found many things clearing around them as the evening of life fell, and while the shadows to others seemed to increase, to them “ it was light.” The general application more immediately concerns ‘*the increase of knowledge.” The evening time of the world will be distinguished by greater mental light than any preceding period. The Christian era has hitherto been poetically, and yet literally described as neither day nor night ” The dura¬ tion of its evening is not a point revealed. It may linger long above the earth at rest, gilding it like the many evenings of stormy days, when the sun breaks through the purpled clouds, casts gentle beams over earth and sea, and colours with most gorgeous painting all the western sky. “ The end, ” or “ the evening,” is an indefinite term, like ‘‘the beginning.” Its coming, and its extent, are amongst the hidden things; but the direction from which it comes is known, and the increase of knowledge is its way. AET AND FAITR IN FRAGMENTS FROM THE GREAT EXHIBITION. SUiVER IN AND OUT OF THE MINE. Heaven has made three revelations to earth—the work of I creation, the work of providence, and the word written. Some men imagine a difficulty in defining clearly a line where crea- I tion ends, and providence commences. They originate their : difficulty in looking at a coral bank in the tropical seas; at the •I delta of a river in any elime; at the shifting of a sand bank ! by the ocean’s strength; at the upheaving of a volcanic island I in troubled waters; and they inquire if these things are not i works of creation. The coral worm was created, and accom- ! plishes its destiny; water was created, and eollected in stores, j to be distributed over the earth, and it also effects its destined ; purposes, in the cii’cle where it ever moves, and which it never j leaves; the sands of the ocean were created, but they were not 1 placed on a firm foundation; and exposed to the power of tides and the strength of waves, they also sustain their doom, and illustrate the condition of many unstable persons; the vol¬ canic fire is but a work of creation, earrying forward its pur¬ pose in defined limits. These agencies are results of creation doing the works of providence—like the green grass, the grow¬ ing tree, or the ripening corn. The written word and the work of creation, may be in one sense considered complete revelations; while the work of providence ever accumulates, and will be completed only in company with time. A careful con¬ sideration of those subjects will show, in one respect, indeed, that all the three revelations increase in power as they increase D 58 SILVER IN AND OUT OE THE MINE. in age. They appear clearer as they wax older. The acts are done, and the words are written; but the nature of the acts and the strength of the words become more distinct as science and time are applied to their perusal. The things visible, and the word written, having the same origin, necessarily correspond together. One class of indi¬ viduals investigate carefully the works of Nature, and ne¬ glect the Scriptures. Another class read the Bible, and act as if they considered Creation and Providence rather beneath their notice. Two sects mention in their works a new crime, discovered in comparatively recent times, and classified as Bibliolatry. These sects are placed at extreme points in the range of opinions. They have both adopted the name Catholic, because it is very easy to bear a good name, and yet to cast away the spirit which it implies. The Roman priests, and others who approach their position, place “the Church” above “ the Bible,” and necessarily convey the idea of “ Bibliolatry.” They even use the phrase. Pallible men who manage ecclesi¬ astical affairs are placed by them above the Scriptures, not because they deny “inspiration,” or claim “inspiration” in precise terms for themselves or their superiors ; but because they insist that “ inspired writing” is unintelligible to the unlearned or unlicensed reader, without “their glossary.” Their views are comparatively modern. They did not exist in the days of Israel’s second King, 119th Psalm, 130th v., or in the days of Peter the Apostle, as appears from his Second Epistle, 1st chap., 19th, 20th, and 21st verses; and they were not acted on by members of the early Christian churches in their families, as may be gathered from 2d Timothy, 3d chap., 15th, 16th, and 17th vs. The modern sin of Bibliolatry was altogether unknown in these early periods. The second sect who produce this charge believe notliing more than their ow;n personal inspiration. One development of this error was SILVER IN AND OUT OE THE MINE. 59 centred at Nauvoo. That was the vulgar form of the mis¬ take. The more polished and the less credulous branch exists chiefly among a small body of men, who write many books, and publish them as a “Catholic Series.” They consider themselves “ Rationalists,” and set their own judgment above the Scripture. Striving to avoid the suppositious guilt of Bi- bliolatry, they fall into the crime of worshipping themselves, and each man will And his own heart probably the most de¬ ceitful, and for destructive purposes, the most effeetive idol before which he can be prostrated. This “ Bibliolatry ” is an imaginary crime, of which no man can be guilty, but many individuals of so far enlightened character, actuated by excellent purposes, study Scripture, and overlook the other revelations. They read incorrectly, and deprive themselves of advantages that are “inestimable.” Thry differ from the “ great Teacher,” and all whom he directly taught, as they will find by Matthew chap. 6, 26th and sub¬ sequent verses, and every parable in the Evangelists. The laws and the material of nature illustrate the statements of the Bible. Events in Providence, or history current and past, possess the same quality. We cannot, therefore, wisely neglect either department, although two of them must fairly be considered subordinate to the third; because history is in¬ complete ; and nature, though complete, is incompletely under¬ stood; while their character and object are necessarily sub¬ ordinated to what is almost exclusively termed by reason of its pre-eminence—"Revelation. Tourists in Scotland never leave out of their programme the beautiful lakes of the central and western districts of that country. They are vast resources of “ spring water,” which descend by a very short and rapid course from the surround¬ ing mountains. The surface drainage of those vast hills fall into the lakes, but in the dry summer months they are chiefly fed 60 SILVER IN AND OUT OF THE MINE. bj springs rising clear as crystal from ibe mountain sides and summits. Several of the lakes contain a great body of water, and are of immense depth, but they are comparatively clear; and when no breath of wind stirs their surface, the surrounding scenery, to a bush or a tree, is mirrored in their deep recesses with perfect fidelity. A traveller on Loch Lomond, in a calm day, finds himself apparently suspended in the centre of a great circle. The rugged crags, the foaming streamlet, the stout pine, the slender fern, the purple heath, the graceful honeysuckle, and every blade of grass, and blue or yellow wild fiower, on the heights above, are clearly and plainly reflected in the depths beneath. Not one islet with a single tree and two or three bushes, and not an island with a thousand trees and a little farm breaks up the glass-like surface of the lake, without being carefully repeated in its vast depths. The in¬ tense beauty of the real scenery renders its shadow more interesting and more remarkable than it would be in other circumstances; and the abrupt and steep ascents from the water’s edge make the painting perfect. In the same manner we shall find the words of Scripture perfectly mirrored in the works of Nature. The doctrines of Scripture meet corresponding facts in Nature. The analogies between the two departments are far more direct, and nume¬ rous, and plain, than the majority of persons who have been concerned with both, through their years of thought, have supposed. Art changes natural forms. It creates nothing. It combines, or separates, but it produces nothing new. All its products existed previously to man’s interference with them. The powers educed by human science were con¬ cealed. The beauty elicited by mortal genius was latent, was hidden in the growing tree or the rough stone. The utility effected by man’s application and industry, has not changed the nature of the animal or vegetable products on which they SILVER IN AND OUT OF THE MINE. 61 have been employed. Art will, therefore, possess those ana¬ logies to Scriptural statements that distinguish nature; and it has often been employed to illustrate great truths. When Jeremiah wanted to deliver a Scriptural doctrine in the most expressive terms, he went to a pottery in the suburbs of Jeru¬ salem, and explained the operations of the potter on the wheel. The mineralogical department of the Great Exhibition is less attractive to the general run of visitors than many others; and yet, it is undoubtedly the richest and the most wonderful. The new mode of separating silver from lead ore is a novel and remarkable triumph of art over matter. British silver has long been known in the market; but the cost of its extraction from the ore exceeded its value, except in very favourable cir¬ cumstances. The process was unprofitable whenever the pro¬ portion of silver was less than 20 oz. per ton of ore. A patented process has been devised to meet this difficulty, and three large specimens of silver extracted by this new plan are shown. Those specimens are of great value. The Duke of Buccleuch has a pyramid of pure silver in a glass case which weighs 120 lbs., and is worth £480. It is much noticed from its peculiar form, but it is the least valuable of the three. Mr Beaumont, has a thick plate of silver, obtained in the same manner, from mines near Newcastle-on-Tyne, weighing 8,000 oz. according to one statement, and 12,000 by another, and worth £2,000 or £3,000, according to the weight. Mr. Pat- tinson exhibits a cake of silver heavier than the mass shown by the Duke of Buccleuch, but lighter than Mr. Beaumont’s plate; and it is probably worth £1,200 to £1,600, dependent on the weight, which is not stated. The process has been patented by Mr. Pattinson, of New¬ castle; and, like all other effective discoveries, is remarkably simple in its principle, although laborious in practice. He endeavoured to discover some mode of cheapening the separa- 62 SILVEE IN AND OUT OF THE MINE. tiou of silver from lead, in tlie ore. The two metals are found together in beds that also contain a quantity of dross. The original ore has a given value in the market, not because it is more useful, as it is found, than any other raw material, hut on account of its elements. The Creator has provided the material, and left the creature endowed with the requisite faculties, by the necessary industry, to render it useful. Man sinned, and his sentence was to earn bread by the sweat of his brow. Even that judgment was kindly mingled with mercy. Man was to make bricks, but he was found in clay and straw. Silver exists in minute proportions in all ores of lead, but the quantity is very small when contrasted with the dross and the baser metal with which it is mixed. Specimens of native, or pure lead, are found in many mines, but they do not form a valuable portion of the lead consumed in this country. Speci¬ mens of native, or pure silver, are also found in silver mines, chiefly in the southern division of America. Silver, in our lead mines, is imperceptible amongst the mass of other matter surrounding it. The quantity is, in some instances, not more than 1 oz. per ton of ore. Several specimens of ore were sent to the Exhibition from the Isle of Man by the Eev. Mr. Gum¬ ming, and were catalogued as containing 3 oz. of silver per ton. That was an error, and the gentleman who forwai’ded them from scientific motives alone, for he has no interest in mining, states that the proportion is 36 oz. per ton, which is high, but not more than one in a thousand parts; and, under Mr Pattinson’s patent, silver is extracted which forms but one in twelve thousand parts of the original ore; while ores are shown in which the precious metal is only as one in thirty thousand parts of the primitive deposit. The product of lead from the ores varies greatly; occasionally it is one-half, and sometimes two-thirds, but rarely three-fourths of the original bulk. Without over-straining the case, the minds and tendon- SILVER IN AND OUT OF THE MINE. 63 cies of mankind, in their natural and unrefined state, might be compared to these ores. The most precious characteristics exist in minute parts ; the medium in higher proportions; and the mischievous, or useless, form a large heap of dross on the completion of a careful analysis. The silver in the mine has been buried deep, for time that men cannot reckon, in the wild moors of Durham, in the quiet dales of Allenhead, in the rough mountains of Dumfriesshire, or amongst the crowds of little hills that give to eastern Down- shire its undulating and varied scenery. The small grains of silver had no wish to meddle with the upper world and its ways. They could not foresee the honours that awaited them. They knew nothing of the eager wrestling to possess 'them that was going on, while they reposed quietly in the centre and heart of baseness and darkness, well pleased with their low companionship. If they were supposed, for a short time, to be endowed with sentient qualities, they would, doubtless, be willing to emerge at once, without much separation, sor¬ row, or trouble, from their concealment, to places of dignity and trust in the world; but they would shrink from the ter¬ rible path that leads them to the jewellers, the silversmiths, or the mint. This shrinking timidity would be natui-al, in our sight, for it would be extremely ‘‘manlike.” Two ways of carrying forward the comparison are open. The best quali¬ ties of any man’s mind are hidden often under a mass of rub¬ bish, and can only be purified, refined, and separated by pain¬ ful and toilsome processes. The best minds in a community are often dragged into utility through a series of furnaces, sometimes involving all society, ere their aptitude, and beauty, and strength are perfected. Our history has many pages illus¬ trative of that fact. The names that shine the brightest now in our records are not those of men who had any natural desire to occupy high places. The Reformers of England at 64 SILVEE IK AND OUT OE THE MINE. one period, and the Puritans at another, were nervous, shrink¬ ing men, who desired to remain hidden deep in the mine. Men may hold different opinions now regarding the ulti¬ mate aims and projects of Oliver Cromwell; hut, originally, Hampden was well contented with the useful range of duties belonging to an English squire—and Cromwell would have pursued a bustling happy life as an English trader and gen¬ tleman. Over in that great land which once was nearly all our own, George Washington had not the slightest ambition to be the first magistrate, or any kind of magistrate; but wished nothing more than justice and peace, that he might dress his orchard and plough his fields. It has been said, that the highest, and the most generally respected man on our long list of statesmen and warriors, once solicited a subordi¬ nate civil appointment, willing to remain in the Excise for life; and, probably, in the neglect or the refusal of his appli¬ cation, was placed under the crusher of disappointed hope. The men who gained the civil and religious freedom of Scot¬ land some two centuries ago were, like its earlier patriots, retiring and unobtrusive persons. The great chieftain of its early history—the hero of its ballads and traditions, the faith¬ ful leader in its gloomiest days —is always represented as afraid of the shadow of his own power and popularity, and of nothing else. He was ashamed to assume the influence thrust on him. Stern necessity, originating in the trials and troubles of his country, was alone able to allure him from his pleasant fields and woods between the Cart and Clyde. The religious reformers of a later age, at first, almost fled, like Jonah, from the public agitations and movements which they were to guide. John Knox abandoned his country once or twice. He felt its burden too great for him. But he was driven back, through many troubles and sorrows, to imprint on it a character which the tread of centuries has not obliterated. SILVEE IN AND OUT OE THE MINE. 65 The enumeration of similar examples would be easy, for, while tbe rule has its exceptions, yet they are not numerous. The Bible narrative is filled with biographies of this nature. Noah was derided for bis preparations to meet a great catas- tropbe, and his prophesyings of its certain approach. Abra¬ ham was plucked from the mine of Ur in the Chaldees, and subjected to a lifetime of anxiety and conflicts with sorrow, for the chief of ancient emigrants—the great Pilgrim Bather— was not a willing wanderer. Jacob was chisseled out of the mine, and sent from his family to meet no inconsiderable degree of trouble, until, when he had reached a high standing in the world’s estimate, “few and evil have the days of the years of my life been,” was his own testimony. Joseph was the grain of silver in the family “of the Yale of Hebron;” but he was separated from the mass, and_enabled to shelter them, only after years of distressing adventure, which left him often buried in despair. When the cities of Pithom and Baamses were in process of building, a Levite family lived in Egypt, in the deepest distress. With a trembling heart and weeping eyes, the mother knit her little basket of reeds, for a cradle to her son, covered it with slime and pitch, to keep out the water, and prolong that precious life, and let the basket and her boy softly down beneath a bank of the Nile, where the flags grew high, and the water was still, watching in the deep¬ est grief to see whether the crocodile on the throne, or the crocodile of the waters would destroy his life. There was the silver crushed out of its hiding place amid its kindred ores, and the basket of bulrushes was the first step to the leadership of the Hebrew host, the grand scenes of Sinai, and all the great services rendered by Moses to his people. As we descend the stream of time, the same rule holds good, with its rare, very rare, exceptions. Ehud, the left- handed Benjaminite, seems to have been, originally, a man 66 SILVEE IN AND OUT OE THE MINE. of no great note. Barak, of Kedesh-Naplitali, was living in peace until, by a woman’s orders, be arose against Sisera. Gideon, of Opbrab, was stealthily threshing his father’s wheat, by the wine-press, in deep trouble, that he might conceal the future food of his parents and their family from the Midianites, when he was ordered out to destroy their host. Jephthah, his son, who, after him, was to rule Israel, was driven by his own brethren, away from his father’s house and his native country, to dwell an exile in a foreign land. The gentle story of Buth has ever been a favourite history of quiet coun¬ try life, but she reached, competence and influence through passages of bitter grief. The silver was crushed out of the mine. Samuel was early drawn from his father’s house into scenes of sorrow. Saul did not seek the crown that was des¬ tined for him. Jonathan’s character beams brighter amid domestic suffering, than in the knightly daring and deeds that liberated a kingdom. The genius and wisdom of David were formed and matured in furnaces of affliction, often kindled by his own actions; and although the severest sufferings are fre¬ quently self-made in their immediate cause, yet that does not alter their nature, unless by increasing their intensity. The application of the same idea to individual cases is equally just; but, except in the case of public men, or men whose history has been rendered public, the world knows not the influence of afiliction, or calamity, or disappointment, in the production of character. Each individual can trace the results partially, and, perhaps, but partially, in his own case. The world is sometimes astonished at the withdrawal of “ useful lives”—from “ the evil to come,” in the case of prepared and ripened men, the Bible says. What that evil is we cannot always tell, for the removal of the man may sometimes change the current of events. In a crowded cemetery, belonging to a large town, in one very small corner, formed by the separa- SILVEE IN AND OUT OF THE MINE. 67 tion of two paths—a corner, apparently too small fora common¬ sized grave—as if that no ground might be lost, a small one has been dug—a very small grave. A slight monument of wood is placed at the top, with the words ‘‘ To little B. W.” The grave bears a moss-rose bush beside the monument, some mignonette, and violets, and carnations, which have been care¬ fully tended, and are growing well. A marble monument is placed not far away, over another little resting-place. It bears the motto, In Memoria,^' and the token, a “Broken Bose-bud.” “Little B. W.” and the “Broken Bose-bud” are specimens from a multitude of domestic sufferings that make hearts and homes dark for many days. Without the Bible, they are unintelligible; but its revelations explain their purpose to all who believe its records. Many do not believe, and to "them the sufferings are dark stumbling-blocks. They cannot see a single reason for their occurrence. They deem them contrary to the nature of benevolence and love, and make them even arguments in their minds for devolving all things on chance; and leaving the world, in their opinion, without guide, guar¬ dian, or governor, and without an owner or proprietor. The Bible gives satisfactory reasons for all these occurrences. Com - panions are separated for all time, and friendships are severed, but the cause of the sorrow is given, in the greatest separation that ever occurred—John 16th chap., 6th and 7th verses. Be¬ reavements now can only bear a dim and distant resemblance to that event, but they may be followed also by the spirit of consolation. Men suffer a multitude of afflictions, composed of broken hopes and crushed prospects, of fruitless exertions and wasted energies; but they fulfil a prediction, or a pro¬ mise, in the last verse of the same 16th chapter. The cause of all sorrows, which have a profitable result, is given in Proverbs 3d c., 11th and 12th vs.; in the 12th chap, of Hebrews, and very pointedly in the 11th verse. The ocean hath many won- 68 SILVER IN AND OUT OF THE MINE. derful tales, full of sadness and sorrow; as it has hidden many precious hopes in its depths, or wildly scattered them on its shores. It is deeply mournful to learn that a vessel has been overtaken in a storm, and lost soon after the commencement of its voyage; still, there are yet sadder histories connected with the sea. A ship left a distant tropical port, fully laden with the fruits of southern isles, many months since. Its crew encountered heavy gales, and long-enduring storms. They battled, and struggled, and watched, and wrought against waves and winds for months. Days and nights, many of them, passed away; but, while faint and weary with the exertions of the night, at last, on one morning, the high cliffs of the mountains around the entrance to their river encircled like a ring the eastern sky, that for long had to their vision mingled with the waste of water. Another day was spent, and night fell as their vessel rounded a sharp point of land that forms one extremity of the vast bay which they had toiled to reach. The night was dark, and thick. Smart showers of hail and snow blinded the helmsman and the watch, and obstructed the lights on the water, while the wind drowned all other sounds. The ship was struck suddenly, and sunk by a large steamer. A boat, and a few casks floated to shore and identified the victim, but the crew went down with their vessel, almost under the shadow of their own homes. That class of wrecks have a doubly mournful interest; but not more melancholy than unimproved sufferings, and the sacrifice of a man, who has been disciplined by many afflictions, and warned by many sorrows in vain. The separation of silver from lead ore was formerly conducted by a tedious process. The ore is excavated, and torn from its dark and deep recesses to be crushed or ground to dust, which is then placed in a smelting furnace, melted down into a liquid, and run into moulds forming the pigs of lead. Often when the ore contained only a small proportion of silver the latter was SILVER IN AND OUT OF THE MINE. 69 not extracted. Tlie most valuable ores only were exposed to that infliction. Common ores escaped it as common natures escape many evils that overwhelm their superiors. When the refiner determined to extract the silver, he reduced the mass to a liquid, and exposed it to lengthened torture in a huge open pan. The air swept freely over it, oxidising the coarser portions of the mass, and converting them into letharge, to be removed as they yielded to the influence of heat beneath and oxygen above, until only the highest and most valuable portion re¬ mained, and that was silver, which had resisted all the trials incident to its refinement, and had, thereby, vindicated its claim to be considered one of the precious metals. The uninitiated could discover no difference in the melted metal; and the most practised could not separate between the common and the precious; but the action of the air revealed the secret, separated the various qualities, and stamped their future position. The silver passed through the trial by fire, to its place of dignity, and honour, and value, amongst man¬ kind. The process presents a beautiful analogy to the means often used in Providence for strengthening, purifying, and re¬ fining the higher qualities of the mind, or separating them from the dross and the baser ores in which they are wrapped up originally. The miners meet with native lead in small parcels, and native silver has been found in limited quan¬ tities in this country, as minds occur in society to whom the purifying process has been light, and almost invisible to them¬ selves ; for the analogies between Art and Paith are nearly complete. This illustration is used repeatedly in the sacred writings, for lead and tin were required by the Hebrews, who must have been acquainted with the means of extracting silver from the ore. Their foreign commerce was chiefly conducted through the agency of Phoenician and Tyrian merchants. 70 SILVER IN AND OUT OE THE -MINE. Their products were consigned to the ancient ports of the Mediterranean belonging to the Phoenicians, from whom they piurchased foreign goods in exchange. At a very remote pe¬ riod, and long before the Italian invasion under Caesar, the Phoenicians traded with Cornwall for tin, and probably also for copper and lead ores, as we at this period import from Cuba, from Australia, and from Lake Superior, copper ore,which is manufactured here. It is certainly not improbable that when the Hebrews traded with the Phoenicians the latter may have been buyers in the British markets. Recent researches have brought copper mines again into use on the banks of Lake Superior that were evidently wrought by skilful miners at some long distant date. The people who built the aban¬ doned cities of Central America had probably also penetrated to the shores of the great northern lakes, and there pursued the trade in metals. The circumstance strengthens the idea of some antiquaries that America was originally peopled by the Phoenician race, who were the greatest traders of the ancient world, and long exercised, through their colonial system, a paramount influence on the shores of the Mediter¬ ranean. Isaiah illustrates national degeneracy in the words, “ Thy silver is become dross.” Jeremiah uses the processes of smelting with nearly the same object in the 6th chapter, 29th and 30th verses. Ezekiel mentions the same art as one with which the Hebrews were acquainted in the 22d chapter, 18th to 22d verses, in illustration of the judgments which would fall upon their nation. Zechariah, in the 9th verse of the 13th chapter, while predicting a process of purification, borrows an example from the works of the refiners of precious metals. Malachi follows him in employing the same simile for the same purpose, in the 3d chapter and 3d verse of the closing book of the Old Testament. SILVER IN AND OUT OE THE MINE. 71 Mr Pattinson’s patented plan of extracting silver, differs nothing from the old system in its earlier stages. The ore is dug, and ground, and melted, as before; but instead of ex¬ posing the mass at once in a liquid form to the atmosphere, he melts it in large pans, containing three tons of the mix¬ ture, and probably no more than nine ounces of silver. The operations must, therefore, be rapidly executed, and in a dis¬ trict where coal is cheap, for all the silver in the pan is not worth more than forty-five shillings, although the miners like better to work with ore that yields double that quantity of silver; or, like the specimens from the Isle of Man, which would give out silver worth twenty-seven pounds, from a pan¬ ful of ore equal in weight to that mentioned; while, in one scientific publication connected, not officially, with the Exhi- i bition, it is said that some ores, from the quantity given, woffid yield silver worth forty-five pounds—but they must be very j rare in this country. When the contents of the pan are melted, I the fire beneath is withdrawn; and exactly as one sorrow suc- I ceeds another from a new quarter, the fire is no sooner raked i out, than workmen begin to stir the cooling mass with huge i forks. The lead crystalizes under this process, and one workman I lifts the small crystals out with an iron instrument, like a j gigantic spoon, but it is pierced by holes small enough to retain ! the crystals of lead, while permitting the liquid metal to pass 1 away. As the mass cools it consolidates, and the crystalising i stops. Then the fire is put to the pan again, and when the i metal melts once more the heat is reduced, and the man with the iron rake, and his neighbour with the iron spoon are once 1 more at their places, repeating the same course over again. I The process requires to be gone over four or five times, i In the case of low ores it has been repeated eight times. I After the mass contains three to four hundred ounces of silver ! per ton, the old plan of oxidising the lead is adopted, and 72 SILVEE IN AND OUT OE THE MINE. the silver remains. A pan containing “ argentiferous” lead to the value of three to four hundred oz. per ton, must neces¬ sarily contain the proceeds of several similar quantities in their original state, or the half-refined stage. The common phrases “de-silverising lead” and ‘'extracting silver,” although used by scientific men, are obviously erroneous. The lead and not the silver shrinks—the lead is false, and the silver faithful. The operators do not extract silver, but they extract lead. They do not de-silverise the lead, but they “ de-leadise” the silver. The distinction is useful in our analogy, for between art, nature, and faith, the agreement will be found very close. The metal is not sentient, that has not been said; although its appearance, boiling and bubbling on the fire, or agitated and torn by the iron tools, is terrible, still it feels nothing; yet men honour and love silver, they labour and plan for its attainment, they strive and struggle for its possession, they pant and yearn after the precious metals, and produce them by art from nature in a way that renders matter a teacher of mind. And why should furnaces of trial be needed to purify and strengthen the mind? Why,also, should silver in the mine be surrounded with worthless dross or baser metal ? And why should air and fire be required for its deliverance ? Why should the blue clear sky ever be covered with thick clouds, the rains fall, the winds blow, and the tempest pour streams apparently in wrath, over hill and plain? That the parched land may be revived, and springs of beauty, summers of loveliness, and harvests of plenty, cheer and support mankind. Why should the sun depart for a time and darkness cover the earth? That the mighty army of stars might disclose to man the magnificence of creation, and the power of the Creator. The stars do not depend for their existence on the withdrawal of the sun; but man acquired by this apparent calamity his knowledge of that mighty host of worlds. AKT AND FAITH, IN PRAGMENTS FROM THE GREAT EXHIBITION. SAILS AND SAILWAir ENGINES. The late Mr. Bickersteth adopted the opinion that the per¬ sonal reign of the Redeemer on earth was necessary for the conversion of the world. Dr. Chalmers, in a letter which formed part of a correspondence with Mr. Bickersteth, and has been published, expresses a deep sense of the enormous difficulties which stood in the way of the world’s conversion at that period; but, with the practical spirit which charac¬ terised him, while confessing himself appalled by obstacles, he urged that present duty, under any prospect, is always “work.” A few years only have elapsed since the death of Dr. Chalmers. Great additions had been made to the working power of society during his life. Since his death that power has been still farther evolved. His memoir contains, incidentally, curious facts on this subject. At one period of his life he walked, on a visit to a brother in Liverpool, from Edinburgh to that town. After his settlement in Glasgow, while visiting different parts of England in search of material for his work on Poor-Laws, he expended time, and must have also paid money, in travel¬ ling, that before the close of his life would have been altogether unnecessary. Mr. Bickersteth’s opinion was founded on his interpretation of prophecy. Dr. Chalmers, in his answer, ac¬ knowledged the existence of apparently insuperable difficul¬ ties that had to be overcome before the Gospel could be taught to aU nations. Nothing has occurred, since their cor¬ respondence, materially to change opinions founded upon the E 74 RAILS AND RAILWAY ENGINES. interpretation of Scripture; but events in the progress of science have reduced the apparent difficulties. Class 5 in the Exhibition consists of machines. The most remarkable section of this class is devoted to machines con¬ nected with steam-power. The latter admit a subordinate classification; and the most interesting subdivision is formed by engines intended for railway travelling. They rendered this Exhibition, under its circumstances, possible ; and with¬ out them it would have been impossible. Great exhibitions of arts and manufactures have occurred before the present year in this and in other countries, especially those of Erench goods in Paris; but rails and railway engines have alone enabled the number of visitors to the London Exhibition of 1851 to reach the metropolis, and return again cheaply and quickly to their homes. Commercial and social intercourse, the gratification of curi¬ osity, the promotion of health, and the progress of intelligence and liberty, or even of morality, do not monopolise the pur¬ pose for which rails and railway engines have come into use, have grown to be a great interest in monetary affairs, and have occupied a large portion of men’s capital, energy, labour, and skill, during the meridian of this nineteenth century. They have been brought into their present state of great complete¬ ness when they were wanted for stiU nobler purposes than those already named—high and noble as are all social reforms. The time was approaching when the Gospel has to be pro¬ claimed over all countries of the world, and the means of con¬ veying its messengers rapidly had to be provided. Wars were to cease to the ends of the earth, and men were to pro¬ vide one agency which would enable them to become the agents in terminating their own contests. The opinion held by Mr. Bickersteth, and many eminent and good men, deserves honour and respect, so far as the event appears to them a fulfilment of EAILS AND RAILWAY ENGINES. 75 prophecy; but when it grows out of their reasoning regarding difficulties and obstacles which they deem insuperable to the progress of the Gospel, they seem to forget that ‘‘ with God all things are possible,” and to limit the power of His Spirit to the measure of their, and of the world’s present experience. The argument from Scriptural prophecy merits consideration; but that from apparent difficulties requires no other answer than the expressive suggestion of Dr. Chalmers, “ Meanwhile, work;”—by another writer it was put in a different form— “Wait, but work.” The influence of rails and railway engines pervades all the ar¬ rangements of society, and yet they are entirely of modern date. A few years only seem to have passed away since England was startled with the intelligence that one of her most celebrated statesmen, the late Mr. Huskisson, had been killed at the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester line. Men have gained fortunes by speculations in railways who onee joined in the derision heaped on the proposal to ascend a decline by an engine’s power. The swift coaches of England were the wonders of the world. Twenty years since foreign gentlemen visited Lon¬ don to see the celerity of the London fast coaches, and notice the skiU of their drivers. Within that period a leading New York journal published an account of the most celebrated among Scotch coaches—the Defiance, and asserted that it formed the most rapid means of public transit in the world. This coach accomplished the distance from Glasgow to Aber¬ deen in a single day, starting at six in the morning and ter¬ minating at nine in the evening. Now, passengers have left either of these towns at the same hour in the morning, trans¬ acted business in the other for several hours, and returned home at evening, for less than half of the expense incurred on the Defiance by one of the journies. The fast coaches, the 76 HAILS AND llAILWAY ENGINES. Hibernia and the Hirundel, between Liverpool and Chelten¬ ham, were considered the finest conveyances in the west of England twelve or thirteen years since; but a Liverpool man would write letters to the newspapers, full of grave complaints regarding the value of time, if the train from Cheltenham now occupied half the time per mile that these swift coaches re¬ quired. The value of time is incorrectly appreciated in con¬ nection with railways. They have lengthened life, measured not by duration, but by labour. John Knox would have given much for a single year of the Scotch railway system. The labours of Mr. Whitfield in England would have been doubled by the present iron roads of that country. The agitation on the subject of slavery, or of reform, or of any of the other great movements which have occasionally shaken the empire, would have been cheapened or doubled by twelve months of Britain’s railways. The connexion between Class 5 and Class 17 is not at first apparent; but a slight reflection shows the link, and it is one of great strength. The printing press and t!ie railway engine have both been employed to lead the wan¬ derers of mankind downwards into the miry pit. They have both been set up as false lights to guide the pilgrims of time astray from the firm path into the quicksands of deceit and ruin. A strange thing happened not long ago on the earth— men began to complain of too little leisure and too much work. This was not astonishing, for, if any good cause of surprise Rvi’s+ed on the subject, it must have been that they did not complain regarding this matter long before. Men are not yet sufficiently valuable; and, therefore, they must be silent on questions of this nature. When Mr. M‘Cormac’s American reaping machine was tried on an English farm during this har¬ vest of 1851, and the farmer sent an account of the experiment to a London newspaper,—in this statement he valued men at half-a-crown, and horses at five shillings, daily. The allowance EAILS A^D RAILWAY ENGINES. 77 for the men was more liberal than is generally made at farm¬ houses in England on Saturday evenings; but yet, one horse was worth two men. Men were right in struggling for more leisure, and shorter hours of toil; for they were not made to work without cessation. One of the best movements of modern times has taken children and females a few hours earlier than was the fashion formerly, from amongst the dust and wheels^ and placed them longer amongst their school-books and house¬ hold goods. One of the finest acts of Parliament ever passed recently withdrew females from our mines, where they never should have needed to dig coals for bread. It was a splendid testimony to the improving character of the Legislature, when they agreed to prevent the employment of little boys in chim¬ ney-sweeping. Associated in character with all these improve¬ ments was the demand that came rolling out of the homes of the multitude for more leisure to train their minds, to teach their children, to breathe the goodly air that God had given, and look on that green world that He had made. It was a wise request; and just as men began to see its necessity and understand its prudence, God began to gratify them; for He furnished men with inventive faculties, and the means of employing them. Inventors and machinists, seeking their own gain, do His work. The prophets whom He inspired were not all faithful men. They did not all serve Him. One prophet was avaricious, and another was disobedient, while a third was a flatterer of kings on earth. The inventor or the speculator who seeks nothing more than present aggrandise¬ ment is, like Balaam, compelled, under the greed of gain, to bless mankind. After men were enabled to travel at a cheap rate, they immediately thought to save more time by devot¬ ing to pleasure the day which had been devoted without consulting them to meditation. Mndern advantages were converted into modern temptations by persons who forget 78 BAILS AND BAILWAY ENGINES. that they can only pursue their own pleasure in that way on the Sabbath, by excluding many men from meeting their families at the only time when family union is possible. Some people allege that they only employ clerks, guards, engine-men, and stokers, for a short time on the Sabbath, who would not respect the excuse from a vulgar thief—“I only commit petty larcenies.’* This class of men admire the “Cottar’s Saturday Night,” and trample on the principles that distinguish the poem. Nothing can be more ungrateful than the employment of that celerity, which should remove the temptation to Sabbath business and travelling, in their multiplication. It illustrates the selfishness that regards all men as machines except self and family. The use of rails and railway engines in this manner does not incapacitate them from advancing religious interests. The great change in society, of which they are the instruments and symbols, was not developed only for the increase of plea¬ sure, or the promotion of business. Greater purposes were designed, and nobler ends than any solely connected with time will be effected by railway travelling. No class of men have thought less of their Maker than those connected with the construction of railways; but He has used them, and will use them, for the promotion of truth. The gambling specula¬ tions connected with railway shares and stocks were, and still are, a disgrace to the national character. Capel Court was proverbial for dishonesty; and yet Capel Court was busy doing the work of Exeter Hall. The miner plied his pick and shovel in the depths of the earth without often remembering by whom the ore was stored there against the time when it would sub¬ serve the Gospel. The navigators levelled mountains, and filled valleys, without thinking on the manner in which they were providing for prophecy a literal, although a minor, accomplish¬ ment. The furnace rose on the heath like a little hollow pyra¬ mid. Smoke curled round its summit, darkened the sky, and RAILS AND RAILWAY ENGINES. 79 formed little clouds before tlie sun until tbe shadows of evening fell, and as they closed over the earth the furnace clouds be¬ came red, and the flames beneath cast their lurid glare over a circle of stinted heath and little huts. By day and night dark figures flitted among the smoke, and fed the sea of fire that ever toiled within the frightful cave of torture. The furnace doors were opened, and streams of red and molten metal hurried forth in tracks over and through the sand around, as if glad to escape from the redder prison within; and in this race they cast upon the men who moved amongst their rivulets of fire, and seemed to guide their course, a portion of their own fiery dye. But the men who fed the furnace, and those who directed the metal streams did not consider themselves workers for eternity in the great strife between light and darkness. Another furnace was lighted, and the grey metal was once more in the fire. At openings by the furnace-side other men stood and stirred the crimson mass of melted matter that boiled beneath them; and when their work was done the metal was withdrawn in long dark bars, closer, purer, and stronger, than before; but neither did these men count themselves parties to a great effort for the emancipation of their race. Iron in various shapes was stored in a pile of buildings, dark as the first furnace. Brom every chimney, streaks of fire arose; and from every crevice, the sound of huge hammers came out into the air. Hundreds of men toiled within this village of forges, to shape, and smooth, and polish, the forms that others had contrived, until the various parts fitted together into the engine, that wanted only the presence of the wondrous power for which it was adapted to start along the road which lay smoothed for its progress. But the engine-builders did not deem themselves engaged on producing ag^ts of a new era, or a new revolu¬ tion, or anything of that kind; and yet, in all the many opera¬ tions connected with rails and railway engines, men work for 80 BAILS AND BAILWAY ENGINES. the eiiliglitenment of time, for the increase of knowledge, and the fulfilment of events to occur at “the end.” The Great Western Railway Company’s engine is one of the most gigantic in the Exhibition. It possesses the effec¬ tive power of more than seven hundred horses, and, with its tender, when starting on a journey, weighs more than fifty-two tons ; but it is ready to drag 120 tons of carriages and pas¬ sengers over a level, or nearly level line, at the rate of one mile a minute, or sixty miles an hour. This monster of me¬ chanism, which exerts a greater power than was ever previously compressed within the same space, is probably not more use¬ ful, or not so useful, as the light locomotive engines on four wheels, which carry a short train with great rapidity; for many light engines and trains will have less wasting and wearing power on rails than one of the huge movements that carry passengers equal to the population of a small town. Rails and railway engines have been rapidly developed be¬ fore the living generation; but yet progress is gradual. Men practically forget faster than they learn, when they have to remember attained benefits. Travellers who experienced a few years ago, by day and night, the cold discomfort of an outside seat, through dreary hours of pelting rain, or piercing snow, now quarrel with the dry but hard planks of a third- class carriage; or are offended by the displacement of a cushion, or the dimness of a lamp, in the first-class departments. Per¬ sons who could not have paid the cost of travelling by the old system, now fiercely grumble if a train comes an hour without its time; but very few remember thankfully the position in this respect of their fathers or their grandfathers, or their own posi¬ tion, five, ten, or twenty years ago, according to their geographi¬ cal locality. A thousand passengers conveyed at the rate of sixty miles an hour, or even forty, or thirty, through a level country, render all the imaginative means adopted by the writers of RAILS AND RAILWAY ENGINES. 81 romance in the middle ages to move the subjects of their stories unnecessary. The dreamings of antiquity are converted into facts in this age of great revolutions. And one half of the results that rails and railway engines will yield are not yet realised even in this country; for means will be employed to intersect rural districts with branch lines at less cost than has hitherto been expended in their construction. Penny postage was a great moral triumph. It contributes to preserve the domestic relations of parted families. The workman on the English wolds, or the Scottish hills, can afford to speak weekly with his sons or his daughters in the distant metropolises. Kindly words of encouragement, and love, and warning, come with a singular power from afar to the hearts of young strangers in large cities. The postman’s visit enables them to forget for an hour that they are alone among strangers. The benefits of penny postage cannot yet be nearly known. The nation had to be educated into their use. But the rail and railway engine have been employed for their increase. The letters from home, that were written yesterday, are fresh and homelike; and three-fourths of our population, removed from their native place, and from friendly advice, or parental authority, can now receive letters of that date. The penny postage was not contrived to convey circulars and invoices at a cheap rate. In doing that, it does well; but the popular account of the matter places its inventor, Howland Hill, in an Eng¬ lish rural parish, offering a shilling to a young servant girl that she might be enabled to pay the postage of a letter from her brother, which she was unable to meet, when the idea of cheap postage broke on his mind. That story may be myth¬ ical or true; but this we know, that the Disposer of all events cares nothing for men’s business, and goods, and invoices, and stores—or their bills and precious metals—though the silver and the gold be His—except in their capacity to advance man’s 82 RAILS AND RAILWAY ENGINES. moral and religious interest. He considers them only as tools that men may work with ; whereas they overrate'^them as ends which they should work for. He might consider the accelera¬ tion of a single letter of counsel or warning from a father to a son or a daughter, written in the spirit evinced in the 4th verse of the 6th chapter of Ephesians, of greater interest than all the correspondence of the Bank of England. Yet banks and banking are commendable in themselves. Cheap and quick travelling, like cheap and quick postage, will bind together families. Distance of space is no longer the same distance in time that it inferred some years ago. Rails and railway engines, are domestic goods, calculated to maintain and promote household affections, and all the mercies springing to mankind from their use. The railway works within our islands will, ultimately, have less influence on the diffusion of the Gospel than the progress of similar works in other quarters of the world. During the Exhibition in London, Mr Asa Whitney, a gentleman from the United States, explained to an English audience his plan for running a railway over the American continent, and through the United States. He received warm support from some of the London daily journals; because he is neither a native of this country, nor a subject of this realm. A good work de¬ serves assistance and encouragement in whatever country it is undertaken; but the sentimentality which prefers foreign to home enterprise on every occasion should be uprooted, for patriotism and Christianity are so nearly allied that the former will always grow best under the shade of the latter. The American gentleman’s plan was previously proposed by Major Carmichael Smith, with this difference: that he desired to cross on British territory, for several reasons, among which was the powerful argument, that the means of passing could not be found out of them, and north of the tropical regions. EAILS AND RAILWAY ENGINES. 83 except at a very great expense for cutting and tunnelling. This proposal, ridiculed in journals that warmly applauded the scheme of the American gentleman, will be accomplished. The Halifax and Quebec line, 600 miles long, will be its first great stage; the second will extend to Montreal; the third will reach to Kingston; the fourth will bring the tra¬ veller near the copper regions of Lake Superior; and then through a country, reputed to be of easy access, although now almost nameless, the eourse of the line will be directed towards the Pacific coast, at a point opposite to Vancouver’s Island, the great coal depot of the west. The utility of this magnificent work has been questioned, on the ground that no traffic exists. The traffic to Halifax would be immediately great, because it is the nearest port on the American conti¬ nent to Europe; and the steam-ship lines for passengers would naturally converge there, while the undertaking is proposed not to accommodate but to construct traffic. A great part of the country is waste, but the great western road of iron would settle a belt twenty miles broad on each side with active yeo¬ men, tilling their own lands, because it would give access to markets for their produce. It would give the missionary and the teacher access to them. Churches and sehools would arise in their townships and villages. Plenty would follow the foot¬ steps of industry and peace. The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad”—Isaiah 35 th chapter, 1st verse. This rail¬ way will form the great north-western passage, which we have paid dearly in men and money to seek in a quarter where, if found, it would be useless. Objections are taken to the outlay of money requisite for its completion. It would not be more than the past expenditure on the efforts to crush ships through ice by a route which no merchant could ever use for trans¬ mitting goods. This line will throw our commerce on the back¬ bone of China; and Christians will neglect their duty if Art do 84 RAILS AND RAILWAY ENGINES. not make a clieap and easy passage to Faith. Rails and rail¬ way engines in this direction will assuredly become instruments for the promotion of truth. They will reduce the difficulties that only a few years since impeded the chariot-wheels of the Gospel. They will render long missionary tours cheap and quick. They will increase commercial intercourse with dis¬ tant nations; and as the Chinese buy and sell freely with the outer barbarians from the central islands of the North, they will gradually consider the nature of their faith. When Chris¬ tian communities are established and strengthened in the middle and western parts of America, they will throw out mis¬ sions to Asia on one side, to meet missions from Europe on another. Every step into the regions of seclusion and super¬ stition takes away an obstacle to the progress of truth. Isaiah wrote—40th chap., 4th verse—“Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain —before when? Before the time “when the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it to¬ gether;” towards the end—the period when “ many shall run to and fro on the earth, and knowledge shall be increased.” The prophecy of Isaiah evidently means that all hindrances to the universal acceptance of the Gospel will be removed ; but it is singular to mark its literal fulfilment in a contracted and narrow sense. This figurative language denounces all descrip - tion, and kind, and manner of obstacles to truth’s triumphs. It infers the overthrow of persecuting kings, and pontiffs, and priests—Heathen, Mahomedan, and Romanist—either by their conversion or their destruction; and we have no warrant to seek any other way, except their conversion; for it is every valley that shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill that shall be made low, and every crooked place that will be made straight, and every rough place that will be made plain; RAILS AND RAILWAY ENGINES. 85 but even the figures find their literal fulfilment and represen¬ tation in the means employed to make way for rails and rail¬ way engines. The valley is filled, the mountain is tunnelled, the hill is cut down, old crooked paths are abandoned for straight roads, and where the way was long and rough, it is now short and plain. The means of travelling was the figure used to illustrate the removal of obstacles from the way ; and strange as it would be in any other case, the construction of modern roads literally meets the figure in every part. Nobody denies that Isaiah was a man of genius. Modern poets will not attempt to rival the magnificence of his strains. No mo¬ dern writer would be displeased to be classed a step beneath Isaiah. He was also a man of great general information and wisdom; and yet it can scarcely be supposed that he foresaw, through his own natural intelligence, the manner in which rail¬ ways would be made two thousand five hundred years after his death. He explained the matter in the only intelligent way that can be produced; but his statement involves the cer¬ tainty of God’s rule and special Providence over all events. The British people have colonized forwards for a long pe¬ riod. They will now probably turn backwards. Their great possessions in the Bast, and their rich trade with that quarter of the world, allure them thither. The bravest men of their land have taken infeftment with their blood of the Oriental hill-country. The springs of the Ganges and the Indus are in their hands. These mighty rivers of the East roll through their territory. Their feet are on Asia’s mountains, on the wheat-growing lands of the Punjaub, where they will multiply rapidly. Bails and railway engines will, ere long, intersect the plains of Hindostan. Not many years since British inter¬ course with the Anglo-Indian empire was taken round the African continent. Then the overland route by Alexandria, through Egypt, was again adopted. The expeditions to the 86 RAILS AND RAILWAY ENGINES. Euphrates followed, iu search of still quicker channels of in¬ tercourse. The Pasha of Egypt proposed a railway through his dominions. Others thought that a ship canal should be cut between the Mediterranean and the Eed Sea. While these matters are merely in discussion, a third or fourth plan is pro¬ posed. A line of railway is to start from the Syrian shore of the Mediterranean, passing by Aleppo to the Euphrates, and on the great river’s ” banks, to a point near the Persian Gulf, through part of Persia and Beloochistan, to the banks of the Indus, to India—to Calcutta. The line will be made. The sound of a railway engine’s whistle on the banks of the Eu¬ phrates will awaken strange echoes in men’s minds; but the road to “ Calcutta in twelve days” once made and occupied, will never be relinquished. Sanguine men calculate that travellers from London will yet reach Calcutta in seven days by railway, through the continent of Europe to Constantinople, or a point near that old capital of the Eastern empire, and, passing the classic Bosphorus, find a path to the valley of the Euphrates, and then onwards to the valleys of the Indus and of the Ganges. They calculate reasonably, for half of the line to Constanti¬ nople is made. The road to India was crooked, but it will become straight. And there is no man concerned in the fate of India who laments the small beginnings of teaching yet effected there, and repines at the small staff of missionaries who have been sent to its six score of millions, who may not see how rails and railway engmes will contribute a material increase to the moral forces employed in that vast country on the side of pure Christianity. The absolute monarchies of Eastern Europe make railways for military purposes. They calculate on increased military efficiency to their armies from this new power. They have yet to learn its nature and tendencies. They are all levelling in their character; not indeed by casting down the few, but RAILS AND RAILWAY ENGINES. 87 tlirough tlie more grateful and pleasing process of raising up the many. Railway engines are great revolutionists. They drag a very happy description of equality behind them at a rapid rate. The peasant travels with the celerity of the peer; and after he has practised that for a little while, he may abide the tenant of the peer at a fair rent; but he will not be his serf and property on any terms. Men are God’s pro¬ perty, and they can belong to no other power besides. The peasant travels along with the priest, and the darkness and deceit of priestcraft will suffer by these journies. The Pope and the Propaganda opposed the introduction of railways into the Roman States with that cunning and foresight natural to men who have an interest in mental darkness; for the cheapen¬ ing of travelling is one means of diffusing knowledge and destroying the proscription of books. Passages are not erased from the mind by any search at a custom-house; and heresy, as truth is termed at Rome, may be carried on the memory. The alliance between Classes 5 and 17 in the Exhibition is complete, A line of railway by the borders of Syria, and through the valley of the Euphrates, circling Palestine on the north and the east, is a startling proposal. It undoubtedly offers the shortest and straightest path to India. It will, therefore, be a favourite speculation in that respect; for commercial men look to India as the greatest market for goods which they want to sell, and rare materials which they wish to buy. But a railway through the land of Nimrod, by the spots where Abraham’s herds fed, skirting the homes of patriarch, of prophet, of priest, and apostle, —the scenes of redemption—involves more than commercial convenience. It resembles the first step towards “building the old waste places,” “ raising up the foundation of many genera¬ tions,” “ repairing the breaches,” and “ restoring the paths to dwell in”—Isaiah 58th chapter, 12th verse. Rails and railway engines, are among the latest trophies of 88 RAILS AND RAILWAY ENGINES. science. They are not given exclusively to accumulate sin on one class, or wealth on another. They were contrived to “make the world better, ’ ’ and they will fulfil their destiny. Genius and labour will be elevated in the results of their combina¬ tion. Scripture says, “Behold I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an in¬ strument for his work;” and labour can never be more hon¬ oured than when its products are used to advance freedom and truth—freedom from sin, and truth that saves perpetually. Art is thus made the consecrated helper of Faith. In the dark and dingy workshops from which the bright and power¬ ful products of Class 5 come forth, the strokes of hammers, and the din of forges, are notes of preparation for warfare with the world’s woes. The artizan who fashions them works like the teacher at his desk, the student in his room, the preacher before his audience, or the missionary on his weary way to enlighten the world. The muscles of labour will be strengthened, the nerves will gather new vigour, the man will become stronger, when the artizan feels that every clanging blow is a stroke for truth, helping forward the grand end of peace and righteous¬ ness. He will see himself, even in his hours of hardest toil, converted into a fellow- worker with the noblest minds of his generation. The drudgery of the severest labour is conse¬ crated by considerations of this nature, and they have a sure foundation. They enable the reader to understand more clearly than before the closing verses of Zechariah’s prophecy; for they bring the thoughts to a time when Art and Labour will be entirely employed in consistence with the will of God and the good of men. The Beloved Disciple invited all dis¬ ciples to be “fellow-helpers to the truth” in one way; and every rail and railway-engine maker among the disciples is its “ fellow-helper” in his workshop. AKT AND FAITH, m lEAGMENTS FEOM THE GREAT EXHIBITION. IODINE. Marine plants were, until recently, a neglected race. Many persons remember, indeed, their eager search among rocks, when the tide was out, for young badderlocks, or tangles, and dulse; but unless in retired parts of the country, sea-weeds long suffered from unmerited neglect, partly on account of their name. The farmers on our sea-coast have always used marine weeds for manure; and this employment has, perhaps, contributed to depress the graceful algae in the social scale of plants, although the qualities which render them useful on the land were evidently calculated to produce important results in addition to the heavy crops that cover farmers’ fields within a few miles of a rocky coast. The population on the shores of our islands have been long accustomed to use some species of sea-weed, not generally as an article of food, but as a kind of subordinate, like pickles at dinner. The progress of famine and want in distant districts of Ireland and the Highlands has been measured by the gradual substitution of sea-weed for more nutritious food, until it became the last shift of hungry men. Some kinds of sea-weed may be used as food, without pre-supposing the existence of privation or want. The Icelanders are said to collect and prepare dulse to eat with fish, or boil with rye-flour in milk. Cattle and sheep use it with avidity when they can procure it; and farmers might, perhaps, render dulse more valuable as a nautical substitute for green crops, than for any other purpose. 90 IODINE. Sea-weeds form a numerous order of different plants, with varied characteristics, but in almost every case, beautiful and graceful forms. Their growth is rapid, and their number great. Some of them are almost imperceptible to the clearest eye, unaided by a microscope. The varied qualities of the sea-weed are not distinctly known. For agricultural, com¬ mercial, and even medicinal purposes, they have been hitherto used, in heaps, as they were thrown to the shore in vraik by the ocean. No doubt, however, can be entertained that their forms do not differ wider than their qualities, although they have not been sufficiently studied for the purpose of definite classification. Some descriptions yield far higher proportions of chemical products, and are necessarily more valuable than others for chemical purposes. Sea-weed is used as fuel in the Channel Islands; as food for man in Iceland; as food, occasion¬ ally, for man and beast in many districts of our islands; as ma¬ nure for our fields; as medicine for the sick; and as a valuable material in chemical preparations. Notwithstanding the varied purposes for which it is now employed, its utility is not yet exhausted. God has clothed even the wildernesses of the earth with beauty and verdure; and He has not forgotten the vast plains of the ocean. Sea-weeds cover its surface in some places for many hundred miles. They clothe innumerable acres of the ocean’s bed. Their beauty is hidden from mortal eyes; but the submarine forests and jungles are thronged with living beings. “ Animated nature” rejoices in the “ inanimate,” for the beneficence of the Creator is not confined to man alone, but extends to the minor creatures—104th Psalm, 147th Psalm, 9th verse. He who clothes the grass in its green mantle, and the lilies of the field in their garment of many dyes—Matthew, 6th chapter, 29th verse—also plants the marine forests. He forms the sea-weed in their graceful and almost matchless shapes; He renders them the homes of millions of little beings IODINE. 91 which enjoy life for a season amid the fields, fertile to them, in the recesses of the ocean; and He also endows each separate “ genus” with qualities useful to man; who has not yet dis¬ covered all that will be learned of the once despised, and still almost unknown, “ algae.” There are men whose boyhood was passed within sight of the ocean, beside its rocky banks, where steep cliffs rose high out of its waters, and defied their strength. They may remember calm evenings and clear mornings passed among those very rocks, searching for one kind of sea-weed, and the little waves playfully casting the long green threads of another plant around them. They traced the popular name of one valuable species to the verb “ entangle,” from its habits. In one sense it entangles and surrounds men with mercies. Its roots are sweet to the palate of the young; its branches are food for cattle or sheep. In some parts of the earth it is used for fuel; in others for thatch; in all for manure; in nearly all for medicinal purposes; and wherever chemistry is followed as a profession, in scientific productions. Men from the coast will remember how they wondered in what way the thick crop of marine herbs that made the grey hard rocks seem fresh and green, and even young, had any nourishment, for they had no earth; and by what means God clothed with beauty and loveli¬ ness the debateable border between land and water. The algae have thus been entwined round pleasant spots in memory ; and many readers rejoiced to see them noticed in a favourable manner, and ranked high amongst the wonders of creation in scientific works; but especially in the eloquent and popular volume, written by Dr. Landsborough, which gives the sea-weed deservedly a good name among strangers, and looks like an old friend to those who could have pulled the Laminaria Saccharina within a hundred yards of their birthplace. A walk in the che¬ mical department at the Exhibition must be still more pleasing to persons of this class, for they will meet in several contribu- n IODINE. tions the comparatively new substance, “ iodine,” in very small quantities, and of extremely beautiful appearance. “ Iodine” is shown in small bottles, and consists of remarkably fine and small chemical crystals, which, in a collective form, have a brilliant appearance, tinged with brown or red. Iodine, like many of the prettiest English words, is derived from the Greek language, and originates in the purple or violet colour of this substance under heat. The name is necessarily new, because the article itself, although not younger than the world, is not yet forty years known to mankind. A friend of the algm could desire no better punishment for Horace, who was a very clever poet, but, in this department, a very bad naturalist, than to take him to the Exhibition and write his own words, “ in- utiles Algee” on a bottle of iodine. If one of the chemists who preside over the transformation of the algee were to enjoy Dante’s privilege of a few hours’ conversation with the shade of Yirgil, the ploughman-poet of the Italians would be con¬ vinced that he did not fully understand his subject when he wrote Alga projecta vilior for iodine was recently worth one-fourth of its weight in gold; and is even yet worth double or treble its weight in silver. Iodine was accidentally dis¬ covered by M. Courtois, a Parisian chemist, in the year 1813. He employed the algm in some of his productions, and must have placed considerable value on the sea-weed, when he con¬ veyed it to Paris, which is far from the rocks and the sea-coast, for manufacture. The accident rendered it still more valu¬ able than it had been previously considered, although a num¬ ber of years elapsed before it came into general honour. M. Lugol, of Paris, was the first medical man who introduced it into liis practice. This gentleman employed it with great success in scrofulous diseases, at the hospital of St. Louis, in Paris. It has since been used with equal success in rheu¬ matic diseases. The Swiss employ it in goitre, which is com- IODINE. 98 mon in the Alpine regions. Mr. Aston Key, of Guy’s Hos¬ pital, considered it “ a powerful stimulant and tonic.'’ Iodine is invariably used in combination with some other substance. It is employed as an antidote to several poisons, in its native form; although in that condition it is also a very active poison. Its application has been recommended in the form of “ iodu- retted baths," to scrofulous patients. It has been frequently employed as a substitute for mercury; but the medicinal de¬ mand for the article springs chiefly from its action as an ab- sorpent, and the aid rendered by it in rheumatic diseases. Iodine forms part of many vegetable substances. It is said to exist in everything in very minute quantities; but it can be most profitably extracted from sea-weeds. The algae, probably, gained the medicinal character ascribed to them from this element. One chemist in London, Mr Coles, has recently advertised and sold a preparation under the title “ Algse." It is chiefly employed in rheumatic affections, and probably owes its virtue to the iodine which is exhi'- bited in beautiful crystals by the Glasgow chemists. The sea-weeds are collected chiefly on the rocky shores of the Scottish coasts and islands, and the north-western shores of Ireland. Although Horace despised them, yet many High¬ land and Insular chieftains found in them the principal source of their revenue. There are two descriptions of algae used for the purposes of manufacture. The first is cut periodically from the rocks within the tide, much like any other crop. The second is thrown in during storms from the deep sea. The most valuable algae grow in the deepest waters, and are torn from their birthplaces by violent storms; as we find often that the highest characters are matured by the severest discipline. Chemists give more money for the deep-sea algae, because they can extract greater value from them than from the growth of shallow water, quietly cut down in their ripened state; but in- 94 IODI>E. termediate processes occur between the algse and the chemists. The landowners of the North and West erected kilns, and let out the product of the ocean to their tenantry. They often cleared inland districts, and located the cottiers amongst the rocks; trusting to the algae for the support of the tenant in poverty, and of the landowner in luxury. The weeds were cut from the rocks, or gathered on the beach, and left in heaps beyond the water’s edge, at its highest tides, to dry. After some time passed in this process they were removed to kilns and burned, until the mass was run into solid lumps of differ¬ ent sizes, and a greyish appearance, brittle in substance, and salt in taste. This was kelp, a staple commodity in the High¬ lands for a long period. The manufacture was protected by a high duty on barilla ; but that was repealed many years ago, at the request of parties engaged in various manufactures in which kelp was employed. They preferred barilla for their purposes, at its commercial price, and the kelp trade was greatly depressed by the change. Many Highland proprietors and tenants entirely abandoned its production. Either it did not repay their cost, or they found other trades more profitable. Many proprietors sold their land, and numbers of the tenantry abandoned their farms on account of this change, which has helped to depopulate several Highland and Insular parishes. Barilla has been subsequently displaced by another agent; and kelp has again partially recovered its former rank. The im¬ ports into Glasgow during 1850 were 12,000 tons, from the Highlands of Scotland, and from Ireland. They brought £2 10s. to £3 10s. per ton. The variation in price was caused prin¬ cipally by the character of the goods, for some parcels were pre¬ pared with less care than others; and buyers were sometimes cheated by mixtures. Kelp was chiefiy employed as an alkali in glass and soap manufactories. Barilla being found more profitable, the people of the Highlands and the Isles were cast IODINE. 95 Bcarly as the ocean throws the algse, like weeds and wrecks, from their country. The farms previously cultivated by them, or by their fathers, had been concentrated into a few wide sheep walks. The common sin of adding field to field, that a few rich men might dwell alone, left them no home in their own land after the ocean’s crops became valueless in the market. The deportation of unwilling emigrants was conducted on a cruel scale, and large tracts of land were converted into wildernesses. And yet, although this middle passage was bitter and trying, the end to many has been good. Independence has grown up in fields watered by sorrow, and the failure of the kelp trade scattered the kelp burners and their gatherers over a large surface of the world, to redeem greater wastes than those that they left behind them, when driven, like banished men, from the homes of their hearts. Kelp is again rising in value. Art • finds once more employment for the algaa. The imports of Glasgow in 1850 may have been worth £36,000. The value of the material was small, but the price of its products must have been great; for they form a creditable part of the chemical department of this Exhibition. The kelp-kilns turned out a dark grey product in large and hard masses, like bowlders, con¬ taining a large proportion of the salts of soda and potash. It is also the chief source of iodine. At the chemical works where kelp is used, it is first broken into smaller pieces than those delivered from the kilns; and is then put into caves, as the large “troughs” are technically termed, where it is steeped for eight or ten days, occasionally under boiling, and sometimes under cold water. The caves vary in size, and contain from two to six tons, but their average capacity is probably three tons. The liquid yielded by this process is run from the caves into boilers placed on furnaces, and exposed to a great heat, during whieh it evaporates salts of potash. It is afterwards placed in coolers, where it yields crops or crystals 96 IODINE. known as the muriate of potash, and used in various chemical productions. These processes are continued until the principal part of the salts is removed, and put into a commercial shape. All the operations have a wild appearance, except the affair in the coolers, which is a beautiful and calm business. The re¬ maining liquor is placed in a still, where the iodine contained in it is separated from the other parts and passes into con¬ densers. Its appearance is that of an intensely beautiful vapour, inclining sometimes to a rich purple. The fumes would form splendid colouring if the dye could be fixed, but that has never been effected. Their great beauty lasts only while they are ex¬ posed to heat; and although in its commercial form, as shown at the Exhibition, iodine is one of the most interesting chemical preparations, yet its richest shades of colouring, which trans- ‘ cend the rainbow’s tints, only appear while it is in the furnace, as the dolphin’s varied hues are said to be deepest, and the music of the swan proverbially matchless, in the hour of pain and parting with life. The history of the iodine, like that of silver, illustrates the fact, that all moral discipline is mirrored in ma¬ terial changes. The sorrows which are made instrumental in changing, purifying, and strengthening the mind, correspond with the plans adopted for the attainment of parallel objects in matter, so far as material can correspond with mental opera¬ tions. Men require to adopt with matter a course which they think unintelligible when their Maker takes it with them, although consistent with their own daily practice. The algee were deemed useless by one Latin poet, and vile by another, while they have been generally contemned and neglected; yet they can minister to the wants of men in many departments. They enrich their land, feed their cattle; are covering, and food, and fuel, to many. They afford medicine to the diseased, and furnish several of the most necessary che¬ mical products. The residuum of kelp, after its more produc- I0DIKI5. 97 ti7e parts have been separated in the caves of the chemical work, are removed to the glasshouse, and there turned to valuable account. A second and third class of products are obtained from the liquor drained out of these caves, after it has passed through the boilers and the coolers; and the fourth, the most precious, from the still. The gradation exhibited in these proceedings deserves 'attention. The least valuable product of the burned and combined algse goes off to the glasshouse from the caves, with compara¬ tively little trouble. The medium products are educed by subsequent and still more powerful and trying operations. The highest of the various products requires a fourth, a more powerful, and a more terrible trial to draw it off in vapour to the condensers. The purple-coloured fumes crystalise in the condensers; and it may be a fanciful adaptation of appearances, yet, to us, these crystals of the algae seem to re-assume the graceful forms in the condenser which they originally bore on their native rocks; but the crystals are brittle, and their shape is consequently often destroyed in removing them from the sides of the vessels, to which they have most gracefully attached themselves during crystalisation. The brilliant turns in the dis¬ posal and fate of the sea-weeds—which, from the least regarded of raw material, become one of the most costly of artificial products shown in this Crystal Palace—may, and will, have their parallels in the changes and the wants of the moral world. The import of kelp into Glasgow in the year 1850, was 12,000 tons; and its value was probably no more than £36,000 to £40,000. The manufacture of iodine is a costly process; and the kelp sold in Glasgow is not, perhaps, all used in the way cal¬ culated to educe it. If the iodine-works consumed the entire import, the produce of that article alone must have been 60,000 oz.; worth the cost of all the raw material, leaving 9B IODINE. other products to discharge the operative expenses. Iodine is not solely employed for medicinal purposes. This volatile agent is necessary in the production of those accurate draw¬ ings which the sun instantaneously sketches; and the “ vile algae” are directly employed in the most graceful and pleas¬ ing of modern arts. Iodine may cure or kill—it is a medicine or a poison; but it is always beautiful—not dissimilar to the knowledge which men acquire with great pains and research; for it may destroy or save, and yet it also is always beautiful. The algae yield a small quantity of this singular product, for only a small quantity is required; and heavier returns of muriate of potash, and other products which are requisite in larger supplies for the comfort of mankind ; still preserving a resemblance to the mental world, from which care and cul¬ ture will elicit only a small quantity of the iodine of genius, for but a small proportion is needed; while the mental muri¬ ate is more abundant, only because adaptation for common pursuits is more necessary, as the creation of the iodine is not more wonderful than that of the muriate. The algae in the ocean, like the minerals in the earth, illus¬ trate the position of races of mankind, and of individual men. The character bestowed on the algae by Horace has been pronounced over entire branches of the human family by their brethren. Literary and scientific men have employed their knowledge and talent to prove the abject incapacity of some sections of mankind to assume a creditable and useful posi¬ tion among neighbouring nations. The doctrine of progress has been directed on the natural capabilities of men, in order to prove that the Negro race are on their way between ape- hood and manhood; and that the Caucassian family are only a few stages in advance of the original Australians. We admit the apparent humility without adopting the accuracy of this reasoning. It does not assume a high origin for the human IODINE. 99 family; but it repudiates their universal connection. Under the cloak of humility it conceals pride of birth, and intellect, and wealth, which engender inhdelity. It asserts an opinion which would extract the sting from the guilt of slave-holding. Denying the common fraternity of mankind, it rejects their common responsibility. Many lives are pronounced useless, because their purpose has not been ascertained or perceived; but no life originates and passes out of time without its mission, as no plant grows and withers on the earth above, or in the water beneath, without bearing benefits to mankind, if we could comprehend and under¬ stand them. Men, in this most civilised and nominally Chris¬ tian land, deal with other men as if they stood lower in their estimation than the algae in that of the Italian poets’. This Exhibition year has witnessed many cases illustrative of that fact. A trial for manslaughter occurred in Ireland; the ac¬ cused were husband and wife. They were the uncle and aunt of the slain child; for, although the charge was in the class of “manslaughter,” they had aided only to destroy their nephew —and he was a bad little boy. They lived upon the estate of a very wealthy peer, who is a member of the British Govern¬ ment ; who has proclaimed in Parliament, during this year, the extent of our national prosperity, and who found in this Exhibition evidence of our civilisation, and of the diffusion of happiness among all classes. This nobleman, or his substi¬ tute, had issued orders that no lodgers should be kept by any tenant on his estate, for lodgers may acquire a settlement under the Poor-law, and become costly. Por the same reason, and in a similar spirit, many other landowners have proscribed the division of farms, and issued other orders not quite so justifiable. The husband and wife, uncle and aunt, were lodgers, notwithstanding this rule; but their little nephew was pecu¬ liarly proscribed—for he was a thief. He was also an orphan, 100 Iodine. twelve years of age, wlio lived with, his grandmother until her death, but had no home afterwards. He wandered from place to place, begging occasionally, and he stole a hen. Perhaps he may have stolen more than this hen; for it does not seem that any person taught him to read “ Thou shalt not steal,” or told him by whom, and from whence, that order was issued. The authorities, therefore, determined to hunt him from the estate, and issued particular orders regarding his persecution. He came helpless, trembling, and weak, to seek shelter for a night from his nearest relatives. His aunt struck him down with a heavy fork-handle. His uncle beat him with ropes; tied his hands together; and left him on the ground. The poor wearied boy crawled to several doors; but he was with more or less cruelty turned from them all. One family exhi¬ bited a savage humanity by endeavouring to thrust him into the house where his uncle and aunt slept, and fighting des¬ perately for that purpose. They were defeated. The landlord and his lodgers kept the pass against the dying child and his strange friends; but the wanderer was still farther injured and wounded in the affray. He was left on the road bleeding, bruised, and tied. One female witness looked out and ob¬ served him struggling to carry his little bound hands to his eyes and his forehead. She had not the female heart that would have induced her to untie the cords. That struggle was the last which this wicked boy Dennis Shea made on the earth. At morning, his body was found stark and stiff, bent against a stone wall. Justice then asserted its claim. The uncle and aunt were condemned, after a trial in an Irish court, and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment; but they were not the only guilty parties. They were placed under a temptation which they were unable to withstand. Some men will blame the proprietor of the estate, or his servants, on account of the orders issued by them. The owner of the property is a humane IODINE. 101 man, wlio deserves less blame than compassion, for he also is placed under great temptation. He is apparently held re¬ sponsible for actions of which he knows nothing, and rules that he cannot understand. The temptation of large pro¬ perty is not the smallest or the weakest to which a man may be subjected. The brutality of the neighbours, and the cruelty of the relatives of this poor boy, evince a wretched state of feeling; but not much less wretched is that general feeling of the community which tolerates the possibility of this de¬ scription of homicide by way of self-preservation. While this small tragedy was progressing, people were reasoning in Par¬ liament and public places on the assumption that ours is a I Christian country. The name is but partially deserved. Chris- I tianity will form the laws of a Christian country, and does ' not yet entirely pervade our legislation, or we should feed and reclaim before we punished by law. A London police court was occupied with a case different :l in some, and similar in other, features, nearly at the time when 5 the manslaughter of Dennis Shea was under consideration in j an Irish court. A mother was examined on the charge of ij throwing her little boy out of a window. The child was only jl seven or eight years old. The mother was an abandoned i drunkard. And the window was on the third flat from the I ground. The mother had ordered her child to take off his I boots, that she might sell them to obtain gin with the pro¬ ceeds. The boy refused, and resisted, from some knowledge of her purpose. In drunken anger and revenge she cast him out of the window; but he was preserved from the destruction that the crime almost insured. These cases involved crimi¬ nal conduct against the law; and came under the cognizance of the magistrates, or their subordinates. Thousands of cases, similar in character, if not in degree, occur daily, and few con¬ sider them. Our islands contain a multitude of neglected chil- 102 IODINE. dren, whose moral or physical life is destroyed before the eyes of Christian men. The children of the Sepharvites, who were sacrificed by fire to Adrainmelech and Anammelech—although that people, in their own way, nevertheless, worshipped the Lord—Second Kings, 17th chapter, 31st and 32d verses—were destroyed with less cruelty than many of the sons and daughters of Britain. The car of Juggernaut, or the waters of the Ganges, are milder agents of destruction than the neglect experienced by multitudes of children ill this land. They grow up viler than the useless algae were once deemed. They are cast out as the ocean throws away part of its vast productions, to waste in circumstances alien from their habits, and on shores distant from their old homes. But nothing is lost. The despised, the neglected, the spurned, and even the wicked, have been made the foundations of great states. The plan¬ tations which, two centuries ago, were tilled by banished and branded men and boys, form now the greatest Uepublic of the world. The colonies that within twenty or thirty years implored more importations of Britain’s outcasts, are now strong and wilful states, which reject our social refuse; and politicians at last admit the necessity of training the weeds of the community into use at home. Politicians are not, generally, the first part of the community to perceive the necessity of this class of reforms. Half a century has passed since casual efforts for the instruction of the neglected and the young were commenced. They have been conducted with great success towards the neglected; but they failed to raise the abandoned or the perverted, for they provided nei¬ ther food nor shelter for them. The industrial schools for the young have partially occupied this blank. In England they are known generally as ragged schools, a name more calculated to excite morbid sympathy than to insure the use¬ fulness of these institutions. Their original name is incom- IODINE. 103 parably preferable to this substitute, for industry is always com¬ mendable, but rags are seldom creditable to the wearer. Mr Watson, the Sheriff of Aberdeenshire, brought these institu¬ tions first into a state of active usefulness. That gentleman was required, in his magisterial capacity, to send many juve¬ nile thieves to jail for limited periods, and he met the same children so frequently in similar circumstances, that he began to think it might be cheaper, and certainly would be better, to teach them to work, and feed them while learning, than to punish those for stealing who were never taught to be honest. He established schools where the scholars were taught to read, to write, and to work; and amused, partially clothed, and entirely fed, in return for submitting to receive instruc¬ tion. These schools have been extensively, but not sufficiently, imitated. They cost money, which cannot be easily procured for purposes of this kind. All the outlay necessary for pun¬ ishment can be obtained, but it is a different matter when money is sought for instruction and restraint; which are the only means to reform the algse of society profitably. All the evil epithets heaped on the algae of the ocean by Home’s poets are levelled at them; but they would produce the iodine of genius and the salts of life, if they were rightly handled. We have not written a bitter word concerning the rich man on whose estate Dennis Shea was slaughtered; but once there was, in the far east, another magnate of another land, rich also; wise and honoured, and whose example the great men of our western land might wisely copy. This was his way; “ I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him”—young Idumeans, we may sup¬ pose, in the orphaned state of Dennis Shea. But their case was by some means presented to him; perhaps he was requested to subscribe for their support, or his factors reported their des¬ titution, or some plan of that kind was adopted. These explana- 104 IODINE. tions appear to be incorrect, for be says further on—“ I was a father to the poor, and the cause which I knew not I searched out ” Then, probably, this was a gentleman, or even a nobleman living on his property, and not bestowing his talents on his country for a return of so many thousands annually, scarcely sufficient to pay the additional expenses incurred by statesmen! Even that supposition seems to be inaccurate; for we are told that in his presence “ the princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth; the nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.” He belonged to the National Council, therefore, and may have been its President; but then he cannot have taken time to promote the fine arts, to pursue science, and to study the various products of the forge and the loom, as it has been fashionable to do in this Exhibition season. The only answer that can be given is, that he was intimately conversant with mining operations, and with natural history; but his attain¬ ments in these departments are stated in the Book of Job; and his opinion regarding the duty of the nobles and princes of the land—the order to which he belonged in his own age and country—towards industrial schools, and the poor generally, will be found in the 35th chapter of the venerable work from which we have quoted—perhaps the oldest literary production in the world. The number of rich people in society is comparatively small, and censures on their omissions, or remarks on their re¬ sponsibilities, are proportionately popular; but the poorest apparently can assist the poor, and are expected to discharge that duty. One of the female witnesses on the trial into the causes of Dennis Shea’s death observed from her window, when the fight was over, the miserable child striving vainly to lift his bandaged hands to his aching eyes and troubled head. She noticed that struggle of life with death in the small IODINE. 105 bruised body left on tbe cold road, and she went to sleep. "UTien she looked out next the little body lay cold and stiff against a stone-wall, which the child had struggled to reach before death, and on which he died. Thus the great Irish estate was freed from that bad boy, whose father and mother died while he was an infant, and who had no home after the death of his old grandmother, but who stole a hen in his wan¬ derings. It was then too late to “ give this little one a cup of cold water,”—and so a great reward was missed; for in Matthew, 10th chap., 4!2d verse, the following statement is made:—‘^And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily, I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.” The reward in this case, therefore, is not won; something i that might have been obtained is lost; but no penalty is in¬ curred, no new difficulty is created; Dennis Shea's death left all parties exactly where they were before its occurrence. That would form ingenious reasoning from the passage quoted, 1 when taken alone and isolated; but there are still more ter- I rible words to quote out of the same book—25 th chap., from ij the 32d verse to the end—and especially, “ For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink ; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; ! naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and j ye visited me not.” And then to the plea, “ not guilty,” i founded on absence of opportunity, this is the answer:—“ In- i asmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it I not to me.” A punishment is incurred in this case, and pro- ' mulgated in the terrible “ Depart from me;” of which there I can be no evasion, for He can perform who has proposed; : and has said—24th chap., 35th verse—“ Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” Nice distinctions are drawn by critical persons regarding these P 3 106 IODINE. passages. They apply them exclusively to “the disciples,” and they would say that the boy who stole a heu was not a disciple, was not one of “ these little ones,” not even one of “the least” among them. This explanation leaves the risk of deplorable errors. It might be possible, as “ the father¬ less” are objects of “ peculiar promises,” that they are cast in a particular manner over on “the disciples;” and that the neglect of this trust, by those who deem themselves disciples, is a particularly obnoxious crime, forming a case of baneful ingratitude, and an open disregard for the honour of the Taith. The theft of a hen by an orphaned boy, twelve years old, an outcast in his own parish, an alien in his own land, must be a solemn crime indeed, if it excludes him from the regards of those who confess great criminality, and expect great forgiveness. A highly respectable man, who has ac¬ quired a fortune by clever misrepresentations, may be a much worse subject than the thief of the hen. “ Judge not, that ye be not judged,” is an excellent rule, and a merciful one to¬ wards all classes; but particularly the young, the ignorant, the starving, and the unwarned. The passage does not ne¬ cessarily imply that those only who are disciples deserve as¬ sistance ; but it does imply that it is to be given in the name or in the spirit of “ Discipleship.” Dennis Shea’s death was accompanied by circumstances of peculiar barbarity; but oc¬ currences resembling it in tlieir main features are unhappily common. A vast multitude of children are allowed to pre¬ pare themselves for punishment, without any exertion to put them on a safer course. A person who could carelessly pass a little child in the way to danger, and permit its life to be crushed out beneath the wheels of a heavy waggon, rather than step a few paces out of his walk to ensure its safety, would deserve the severest censure. The same reproach is merited by those who allow the outcasts of society to be heaped upon the IODINE. 107 shore, or tossed among the rocks of life without any effort for their deliverance. They see them doomed to an early death, or a life of profligacy and shame. They confess their capabilities for great moral progress. They know the magnitude of the hazard, and they quietly pass on their way, like the Levite or the Priest, willing not only that the child should fall among thieves on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem, but that it should remain for ever among them, and never reach “the Jerusalem” in any pre* dicament—either bruised, faint, or wearied. That is not Chris¬ tian practice. It is the body of infidelity under a borrowed or stolen cloak, which fits badly. The chemists who extract from { the algse valuable products, and render all their qualities subser- ' vient to the public good, employ expensive instruments. They could not effect their objects without making a liberal outlay. ; They embark capital in their business under the conviction that it will grow there, and they are not often disappointed. The ca¬ pital increases in accomplishing its object. Dealings with the algae of society have unfortunately been undertaken in a differ- ; ent spirit. Those monastic institutions which disfigure the land I are exceptions to that rule, but they are founded on principles ! directly opposed to those of the industrial schools and mission- j ary institutions. They propose to fit our youth for the battle ' of life by exclusion from the world, as if a fish-pond were the best school for juvenile sailors. Industrial schools proceed on I a different basis. The plan suggested by the Sheriff of Aber- j deenshire and his friends has not been improved. They charged no fee but they supplied food, and clothes in extreme cases, with the means of intellectual, mechanical, moral, and religious training in the branches taught by them. They also pro- I cured amusement and encouragement for the juvenile beggars and thieves, and those in danger of falling into those classes, whom they congregated. They did not provide sleeping apart¬ ments, except in an extreme case resembling Dennis Shea’s; 108 IODINE. and the failure of the seheme was predicted from this omis¬ sion. They pled, in answer to the assertion that the children would return dirty, an abundance of water in the school; to the opinion that their morals would be corrupted, the proba¬ bility of their exerting some counter influence over those who were expected to misguide them ; and the general result has confirmed these views. The balance is favourable to the family system, even under the most disadvantageous circum¬ stances. The present generation should not be censured as station¬ ary or retrogressive in their habits. Schools of this character have been commenced in many different quarters. Yisitors to the Exhibition have been charmed by the quality of the needle-work produced in some institutions of this nature esta¬ blished in Connaught. Neglected children have shown a commendable and encouraging desire to labour for their bread wherever an opportunity was afforded to them. The London Exhibition not only contained evidence of this nature, but out of doors the proofs are scattered over the corners of the metropolitan streets. Little boys in red coats—prosperous in dark and dirty days, and only suffering when the sun shines brightly and all the other industrious classes are happy— clean boots in order to reach Australia with the proceeds. They prefer this life to the pauperism or crime whicli formed once their only way to bread. Progress has been made in the reclamation of the neglected or the vicious, but the move¬ ment is slow, and necessarily must be slow, from the weak¬ ness of the agencies employed in its advancement. Some months ago, a society in Edinburgh intimated by public advertisement, their desire to engage two Home mis¬ sionaries. They mentioned the salary proposed for this work— namely, to unmarried persons, £45, and to married £55 per annum. The terms are a standing reproach on their honesty IODINE, 109 or their prudence. A city missionary cannot possibly be fairly paid by £45 per annum. The money may be too great or too small; but it cannot be the correct amount. The missionary who is worth no more than £45 per annum, is not worth that sum; he is not worth £40, £30, £20, or even £10. It is doubtful if he is worth anything. The committee of this so¬ ciety are probably men in business ; but they would not offer that wages to the person whom they employed to canvass for orders, although, in their opinion, it should bring a man per¬ fectly competent to canvass for souls. Yirtue is truly its own reward, and had need to be so; since its payment in money is a miserable guerdon for energy, time, and watchful¬ ness, expended among the base and the vicious, the lost, and the wretched. The proprietor of a chemical work would never make iodine on this cheap system. He must either be thoroughly conversant with the business, and superintend it personally, or he must pay a proportionate price for the ne¬ cessary skiU and talent; otherwise the algse would never be turned into a profitable use, and his capital would be in vain expecded. The promoters of Home Missions certainly find hard-working men for their money. They find men whose heart is in the business, and who look for a higher reward than any afforded in time. That circumstance does not in¬ validate the assertion that these men are inadequately re¬ warded ; and a strange excuse it is for paying them a less annual salary than the butler, coachman, or footman receives in any of the homes from which the City Mission has an an¬ nual subscription of five guineas. The finest cottage in the City Hoad, London, although a private dwelling, bears its proprietor’s name. A few hundred yards farther on his place of business is open on Sabbath afternoons. It is a house notorious for evil. Very few for¬ tunes have been built up, according to common report, on a 110 IODINE. wider foundation of ruined bodies and souls than the fortunes of that house. It certainly has drawn around it a deplorable collection of smaller houses, undeniably inhabited by persons ruined alike for time and eternity. At the opening of one of the streets, between this private residence and public place for business, on a recent Sabbath, a man in middle life was preach¬ ing in the open air. He had gathered a considerable congre¬ gation of passengers, and was endeavouring to transform the algse; to make salts or iodine from weeds. The audienee were unacquainted with the preacher. He had apparently no wish to be known; but a single glance satisfied us that he was neither professionally a minister nor a missionary. We remembered the man—an excellent scholar—endowed with large intellectual powers; who had devoted a great portion of his means and time to benevolent purposes; but we are perfectly certain that he had no such home as the great publican. The name of the one man, ignorant of anything more important to know than the price of gin or the quality of Havannah cigars, is good for many thousands in any London bank. The preacher's name never had, to our knowledge, a pecuniary value in any part of the world. Let a man only act vigorously for a dozen or a score of years the part of Devil’s jackall, and he will be respectable! Let him devote time and more than ordinary assiduity, with considerable talents, in an opposite direc* tion, and he will most probably remain poor. The explana¬ tion given daily is, that the one person has and the other has not his portion in this present life. The reply is quite correct, but we employ it to prove another fact. Talkers and writers who are entangled in infidel and socialist opinions charge Christianity with the present condition of the world. Robert Owen and his followers always assert the present miseries of life as an argument against the Christian faith. For these miseries Christianity is no more responsible than IODINE. Ill chemistry for the neglected state of the algae. Apply chemistry to the sea weeds tossed by the ocean’s storms on the island beach, and they afford most valuable products, crowned by the iodine as the purest of all. Apply Christianity to mankind, and the millenium of Art and Faith—the peace on earth and the happiness of eternity—will be produced; but the prosperity of persons obviously engaged in creating misery forms unde¬ niable evidence that Christianity is not yet the most powerful influence in society. This country is more pervaded by the Chris, tian faith, and contains a greater number of its sincere disciples than any other, but when we call it a “ Christian country” we expose that faith to the attacks already mentioned; founded, as they are, on the false assumption which we thus certify and endorse. The majority of the people profess, but only a small minority work, this religion. The beautiful diamond and jewellery case belonging to the Queen of Spain in the east¬ ern division of the Exhibition, formed to visitors one of the most attractive objects in the Crystal Palace. The Spanish monarch evinced great courtesy and kindness in forwarding her splendid collection of jewels for the gratification of mil¬ lions of persons to whom she is unknown. An extreme sen¬ sation would have been evinced in this country if the jewels had been lost on the route from Madrid, or stolen after their arrival in London. And yet the little boy tossed out of the three pair of stairs’ window by a drunken mother was of more value than the jewels of Spain; but the crime excited very little sensation in or out of the metropolis. The fall may form the crisis in the boy’s fate. He may be brought into favourable training through this apparent calamity. He is not the criminal in the case; but there is a criminal. The conduct of his drunken mother evinced the most hardened depravity, and formed a terrible example of the power of gin. She may be condemned, despised, and punished; but there is 112 IODINE. an immortal soul involved in the history. Many persons must consider this woman lost without a mental transformation not yet apparent; hut the lost are legion, and each individual causes little attention. The Spanish jewels, the Koh-i-noor, the ad¬ mirable collection in the Crystal Palace, the bullion in the bank, the fee-simple of Bathurst, of California, or the Ural Mountains, according to Scripture, would form a cheap ran¬ som for this single soul. What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? But souls are not regarded in that light. A greater sensation would be created in London by the theft of the great Punjaub diamond than by the apparent loss of a hundred souls. Christians have not, there¬ fore, as yet rationally realised their own faith. They have not caught an intelligent grasp of their own creed. A vast num¬ ber of persons use the name, and probably mean to use it fairly; but their dead assent to the doctrine that a single soul is more valuable than the world, leads them into the irrational payment of £45 per annum to a home missionary—the twen¬ tieth part of the sum paid to the muhsters of punishment. Let any considerable number of professing Christians act out the intelligent and rational reading of their creed, in any dis¬ trict, for a few years, and they must collect the weeds of society into heaps, as the ocean’s wrecks are gathered for the chemist. They must employ means to convert them from their “ useless” and “ vde” condition into one of honour and profit. They must do such work as will vindicate their system from the aspersion of leaving the world spotted thickly with crimes, and miseries, and pauperism; and they must do all that labour as if its success depended entirely on their energ}^, for iodine is extracted only by the skilful work of those who could not incorporate it vdth the other materials of the algm, and help is promised not to indolence but to labour. AET AND FAITH, IN FRAGMENTS FROM THE GREAT EXHIBITION. THE FOISOI^ZSD AIR. Pure d,nd untainted air forms one of tlie greatest mercies that men need, and receive. “The air we breathe” is so continuously associated with life, so cheap and so plentiful, that people are apt even to forget its existence. They breatlie from their birth to their death without reflecting that a slight change in the state of the atmosphere would transform it from the means of life to the cause of death. Pood and fuel, houses and raiment, are all proceeds of creative and providen¬ tial power; yet human industry has something to do in fashioning and forming them. Men work for them. They cost labour and toil. Their value is thus, in one sense, im¬ pressed on men’s minds. Air is different altogether in its universal necessity and prevalence. Animals do not always, or often, eat; but they perpetually consume air. Men change the form of food, and improve its qualities; but they often injure the air, and have done little for its improvement. Mea¬ sures taken in that direction seek only its restoration to its natural state. Our inability to improve nature materially in this instance indicates the extent of the mercy conferred. Its abundance is another evidence of kindness in creation. It is essential to existence, and some parties may say that the world could not exist without it; but food is equally essential to a lengthened existence; and yet we work to eat, while we breathe to work. The curse recorded in Genesis, 3d chap., 17th verse, would have been destruc¬ tion to all living beings if it had fallen on the “ air we G 114 THE POISONED AIR. breathe” as it fell upon the earth we till. Man could not have laboured to earn that which was momentarily necessary for the continuance of his existence; but the supply might have been smaller than he has received. He might have been placed, in respect to this matter, on more limited rations than have been supplied. The world might have been left midway be¬ tween its present state and that of the Black Hole of Calcutta, when crowded with prisoners. The abundance of this price¬ less and universal gift certainly cannot palliate ingratitude re- spec ting it amongst informed men. The infancy of life, or the infancy of the mind when the body has existed for years, may overlook great blessings, because they are common; but in an educated community that tendency should be corrected. Although men seldom make the atmosphere purer than they find it, for their daily and ordinary use, yet in various processes, and often through negligence, they have made it worse without any absolute necessity. The modern alliance between benevolence and science has exposed many common errors which injure the quality of air, and render the sad fact indisputable, that we breathe poisoned air in many cir¬ cumstances and places. Practical experience has long shown the advantages derived from a change of air by persons in declining health, or of weak constitution, whose business re¬ tained them in crowded localities. Change of residence is not, however, always judiciously made. An escape from the polluted air of great cities does not necessarily infer im¬ provement. Sierra Leone is not an over-crowded locality, but its warm atmosphere is often charged with poisonous miasma. The solitary forests of America are not overpeopled, but the air is tainted, and the earlier pioneers of cultivation breathe disease. The valleys of Switzerland are deep gorges between huge mountains, with a small cottage, a solitary farm-house, or a trifling village, scattered here and there amid wild scenery. THE POISONED AIU. 115 yet the air is often more dangerously polluted than in the centre of our populous cities. In our own country the vicinity of fens and morasses is considered unhealthy to those who have not been from infancy accustomed to breathe their moist and polluted atmosphere. Cultivation in earlier ages had evidently extended to the high lands and ridges of the country; but some persons allege, with apparent truth, that our ancestors, taught by bitter experience, abandoned the superior soils, of low and undrained localities, and confined their exertions to the colder and poorer, but dryer soils on the “brae-sides” and in elevated positions, to secure better air and more robust health than they would have found in the valleys. Man, therefore, does something to improve the atmosphere, and thus secure health and extend life. When a numerous population have gathered on the African coast, and have cultivated the soil carefully, not merely in patches, but over a large proportion of the surface, it will no longer prove the charnel-house of Euro¬ peans. Men then will read in Africa the records of its present fatality, as in this country now they read the traditions of the plague that often swept the towns and rural districts of Britain. The places where “ the plague was buried” are yet shown in many districts and parishes of this country; but the plough and the spade make tlie best funeral-trench for the plague in those fields that exhibit careful cultivation. The hand of the in¬ dustrious maketh rich, and in this case also maketh healthy. The hand of the industrious, in other cases, through careless¬ ness or ignorance, and perhaps both combined, maketh sick¬ ness. Many years ago rents fell very suddenly in one district of Liverpool. “ Respectable persons”—meaning by the phrase “wealthy persons”—fled from the locality before the fumes of a great chemical work. A far greater reduction in the value of property occurred than the entire worth of the chemical manufactures. Very probably a great destruction of health 116 THE POISONED AIE. also followed the establishment of this peculiar traffic. The shape of Glasgow has been changed by large works of the same character. The Cathedral formed, undoubtedly, the centre and nucleus of that city at one remote period, but the north-eastern quarter is at times nearly uninhabitable from the fumes of various chemical works. The proprietors of similar works have much to say in defence of their character after the manner of Demetrius, the silversmith of Ephesus, for “they bring no small gain unto the craftsmen,” and “ by this craft they have their wealth,” yet that which blights vegetation in the bud must in¬ jure life in the infant, and weaken health in the man. The Legislature has deemed purity of air sufficiently im¬ portant to engage the attention of its members for hours in a very bad atmosphere. Measures have been proposed from time to time, with the view of rendering the manufacturing districts more habitable, by the consumpt of the smoke from public works, on any other method than that now pursued, namely, through the lungs of human beings. The nature of the Exhibition of Industrial Products rendered difficult the production of any of the means employed for this purpose in the Crystal Palace, but one model exhibited by the Duke of Buccleucli, beside his pyramid of silver, evinced great, and it was said successful, ingenuity in combating and conquering the most deleterious fumes from a large mining work. Lead smelting furnaces have always been objectionable in crowded localities, from the poisonous vapours which they discharge. They are generally placed in barren districts, for the land above lead mines is not often valuable, but the poisonous matter which they exhale destroys vegetation. The Duke of Buccleuch’s lead works at Wanlock, in Dumfriesshire, are very extensive. The adjoining country is naturally wild, and in winter desolate and dreary. The houses of the miners im¬ proved the locality in one respect, and their works destroyed THE POISONED AIR. 117 it ill another. The families who originally inhabited that hill- .country were a people of pastoral habits. They were removed far from the haunts of busy men, and their profession did not often bring them into contact with the people of the lowland districts. Their riches were invested in sheep and wool; and when the mines were commenced, and as smelting progressed, their flocks were driven gradually from the immediate vicinity of the works. The neighbourhood resembled, it was said, the Dead Sea, according to the traditions popularly received re¬ garding it. The heather bloomed not, and the grass withered around the great furnaces, where art and labour extracted I lead from ore. The sheep could not graze, if herbage had grown near the spot, and the birds of the mountains made a sweeping circle in their flight to avoid the poisoned atmo¬ sphere, or perished miserably in endeavouring to pass over this possession of Death. The shepherds fed their flocks far away from the mines, but the miners and their families were com¬ pelled to remain in their neighbourhood, and the influences that could burn up the heather and destroy vegetation were ; not favourable to their health and strength, although their j cottages were built at some distance from the chimnies which poured a continuous stream of poison into the atmosphere. The health of the miners and their families was the more im¬ portant interest perilled in the matter. The breadths of cold ; and uninviting soil thrown out of vegetation are of little value, but the health of the many thousand persons connected with, or employed in, the lead works of the country demands the utmost care and involves grave and serious consequences. Various means were proposed to abet the nuisance, but none , of them have been so successful as the plan ultimately adopted at Wanlock lead mines. The model of the apparatus employed for the condensation of lead vapour at Wanlock, shown in the Exhibition, was intelligible to persons acquainted with the bust 118 THE POISONED AIR. ness, but was less interesting to general spectators than those machines of which the working conld be seen on the spot.* The plan employed is remarkably simple, and the elements re¬ quisite abound in the neighbourhood of all similar works, and cost nothing. A large building of solid masoniy is erected in the vicinity of the furnaces, with a chimney attached. The magnitude of this budding is necessarily determined by the ex¬ tent of the works, and the quantity of vapour produced by them. The erection at Wanlock is 30 feet high, and divided by a partition wall into the condensing and exhausting chambers. The vapours from the furnaces are collected by ordinary fues connected with each of them, into one large chamber, from which they are carried into the purifying tank, and are re¬ ceived, in the first instance, into the condensing ehamber. A reservoir of water has been placed at the chimney top; but thebottomof the reservoir is pierced, and allows a gentle shower to fall constantly from a great height into this first chamber. The impure vapours enter at the bottom of the building, and are forced upwards through several streams of this water until they reach a mass of coke, which occupies the entire space of the chamber towards the top, and is two feet thick. Streams of water filter downwards through this coke, meeting and obstructing the vapours, and separating the viler parts as they are forced upwards. The fumes having reached the top of the first chamber above the bed of coke are passed through an opening between the condenser and the exhauster, and enter there upon a new state of existence. A large reservoir of water is placed upon the top of this exhauster, with a bottom of iron pierced in a number of places; and on it another iron plate, or false bottom, with corresponding openings, is moved so as to produce a regular and extremely powerful shower- bath, extending over the entire area of the exhauster. Succes¬ sive showers, sweeping through the building, carry along with THE POISONED AIE. 119 tlem into reservoirs beneath, all the noxious and objectionable matters floating in the vapours, which then issue from the puri¬ fier to the atmosphere without, delivered from the poisonous mixture with which they were charged, and not only free from evil but fraught with good. The machinery is wrought by atmo^ spheric agency forcing the degenerate air through the various obstacles and processes by a sufficiently powerful draft, while the shower-baths from the top of the chimney, and of the exhauster, may be wrought, and the supply maintained, by steam or water power. The water through which the vapours have been forced passes away into reservoirs. The insoluble particles with which it is charged sink, and ultimately be¬ come a valuable deposit, at the bottom of these reservoirs; and the water, relieved from this work, hurries on again to its appointed labour of good to mankind. The deposit of fumes, or ore, thus won from the atmosphere which it would have polluted, is converted into useful purposes. The aver¬ age produce of the fumes at Wanlock is said to be 33 per cent, of pure lead, and from 4 to 5 oz. of silver per ton. The re¬ sult on the vegetation around the works certifies the complete success of the plan. The sheep come up to graze beside the condenser and the exhauster, which relieve them from their old, though imperceptible, enemy; but they would not come if they had not something whereon to feed. The withered grass has grown green again, wherever around these vast workshops of art, in the hill-countries, the red heather has not asserted its claim to cast its fragrance and shade over the high and sterile regions of our land. The health of two or three thousand persons in the vicinity is a more important matter than the restoration of heather and grass; and the influences that blighted the heather and burned the grass must have hastened the weakness of age, and reduced the strength of youth, for it cannot be wise to compel infancy to breathe 120 THE POISONED AIR. an atmosphere from which the moorfowl fly in wide circles, and the sheep turn away with hurried steps. Art, in this instance, corrects itself. Its first steps on the hills brought disease, with wages for work; its second bring health with¬ out reducing labour, and by increasing wealth; for the poison¬ ous fumes, extricated from their unnatural position, and re¬ turned to their proper place, repay, we believe, the charge incurred for their condensation. The number of persons neces¬ sarily residing in the immediate vicinity of lead works, and affected by the state of the atmosphere around them, must be very great. The copper mines of Cornwall employ thirty thousand persons, and the copper smelting-works must have a prejudicial infi.uence on the surrounding atmosphere. The number of persons directly engaged in any staple business does not comprehend all who are subjected to the evil influences that may arise from its prosecution. The families dependent on the works do not even include all the individuals who breathe the air that these works may deteriorate. Other families are required to conduct the ordinary business of life; wliile many works of an objectionable tendency, like the che¬ mical works already mentioned, are situated in districts where the great majority of the population are altogether uncon¬ nected with them. Scientific men allege that the thick clouds of smoke emanating from large towns, hanging over, and half suffocating their inhabitants, should never be formed. They propose mechanism for the combustion of smoke, and the consequent purification of the atmosphere, which may be too expensive for use in families, and yet be economical in the management of public works. Several plans have been shown, and more than one are now in operation, that seem perfectly competent to yield the proposed amalgamation of economy in fuel, and purity in air. They will not, however, be generally adopted without compulsion, for the difficulty of accomplish- THE POISONED AIR. 121 ing beneficial changes of this nature by persuasion, has been long notorious. The smoke derived from coal only is far less deleterious than the fumes of chemical and smelting-works. The first defiles, but the second poisons, the atmosphere. The scheme adopted at the Wanlock lead mines resolves the fumes of lead at a trifling expenditure, if not with positive profit. That plan is no longer a question of opinion or of theory, but an established fact; and its application at all lead mines, until a better, or a more economical, or a more profitable, system can be devised, should be enforced. The Exhibition was de¬ vised partly for the solid object of collecting together the achievemeuts of science, that the most advisable means might be adopted in different departments for promoting the com¬ fort of mankind, and necessarily for reducing the tear and wear of life. The progress of science should be only another name for the practice and the promotion of humanity. The application to the business of life of powers long concealed, and the employment of novel machines in ordinary work, should diminish the labour and increase the comfort of man¬ kind ; but, hitherto, they have often decreased the amount of labour for, and the wages received by, operatives. This ten¬ dency will be reversed. It cannot be possible that science should bequeath less remuneration and more toil to the greater part of the human family. It comes to earth on a nobler mis¬ sion than the multiplication of cares and the reduction of means; and brings a richer heritage than the centralisation of art and manufactures on a contracted surface. The success of one practical scheme for purifying the atmosphere of large towns would ensure its general adoption in a country fully under Christian management. That fact should be broadly and fre¬ quently asserted in the face of the world. It answers the ob¬ jection to the Eaith by those who profess to test its truth by its consequences, and, instead of taking its own legitimate 122 THE POISONED AIR. proceeds, put the results of the world’s idolatry or infidelity to its debit. An erroneous estimate of two valuable con¬ siderations is made, not by the practice of Christianity, but of the world, for the rights of property and the rights of life are balanced in false scales, during the existing delicacy respect¬ ing the enforcement of means to prevent the use of deleterious or poisoned air. The Wanlock apparatus has gained the Exhi¬ bition medal; and its efficiency may thus become more gene¬ rally known than it would otherwise have been for a long period. All departments of art and science, like all divisions of nature, contribute analogies to the statements of Eevelation. These circumstantial evidences should not be forced into posi¬ tions which they cannot support, but neither should they be neglected. The most popular objections to the religion of the Bible are grounded on the alleged inconsistency between the deductions of human reason and its doctrines. Many very excellent persons have silently conceded the monopoly of this argument to opponents of Christianity, along with other arguments, which never should have been abandoned to in¬ fidelity in any of its many forms. Human reason is, doubt¬ less, corrupted and imperfect, but yet it is not quite so far astray on subjects of this nature as may be supposed. A great statement may be incomprehensible, and yet not incon¬ sistent with “ reason.” Great facts exist in nature which are incomprehensible by human reason. Great statements exist in Scripture, to which, according to the arguments of infidelity and the admissions of its opponents, the same characteristic applies. The existence of the natural facts is not doubted, be¬ cause “infant minds” cannot explain their causes, or even the operation of their causes. The verity of the scriptural state¬ ments need not, therefore, in consistence with reason, be denied or doubted, because the same minds still in infancy do not comprehend them fuUy, and cannot explain their causes. THE POISONED AIR. 123 Human reason, unable to comprebend the revelation in works, acts very irrationally by denying the revelation in words, be¬ cause only it does not clearly understand how all the statements given therein are to be accomplished. The assertions of the parties commonly known as “ nationalists” are very irrational, even on their own grounds, which we should not concede; and their opponents have acted in an equally irrational manner by permitting them for a long period the use of a good name. ‘'Natural Religionists” is another name in use, derived, we presume, from the determination of one class to believe nothing which tliey deem inconsistent with nature; but neither nature nor art have been sufficiently searched for their analo¬ gies to the broad doctrines of evangelical religion. They are fuU of astonishing parallels, which prove the eonsistency of the three great Revelatioiis. The pride of natural and ra¬ tional religionists revolts from many Scriptural doctrines, and from none more angrily than the “ Article of Faith,” that men ■udll not by their unaided power, extricate themselves from the guilt and sin which seem to be incorporated with their affec¬ tions, feelings, and pursuits. They want the entire and sole credit to be derived from self-purification and reform, long before the work has been accomplished, for it never will be effected while it is sought in their spirit. A visit to Wan- lock lead mines would be useful for this class of persons, if they place any reliance upon the analogies of art or nature. The poisoned air of the furnaces issued forth to the atmosphere, carrying death and destruction over the extent of its influence. It blighted every green, and destroyed every living thing. It was useful only to show the extent and the universality in space and time of that atmospherical miracle which preserves the world. A slight change in the nature of the atmosphere in which the globe is wrapped would cover it with un¬ buried corpses, and withered plants and trees, leaving no 124 THE POISONED AIR. Other memorial of man than the miserable wrecks of existence. The believer in chance, or fate, or any other irrational in¬ fluence or organisation as the world’s moving power, may tremble at the impending catastrophe, for animal and vegetable life are in perpetual danger of immediate destruction; and according to his opinion, an atmospherical accident, evidently quite possible, might destroy the world. The non-occurrence of the catastrophe negatives the idea of chance in the matter, and a believer can walk on the edge of this precipice with the utmost confidence, for his Father governs all. The air from the furnaces did not purify itself. It went outwards to spread disease. Its contact with the fresher atmo¬ sphere was for a long period injurious to the latter. It afforded an example of the power of evil communications to corrupt good manners. The extent of its influence cannot be mea¬ sured. The imprint of its existence was lost from the world beneath, without proving that its evil qualities were absorbed or neutralised. These qualities appeared to be inseparably mixed with the furnace fumes. They did not seem to consist of separate parts, good and bad, but issued into the outer world, forming, evidently, an undiluted infusion of evil. Their purification requires force, and the employment of foreign ele¬ ments. They are coerced, or drawn into contact with the streams of water, and the bed of coke. The filterings and washings are varied operations, sometimes comparatively easy and gentle movements upwards, amid the water showers ; and in other passages of the existence in the purifier, painful windings and writhings through dark and hidden obstacles, in that black recess, separated from the cheerful world without; but all of them necessary in the separation of those atoms—im¬ perceptible, in their combined state, to the clearest eye among the miners—and their removal towards their designed and proper places in the world. THE POISONED AIR. 125 Tie history of the heart would form a more dismal book than the ■volumes of martyrology in the worst times that are past. The work cannot be written on earth in any single case, and yet it would be pre-eminently useful if each indivi¬ dual’s progress did not supply the want. Men know but little more regarding the warfare of the mind than each individual experiences of his own case; but its existence is kno-wn. The gradual change that occurs in some minds is visible from changed conduct. “Faith, without works, is dead also.” That is an evangelical doctrine of tremendous import—James, 2d chap., and 26th verse. An idle Faith is quite possible, but far from profitable. A servant may know his Lord’s wiU, and yet act in such a way that he wiU be “beaten with many stripes”—Luke, 12th chap., 47th verse. The servant who received “ one talent” had a certain kind of Faith, which yet brought him to a miserable state. He believed in the exist¬ ence of the Master, and also in His return to a reckoning with His people; and he made certain preparations for that event, altogether of an unprofitable character, although unac¬ companied with loss, for he was not utterly faithless, but pos¬ sessed of a dead Faith; and any reader may see the end of it in Matthew, 25th chap., 24th to 30th verses. Many pun¬ ishments are denounced in Scripture against “ doing nothing.” Few stages of existence are more dangerous than this doing of nothing; not merely because the great hymn-writer of Eng¬ land said truly, that ‘ ‘ Satan findeth mischief still Eor idle hands to do,” but because it is a state of crime—one great sin of omission. The people of Meroz took no part against Barak and the ten thousand Hebrews who followed him do'wn Mount Tabor, to the conflict with Sisera and the Canaanites, It is equally cer¬ tain that their neutrality did not cause the defeat or destruction 126 THE POISONED AIR. of their friends, or prevent the achievement of a great vic¬ tory ; and yet they were punished bitterly for doing nothing, although everything was accomplished without them that could have been effected with their aid—Judges 5th chap., 23d v. The rule of Evangelical, or, as we should also add, of Ra¬ tional, rebgion is, that a saving Eaith is evinced by altered conduct, without impugning the fact that a tolerably becoming- outward deportment may proceed from other causes. There is no revolution more interesting than this change effected in the heart and mind. There is no conflict of equal importance with that which exists in individual souls. The result is often gradually achieved, and is not always distinctly perceptible in its various stages. But there are other cases sufficiently nume¬ rous, that almost every individual may recall some of them in his memory, where the change has been effected by short, though, probably, sharp operations. The man who poisoned the moral atmosphere around him, by his actions, by his con- Tersation, and by his influence, finds a complete change in the current of his thoughts within the depths of his own heart'; and his actions, conversation, and influence—all his outward demeanour—are changed also, while he no more dispenses moral disease and death, but health and knowledge around him, because the outward conduct of any individual is only the re¬ flection of his heart and thoughts. We know that by a strife and struggle, the affections, and purposes, and sentiments of that heart have been changed. A conflict has occurred and a great victory has been won; but we also know that this warfare is often unsuccessful. The truth, regarding the great body of mankind, is composed of individual truths— Genesis, 6th chapter, and 3d verse. Genius and talent, the apparent endowments of their possessor, have an origin out of the range of his own powers—Exodus, 31st c., 3d, 4th, and 5 th vs. The poet is born, and not made by application and THE POISONED AIR. 127 energy on liis own part; and it is strange that he should stumble over the declaration, that more difficult attainments than those of genius are not his own production. Nations become powerful by the prevalence of the great and pure Spirit—Isaiah, 32d c., 15th v.; and weak from His absence— Ezekiel, 7th c., 26th v.; Lamentations, 2d c., 9th v. He is the harbinger of prosperity—Isaiah, 44th c., 4th v.; consola¬ tion to the bruised and wounded spirit—John, 14th c., 16th V. ; a defence against wicked inclinations—Galatians, 5th c., 17th v.; a guide to the inquiring wanderer in difficult mazes of perplexity—John, 16th c., 13th v.; a teacher of great truths—1st Cor., 2d c., 10th v.; a witness of peace—1st John, 4th c., 13th v.; a dweller with the humble and the meek—John, 14th c., 17th v.; essential to obedience—1st Peter, 1st c., 22d v.; remonstrating with the careless—Heb. 3d c., 7th V., &c.; the source of hope and love— Romans, 5th c., 5th V. ; the deliverer from the bondage of fear—Romans, 8th c., 15th V. ; sent by God—Galatians, 4th c., 6th v.; to purifj? human hearts—2d Thessalonians, 2d c., 13th v.; and be their great reformer and renewer—Titus, 3d c., 5th v.; the fountain of spiritual streugth in temptation, trouble, and sorrow —2d Cor., 12th c., 9th v., who may be despised, grieved, re¬ jected, and may depart never to return—Hebrews, 10th c., 29th V. ; but who would bestow aU those choice and rich qualities that render men good citizens, neighbours, friends, and patriots; that would convert the human race into a great peace society, and would secure a mass of even temporal happiness, such as the world has never known—Galatians, 5th c., 22d and 23d vs.; terminating with everlasting life— Galatians, 6th c., 8th v. These truths are termed Evangelical doctrines regarding “ the Spirit,” given to those who anxiously and eagerly seek His aid; and they are rational statements flowing from the 128 THE POISONED AIR. Bible, depending for tbeir support on its truth, but confirmed by analogies from all the operations that we see in Art or Na¬ ture, for they exhibit no self-purifications. The arguments from analogy in a matter of this dread solemnity must be necessarily weak—but should not, therefore, be cast away— especially to those against whose opinions and statements they bear unceasing testimony. These views are charged with caus¬ ing apathy and indolence in self-improvement; but that cannot be, for they come fraught with the awful cry, “ work while it is called to-day, for the night cometh when no man can work;” they bear the terrible warning—“ work out your own salvation,” even if it should be “withfear and great trembling;” but still encouraged by the cheering promise that another worketh with, in, and for all who implore the help of the Omnipotent. It would be equally natural and rational to say that the farmer was encouraged in idleness, and induced not to plough, and sow, and turn over the soil of his field on the seed, by the knowledge that unless the dew descended, and the rain fell, and the sun shone—all of them operations over which he has no control—his labour and his property would be alike and altogether lost. The practical and universal admission and application of these truths, would effect, generally, in the world changes similar to those observed in individuals ; and as the purifica¬ tion of the fumes from the Wanlock furnaces has permitted the burned heather to bloom, and the withered grass to grow again around the works, so also would the purification of souls restore joy and peace to the moral world, blighted and seared, wasted, withered, and blackened by crime and guilt; and the vegetation of a soothed conscience and a quiet spirit would cluster over many branded hearts and troubled minds, for the fruits of “ the Spirit” are “ love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” AKT AND FAITH, IN FRAGMENTS FROM THE GREAT EXHIBITION. THE FUEZ. IN THE EARTH*.' The necessity for maintaining the connection between Art and Faith against Infidelity is painfully apparent; and the pro¬ priety of exhibiting it against the prevalent apathy and negli¬ gence towards this class of subjects will not be denied, even by the careless themselves. The first class stand amid sun¬ shine, declaring that darkness surrounds them; the second make no similar declaration, but they make equally little use of the light. The two classes are nearer equality than the last can willingly admit; and they are both in that kind of danger which gives them a claim for aid and sympathy. The same necessity should not exist respecting any section of ad¬ herents'—that is of active, earnest, and apparently pure-minded adherents—to the Christian faith; and yet many of them de¬ spise, or even repudiate the connection. Satisfied themselves regarding the truth of their creed, they forget that other minds might accept evidence which they did not require, or even, perhaps, do not understand. They act thus on a different plan from the Author of Christianity and its early teachers. He knew the best means of dealing with mankind, and used the analogies of Nature and Art, while his immediate foUow ■ ers adopted his example. The subjoined passages are quoted from a tract which was circulated, perhaps extensively, in the earlier division of 1851. The quotations are not made in an argumentative spirit, or for a disputative purpose. The writer from whose tract they are taken had evidently a good end in H 130 THE EXJEL IN THE EAETH. Tiew, and deserves kind and respectful treatment; but the ex¬ tracts show the propriety of inquiring into the composition of this Great Exhibition of Art and Science. It is right to know what proportions of this stupendous coUeotion really belonged to man, and what grounds, on a fair and candid analysis and division of the matter, remained to him for pride or vanity in its magnificence. The two extracts are taken from different pages of the same tract. The first designates the Ex¬ hibition as Man’s property”— “ Whether we think of the design and extent of this Crystal Palace, the number of things to he displayed in it, or the wealth and splendour of those who are likely to visit it, we must pronounce it to be the most magnificent display of human intellect and genius that has ever been at¬ tempted. It will, indeed, be a great exhibition ; but, my reader, i wiU be, in every sense of the word, man’s exhibition. It will be man’s greatness, man’s skill, man’s industry, man’s glory. Kings and princes, nobles and great men, men of learning and intellect, will aU assemble within that vast and splendid palace, for the express purpose of beholding and admiring the work of men’s hands. Do you say—and a very proper object it is : what more suited object can man contemplate than the fruit of that genius with which God has endowed him? Well, we shall not now discuss this; I would only observe, that man is presented in the Word of God as a ruined and guilty sinner; man, as such, has ruined himself; he has departed from the blessed God, and sold himself to the devil, the great enemy of God. This being so, I ask you, how far is man warranted in making a display of himself ? Is it comely for him to lift up his head in pride and pomp P Is he justified in thus exulting in the works of his own hands ? If man is verily guilty before God—yea, all the world guilty—how should he carry himself in the view of that God against whom he has sinned, and who knows the real character and amount of his guilt.” We make this quotation with regret that great topics should be treated in this style by persons who would shudder to write a word which they considered irreverent. The second extract is in one—and that the more important —meaning unobjectionable. The comparison between the value of eternity and time is easily decided. The shortness of time THE FUEL IN THE EARTH. 13] and the length of eternity yield the elements of decision without proceeding further. But the comparison is unneces¬ sary ; for Christianity does not require the rejection of time for the security of eternity. It never proposed the abandon¬ ment of a real and solid good in the present world. It re¬ quires the rejection of what “ the world” often follows, be¬ cause that is bad; and not merely because it is procurable in the present life. It describes the future as immeasurably more important than the present; but all its teachings and tendencies have for one direct object the improvement and the purification of society, even in this present life. The writer quoted from, represents a numerous class, who appear to make little or nothing of the passage through time; and seem to think that Christians should expect no enjoyment and no repose of mind in this present world, and have tacitly abandoned the idea of converting its “ excitements” into any¬ thing deserving a higher character than “ unholy.” At page 9, after referring to the Atonement, which this writer desig¬ nates, in, we think, an objectionable manner, “ the Great Exhibition on Mount Calvary,” he says— “I would only, in conclusion, ask my reader to contrast, for a mo¬ ment, the exhibition of man, with the exhibition of God. Let him contrast the vanity of the one with the reality of the other,—:he unholy excitement of the one, with the heavenly calmness of the other; the gross corruption of the one, with the purity of the other; above all, let him contrast the end of the one, with the end of the other; and then, I ask him, which does he prefer ? Which will he have,—the present gilded glory of the world, with an eternity of unspeakable misery; or the present repose of heart in the cross of Jesus, with an eternity of unspeakable joy and blessedness ? This is, indeed, a momentous question, and should be answered nov>y for “now is the accepted time, and now is the day of salvation.” Do not, my dear reader, put this question aside. Do not allow the bostle and excitement of a world which is rapidly passing onward to hopeless ruin, to hinder you from quietly, solemnly, and calmly putting this question to your conscience.” 132 THE FUEL IN THE EARTH. One half of this appeal is never unseasonable ; but the other half is unjust. Nobody ever proposed the Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures as a substitute for the Gospel, but the passage contains an insinuation of that nature. A com¬ missioner, an exliibiter, a juryman, or a visitor, was not un- christianised by his connection with the Crystal Palace. It was crowded with object-lessons respecting the beneficence, the power, and the wisdom of God. It contained startling evidences to the truth of the written flevelation to man. But these facts do not oppose the Gospel, which courts investiga¬ tion from every quarter, and its weakest friends need not shrink from the issue, while its prudent disciples never will represent it in a light unfriendly or tremulous to knowledge and its progress. Corrupt and superstitious creeds may be thrust between their recipients and the light; but they are not the Gospel, which, unlike the natural sun, never eclipsed by its splendour the glimmerings of the smaller stars placed in the vast regions of creative and providential revelation ; but it imparts fresh brilliancy to their rays, and throws a new halo around every speck of light. “ The Cross of Jesus” cannot be less reverenced by those disciples who, knowing that by Him the world was created, trace in its wonderful products wit¬ nesses of His goodness, than by others who are wilfully igno¬ rant of His works. The opinions insinuated in the extracts made are not uncommon in England, but they do not promise to overcome the practical and speculative infidelity sadly pre¬ valent in society. Their professors do not even expect that great end of teaching. Some of them, at least, give up the world to ruin and wreck under the present dispensation, so far as it is visible now. Without presuming to pry into fu¬ turity, we hold that materials for the world’s conversion are in the hands of Christian men, who, if they seek earnestly the Spirit’s aid in their persevering employment, have the THE FUEL IN THE EARTH. 133 promise of success in the work. They may never use these materials, and hitherto they have done little more, as a com¬ munity, than play with the subject; but if they should ever employ them zealously, living for their day instead of merely hoping for a coming day, they will find abundant blessing and profit in their labour. The speculative distinction we have mentioned causes different views on subjects similar to this Great Exhibition; but how far was it justly considered Man’s property ? The mining and mineral products of the United Kingdom presented a magnificent display of wealth, more important than the gems of India or the gold of California, for the world’s welfare. The various descriptions of coal were in themselves an exhibition, not of man’s, but of God’s, foresight, kindness, and power. Those vestiges of creation” were not stored up for the use of this generation by the prudence of their ancestors; and yet the progress of arts and science must have been slow without the magazines of power collected in the earth. Artificial heat is essential for the preparation of food in all climates, and for the comfort and health of mankind in tem¬ perate lands. This great want must restrain the increase of population in aU those countries which contain few or small internal magazines of fuel. A large part of the surface of the earth and of its powers of vegetation are occupied in the growth of firewood where coals or turf do not exist, or exist unknown. A thinly-peopled region supplies its inhabitants with abun¬ dance of firewood; but in many Erench districts the deficiency of fuel is felt severely by the poorer class of inhabitants during the severe winters experienced by them. In tropical, or even in generally mild and warm, climates, the growth of plants and trees is rapid, and affords fuel for a large population; but the climate of Britain could not furnish one-third or one-fourth of the fire¬ wood necessary for the domestic purposes of its inhabitants; with- 134 THE EUEL IN THE EARTH. out aiding materially to supply tlie warmth requisite in three quarters of the year for their existence; if the interior and the surface of the earth had not fields of fuel, long ago prepared .—the ruins of an old world, or of the world in former times. The domestic and household wants of the nation in coal are smaller than the manufacturing. Its greatness, population, and property, are literally founded on coal and turf, but chiefly on the former. The formation and maintenance of large towns would have been impossible in this climate and country with¬ out coal mines. The clearance and cultivation of many dis¬ tricts of the land would have been impolitic and unwise, with¬ out the reserves of fuel prepared in the depths of the earth. The complicated machines that produce our manufactures could scarcely have existed without these remains of ancient jungles and forests, pressed into solidity under the earth’s crust. A passenger cannot observe the fireman throwing coal into the furnaces of the swift ships that carry him over angry waters, against stormy winds, with the regularity, and more than the rapidity, of the well-appointed coaches on the finest roads some years ago, without recalling the manner and the reason of his quick passage, unless he be an unobservant tra¬ veller. The railway-engiue cleaves the air, with nearly a thousand passengers seated in their carriages behind, through the pierced hill,* over deep ravines, bearing its huge freight with the speed of the arrow’s flight; and this display of power has become so common that men have ceased to deem it strange. The stoker casts now and then a parcel of coke into the furnace. It is the engine’s life, the secret of its great power, without which the capital, the labour, and the skill expended on our iron-roads had all been bestowed in vain. Travelling, by land or water, includes the leading triumphs of modern science and mechanical skUl. They are calculated more, perhaps, than any other achievements, to en- THE FUEL IN THE EARTH. 135 courage pride iu man; and yet man’s share in them is ex¬ tremely small. He has fashioned the materials put into his power, but unless the deposits of coal had been laid up long centuries or millenniums ago, his science would have been un¬ available. He only brings forth stores, provided of old for his use, and transforms them to his purpose, through agencies which he did not prepare, and could not procure, by his own means. The northern section of the ground-floor, in the British department of the Exhibition, was occupied to the extent of nearly three-fourths of the area with our carriages and machines. They were man’s work, made out of God’s matter. They did not, therefore, form “ Man’s Exhibition.” They were only, in a trivial sense, the product of his power. The iron-ore was not prepared by him. He did not crush together the ancient woods, and press them into fuel. But without the coals and the ore where would have been the ma¬ chines ? The smoke of the furnaces would not have ascended through the blue sky; the din of forges would not have broken the silence of dreary wastes where our large manufac¬ turing towns now stand; and giving man the credit of being an independent, self-acting, and self-supporting agent, he could have done little, indeed, towards the vast mechanical triumphs of modern times without those footsteps of God which geologists trace, and in which the miners work. The machine depart¬ ment on the northern, and the mineralogical department on the southern, side of the ground-floor in the British department possessed a family connection. Their kindred excellence has given power to Britain, but their existence was provided for when the foundations of the hills were laid; and whatever ends may yet be served to the human race by the Anglo-Saxon family, this fact, at least, deserves notice, that the great de¬ posits of mineral wealth, which now mean national strength, are in their possession. The two departments have, as 136 THE EUEL IN THE EARTH. already said, an intimate relationship. They exist gene¬ rally together; and, until a recent date, they were com¬ paratively useless for mechanical purposes when separated. A small quantity of iron only can be made in countries entirely dependent on surface-fuel. Iron of fine quality has been manufactured in several parts of the world without the use of coal; but the price was necessarily dear, and the quantity limited. Large beds of iron-ore were known to exist in this country unwrought, on account of their dis¬ tance from the stores of fuel, and the expense of conveying the ore to the coal, or the coal to the ore. This obstacle has been partly surmounted—only by the aid of the coal and the ore—so that large fields of ironstone, in Yorkshire, during 1851, have been opened up, and others will be examined and used, although placed at a considerable, and for carriage, a costly, distance from coal-fields. Miners, and all parties con¬ nected with this great trade, know that iron-making originally rose into importance in those districts where coal, and iron ore, and other mineral productions requisite for the business, had been laid together to the hand of man. Their existence in that form cheapened iron, and made those conveyances prac¬ ticable by which distance is partially destroyed, and the various elements essential to the prosecution of the trade can be brought together for profitable use. The disposal, in this man¬ ner, of those great deposits, indicates the presence of design. Its evidence increases on each investigation of facts. The be¬ lief that all these elements of existence are chance work, dis¬ plays more hopeless and pitiful credulity than any of the many erroneous forms into which superstition has been moulded. The deposits of fuel and ores are properly designated means of existence, because the formation of our large population was impossible without them. Their arrangement, as we have found them, at whatever date it occurred, was an essential THE EUEL IN THE EAETH. 137 preparation for the support of the crowded population of this island at the present day; and the fact gives an importance and a responsibility to life, in addition to those that are, otherwise apparent. The people must have been designed for special work, for whom this special provision was made, so long before they were to rise and use it. The material of coal is undoubtedly vegetable, and aU those vast masses of fuel found in the recesses of the earth are the wrecks of forests that once covered its surface. The cause or manner of their transmutation into coal is concealed from science. The results are perceptible, but the mode of their accomplishment is unknown. The fragments and traces of plants in the coal-mines identify the material, but they afford no evidence of the date of those vast convulsions which heaped together those great subterranean magazines. The coal¬ fields of Scotland are confined to the broad valley between the Grampian Mountains on the north, and the bleak, wide range of hills that occupy part of the Scottish and English border on the south. The line of country forms a natural basin, where deposits would necessarily accumulate; and it is pro¬ bable that the vegetable wrecks transformed into coal-fields were not the product of the district in which they are now found, but must have been the growth of a far more exten¬ sive surface. The greater part of these vegetable remains consist of different species of ferns; but, mixed in the general confusion, specimens of tropical plants are often reached^ which could only have existed near the region of our coal¬ mines, on the supposition that the temperature has been greatly changed and reduced. Several of the specimens of plants excavated from the coal measures are not now observed in any part of the world, and belong, apparently, to extinct orders of vegetation. The difference in the qualities of coal is so great that the deposits must have been made at widely differ- 138 THE FUEL IN THE EARTH. ent periods, or under cireumstances which exercised a varied influence on their transformation, while it may he possible that different vegetables or trees would produce, by the same process, results of a slightly varied nature. The Lignites form, perhaps, the most interesting, although the least useful, mining fuel,” because they occupy an intermediate stage between the coal deposits of England or Scotland and trunks of trees. They have undergone less alteration than the vege¬ tation which has produced coal; and may have been depo¬ sited in large masses without that abundant mixture of sub¬ ordinate plants which seem to have exercised great influence in the production of “ true coal.” Several treatises have been published respecting the origin of these deposits, which seems tolerably clear, although all the facts of the case, beyond their vegetable formation, are wrapped in difficulty and doubt. An extremely ancient date is ascribed to the deposits, on no better ground than the assumption that the vastness of the changes on and in the globe must have required a corre¬ sponding period for their completion, although the conclusion, from the nature of the case, cannot be securely established. The statistics of business do not come within our design; but the coal trade amounts annually to thirty-five millions of tons; and, at an average of 10s. per ton, including the cost of carriage to the various places of consumpt, and the profits of dealers, yields in Britain £17,500,000; the wages of more than 350,000 persons, at £1 weekly, engaged in carrying, digging, or selling the means of rendering the island habitable by its large population; and the direct support of nearly two mil¬ lions of individuals, whose intellectual and religious wants are probably more neglected than those of any other class. The more complicated machines engaged in our manufac¬ tures are derived from the mineral deposits. Without them they would not exist, and whatever advantages they confer THE FUEL IN THE EAETH. 139 are directly obtained from tbe power and prescience that pro¬ vided those magazines of material in ancient times for the world’s present use. A debtor and creditor account of these transactions would exhibit man as a partner in the matter, without any funds whatever. If he claims the skill and strength employed by him in moulding matter, they are talents for which he must give an account. They depend upon a thou¬ sand contingencies, over which he has no control. The food that supports man might be blighted in the ear—as one vege¬ table recently was blighted—and he would perish miserably. The air which he breathes might be corrupted—as one modern, but terrible disease is said to spring from its partial corrup¬ tion—and the race would disappear from the earth. Even the existence and the health of individual men are subjects over which they exercise comparatively little influence. If the Crys¬ tal Palace had contained no more than man’s exhibition,-few visitors would have given a single shilling to view the vacuum. An analysis of the relative properties in this Exhibition fixes its ownership. Those persons who, like the writer of the tract quoted, are inclined superficially to call it “Man’s Exhibition,’* would find in every stage remarkable evidence that man could claim little for himself under any circumstances. A closer in¬ vestigation leaves him nothing over. Artistic skill and mechani¬ cal genius are the gift of the Creator—Exod., c. 31,3dto 11th vs. Life and the means of supporting existence are bestowed by Him in whom we “ live, and move, and have our being.’ ’ These facts, and those to whom we refer deem them facts, left no¬ thing for men’s pride, vanity, and self-sufficiency, in the Crystal Palace. Other persons may reject the facts, and deem them¬ selves the architects and builders of their own fortunes and possessions, their own skill and power, but the Exhibition did not peculiarly call their sin into existence. The harvest-field, the manufactory, the warehouse, and the workshop—all neces- 140 THE FUEL IN THE EAUTH. sary in tlie world—all, also, feed their errors. They ascribe the deposits of coal and ores to what are termed natural causes. The phrase is painfully indefinite, and explains nothing. After all statements regarding natural causes have been pondered over, we remain in search of their Originator, and the dark re¬ cesses of the earth yield evidence of His presence and power. The practice of overstraining statements, and endeavour¬ ing to prove too much is bad and common; but our assign¬ ment of man’s share in machine-making, and, generally, in the Exhibition, is Scriptural—Isaiah, 54th chap., 16th verse, “ Behold I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire; and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work.” This passage does not prove the existence of coals in Palestine, and their use by the Hebrews; although we know that coal¬ mines exist in Syria; and those of the Lebanon are, or re¬ cently were, in operation; but the English noun “ coal” is substituted in our translation for various words in the origi¬ nal, all meaning “fuel” of some kind, but obviously not all meaning mineral eoals. The climate of Palestine is cold in winter; and the Psalmist, who, probably, never travelled far out of the boundaries of Syria, was evidently well and practically acquainted with the rigours of a severe and stern winter—147th Psalm, 16th, 17th, and 18th verses. Job often uses imagery derived from the melting of snow in spring —6th chap., 15th, 16th, and 17th verses. The Israelites were familiarly acquainted with the appearance of hoar-frost— Exodus, 16th chap., 14th verse. These, and kindred passages, and the state of the climate in our own time, leave no doubt that the inhabitants of Palestine at one season of the year re¬ quired the use of fuel for warmth. The fact is distinctly stated —Proverbs, 31st c., 31st v.; Isaiah, 44th c., 16th v.; and John’s Gospel, 18th c., 18th and 25th vs. The population of Pales¬ tine during the reigns of David and Solomon, and of succeeding THE FUEL IN THE EAETH. 141 monarclis, was very large, and their consumpt of wood for fuel would have been proportionably great, while the political and social state of the country, and even its religious observ¬ ances, opposed the formation of extensive forests or groves. The neighbouring regions were also, at the same time, densely inhabited, which increased a difficulty that has not existed for many generations, in the dearth of firewood for a nu¬ merous people. At a comparatively modern date we know that withered grass was habitually used for fuel—Luke, 12 th c., 28th V., &c. The population at tbe latter date had con¬ siderably decreased, but if mineral coals had been previously used, they would not probably have been forgotten. It is not, however, necessary to suppose that they were forgotten. The language employed in John, 18th c., 18th v., supports the opinion that the servants and officers had been at some trouble “ to make a fire of coals,” by an entirely different opera¬ tion from merely throwing a few faggots on the hearth or igniting charcoal. A passage in Proverbs, 26th c., 20th and 21st vs., indicates that in the more prosperous period of Jewish rule, wood was used for fuel; but that another sub¬ stance, which our translators give under the general term “ coals,” was also employed, and that it was more difficult to kindle than wood. In passages written nearly at the same time we find charcoal” apparently intended—120th Psalm, 4th V. Coals of wood or charcoal are mentioned in a man¬ ner that admits no misconception—Isaiah, 44th c., 19th v. The word which is understood by linguists to correspond directly with our term ‘‘coals,” and from which some of them hold that our Saxon word is derived, is used in Leviticus, 16th c., 12th V., “ burning coals,” in a way that seems more probably to infer mineral than charcoal, except for the cir. cumstances in which the people were placed. The corre¬ sponding phraseology is employed in Job, 41st c., 21st v., in 142 THE FUEL IN THE EARTH. the Psalms, and in other passages where greater strength is given to the imagery, if we suppose that mineral coal was known to the writers. Job, while recapitulating the riches of the earth, after mentioning silver and iron-ore, and the pro¬ duction of brass, or more probably, copper, before adverting to precious stones and gold-dust, says, 28th chap. 5th v.— “As for the earth, out of it cometh bread; and under it is turned up as it were fire.” The words employed apparently in¬ fer mineral fuel of some description. In ordinary circumstances “coal workings” at that early date would have left evidences of their existence similar to those now found in the copper mines of Lake Superior, and in our own mining districts ; but that does not necessarily follow, for the coals of the Lebanon “ crop out” in several places, and may have been there, and elsewhere, obtained without mining labour. The coals of Britain were, undoubtedly, obtained at an early period with less labour than at the present day. In various primitive countries coal is found at present near the surface, and emerging from the sur¬ face. The coal of Vancouver’s Island is extracted without the deep diggings requisite in our British mines. Large quanti¬ ties of coal might be taken from that island without leaving any traces of the operation in mines bearing any resemblance to those of this country, while we do not think that the exist¬ ence and use of mineral coals, drawn without great labour from tlie soil, are more likely to be specially noticed in the brief records of millenniums that we possess, than the existence and use of turf in Irish annals. An analogous case occurs in our own country. The use of coals by the early Britons might have been, and would have been, denied, except for acciden¬ tal discoveries, which confirm the opinion that they were ac¬ quainted with this part of their mineral wealth, as they un¬ doubtedly were with other deposits. The evidence favours the opinion that the immense populations of some Eg,stem THE FUEL IN THE EAETH. 143 towns partially employed mineral coals; but the circumstances are no more interesting than as a partial explanation of the manner in which the comfort of the inhabitants during their short winter season, and their various manufactures in metal were maintained. To them this mineral deposit would have been advantageous—to us it is essential. Society with them could exist without it, but here the same population could not live in their present condition without our valuable collections of fuel. The mechanical genius and skill of the present age would have been comparatively valueless without our coal mines, and without them all the great efforts making, unconsciously by those who make them, to equalise the advan¬ tages of civilisation would have been vain. Hopes of a future brighter than the past, derived from the promotion of know¬ ledge, and the increased intercourse of nations, grow out of, and partially depend on, coal mines as means for their fulfilment. The triumphs of mechanism are not the only results of the arrangement by which the earth was filled with fuel. The comfort of many millions of families was secured by its accom¬ plishment. The lessons of cheap and lowly things are often neglected because they are taught in our daily domestic affairs. This tendency is one of many evidences that the magnitude of mercies sometimes occasions thoughtless ingratitude. The coal burns brightly in the grate, and the gas throws a cheer¬ ful light round the room, night after night, for winter after winter, ere the inmates remember the source of heat and light, although in the blossoms of spring and the fruits of autumn they may acknowledge the power of their Creator. A scholar in a Sabbath-school once expressed the highest idea of the stars ever formed by ignorance. In answer to the inquiry, what were the stars, he said they must be small holes bored in the fioor of Heaven to let the glory through. Scholars at these schools often instruct their teachers. The 144 THE EUEL IN THE EARTH. snow lay most uncomfortably thick in the lanes of a very large town, many years ago, on a Sabbath evening, and we walked into a dingy room, used as a school, with some doubts regard¬ ing the propriety of collecting ill-clad and often shoeless children on that freezing night. A teacher was, from some cause, leading his scholars to name such mercies as they re¬ membered. A fire was burning in a grate, and a little shiver¬ ing boy near it said that he thought coals were a great mercy. Multitudes have derived more aid from coals than he had ever done without considering them in that light. Teachers sometimes, by a mistaken policy, frown upon answers of that character. The young mind is inquisitive, and easily suscep¬ tible of impressions which are not again so readily obliterated; and the young should be made acquainted more fully than they are with the revelations of creation and providence. They will not find in them the way of salvation, but they may obtain shields against dangerous opinions which are met in life. The Creator’s name should be written on the mind’s stores of knowledge. His connection with the most common things cannot be too familiar to young or old. Those plain lessons of natural theology which may be easily, and should be always, given, would have struck the pen from the hand of a Christian man who purposed to name any vast collection of artificial and natural products “ Man’s Exhibition.” When apprentices are taught the source of the material on which their days are passed, they will not be readily drawn into the current of infidelity, and they wifi, not be more likely than now to become vicious and irreligious men. All Scripture bears witness to the duty, and profit, and wisdom, of searching into natural objects. The passage in Job, comprising the last four chapters, except one, is a sufficient assurance on this subject; and the last two verses of the preceding—the 37th chapter— show the end of the search—“ Men do, therefore, fear Him.” ART AND FAlTfi, IN PRAGMENTS FROM THE GREAT EXHIBITION. SWATCHES FBOIKC THE LOOM. The higher orders of vegetables formed man’s original endowment. The beasts of the earth belonged to him, in one respect, for he was to have dominion over them, and over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air; yet every herb bearing seed, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, were his peculiar pro¬ perty, and to be his special support. The vegetable world is, therefore, particularly interesting to him as the heritage of innocence and peace. A vast majority of the specimens of art and manu¬ factures were derived from botanical productions. Our indebtedness to them, not merely for the direct support of life, but for its embellishment, is often a forgotten claim. The omission deprives the world of many “object- lessons” of a high character. The vanity of wealth is reproved by the form and hues of flowers. “ Consider the lilies of-the field how they grow; they toil not, nei¬ ther do they spin; and yet I say unto you that Solomon in aU his glory was not arrayed like one of these”—Mat¬ thew, 6th c., 29th and 30th vs. The genius of mortal decorators can devise no ornamental forms more becom¬ ing or more successful than copies from Nature. Suc¬ cessive improvements in taste bring us nearer the floral pattern in manufactures. The earlier carvers borrowed from the vegetable world, The doors of the oracle were I -146 SWATCHES FROM THE LOOM. of olive-wood, carved with cherubims, and palm-trees, and open flowers, overlaid with gold—1st Kings, 6th c., 32d V. The son of a Hebrew widow of the tribe of Kaphtali, whose father was a hrassfounder in Tyre, was employed on the foundry work for the temple built by So¬ lomon at Jerusalem. This tradesman of Tyre could not have accomplished that vast labour with his own hands, for the temple at Jerusalem was a greater building than the Crystal Palace, than St. Paul’s Cathedral, West¬ minster Abbey, or even the neighbouring Houses of Par¬ liament. The Tyrian hrassfounder was the designer and superintendent of this department. Educated to his profession in Tyre, the metropolis of art at that time ; and instructed by his mother in the Hebrew faith, he was eminently qualified to complete the undertaking for which he contracted ; and in the 7th chapter of Kings the taste of the artist is vindicated by his frequent employment of the lily pattern. The best designs on textile fabrics in the Crystal Palace belonged to the floral pattern, and there was not a single noted design in any depart¬ ment in which the artist had not copied nature. Vege¬ table life rebukes the “unintellectual pride in intellect” that refuses the Bible because it contains statements which human reason cannot fully explain. Can the ablest botanist tell the manner of combining the various elements in the formation of plants ? Can he explain how, in the same soil, warmed by the same sun, sur¬ rounded by the same atmosphere, the tares and tlie wheat grow and ripen together, so different in character and qualities ? Has human reason explained how, appa¬ rently, the same elements combine to form, in the same external circumstances, plants so different in quahties, that the one is food and the other poison, yet so similar SWATCHES EROM THE LOOM. 147 in appearance that only a practised eye distinguishes them ? The lily and the rose grow together with inimit¬ able beauty of colouring and form, yet their forms and shades are extremely varied, and man’s science cannot tell the cause. The farmer casts seeds into the same field in spring, and in summer time the bees work hard in undulating forests of red and white flowers, whose fra¬ grance Alls the air around, hut the most skilful agricul¬ turist cannot explain the cause of red and white clover. The botanist will not describe the influence which pro¬ duces the fragrance of mignonette or mint, and withholds this wealth from the gaudy dahlia tribe. Our boasted reason and science fail in all these simple matters occur¬ ring daily in our fields and gardens, yet nobody denies or doubts the facts ; although with indescribable folly, some men require, as the condition of their belief, that everything connected with the higher mysteries of eternity shall he made plain to their limited comprehension. The verity of Scripture does not rest upon any similarity be¬ tween the facts of nature and the statements of the Word in the matters mentioned ; hut this particular de¬ mand is effectually suppressed by the circumstance, that our reason is incapable yet of feebly comprehending com¬ mon operations, necessary as they are for our daily life and the commendable pleasures of existence. A mys¬ terious disease in one ordinary and useful vegetable, banished from or buried in their native isle more than two millions of the Irish population. Famine and fever swept in company over the doomed land like destroying angels. The cry of the infant and the groan of the father were mingled together for food. The population of graveyards incraesed rapidly, and the number of living men was proportionably reduced. The extent of 148 SWATCHES FE.OM THE LOOM. the calamity was not more vividly recorded in the aban¬ doned cottages, the blackened hearths, and the deserted chapels, than in the fresh green verdure half covering innumerable hillocks beneath which the dead mouldered. The wealth of Britain abridged, but its science could not arrest, this great calamity. Scientific men might say, in technical phraseology, that this wide-sweeping desola¬ tion arose from the operation of a natural law that they did not comprehend ; and if they had understood its ope¬ ration, they would have been incapable of influencing its course. The development of this natural law was un¬ doubtedly novel. If the law itself was not new, its practical operations were not extensively observed, and were indeed generally unknown, before 1845. Some scientific men, and many persons who are not yet entitled to that character, allege that they cannot believe the accounts given of Scriptural miracles, because they are contrary to the course of nature. The potato disease was contrary to the course of nature; but it was a great fact, a miracle in this respect that it traversed the ordinary plan of nature for a great and special purpose; and any other “ miracle” is not more difficult than the institution of a ' new vegetable disease ; striking one root and sparing others of a different species, but placed in the same field, and equally exposed to all the external influences known to men. Vegetable life, in its more attractive forms, has a singular interest to man. The founders of his race were placed in a garden, and the Fall was there consummated; while the sorrows of the Garden were the step from the Supper to the Judgment Hall and the Atonement. In the earlier ages of the world religious services were observed in gardens and groves, and although the latter became closely identified with Druidical or Pagan mysteries of SWATCHES FROM THE LOOM. 149 cruelty and idolatry, and were strictly forbidden indul¬ gences to the Hebrews, yet garden, or grove-worship, was originally pure and a striking memorial of man’s primitive position and state. The customs of ancient nations are unconnected with the existing works of art, and their authentic memorials preserved to our times, although their number has been recently enlarged, are confessedly few, yet they throw re¬ markable confirmation over Biblical statements; and so useful is the evidence afforded by them that one oppo¬ nent of the truth, a mythical visionary, admitting appa¬ rently the connection between primitive practices, so far as they can be traced, and Scriptural statements, infers that the latter arose from the former. They must be remarkable facts which can be traced upwards to the primitive nations with an identity still perceptible under all the forms assumed by tradition, in various epochs of the world and its stages of civilisation. The fertility of the earth is the direct source of all our manufactures. Coals in the mine are the remains of vegetation. Cotton, flax, silk, and wool, are the raw ma¬ terials of the great clothing manufactures. The two first are vegetable, and the two last are animal prod ac¬ tions; but even the latter are immediately dependent on vegetable life for their existence. The origin of the clothing manufactures can be traced to the farthest antiquity. The first record on the subject is familiar to all readers—Genesis, 3d chapter, 7th verse. The ante¬ diluvians were skilled in many arts, according to the tes¬ timony of Scripture ; and they could not have spread far over the earth, until the use of clothes had become ne¬ cessary for protection and warmth. The skins of different animals, slain for food, or in sacrifice, probably formed 150 SWATCHES EEOM THE LOOM. the robes of the human family at an early date. The slaughter of animals in sacrifice, if not for other purposes, occurred before the first grave was dug for man—Gene¬ sis, 4th chapter, and 4th verse. The knowledge of arts essential to ordinary life, survived the deluge, and there¬ fore, we may assume for the clothing trade a very high antiquity. The production of garments from wool must have rapidly followed the employment of skins. It is probable, indeed, that the woollen department is the oldest of the clothing trades. Many persons believe that the Egyptians were conversant with the use of cotton ; but the cloth in which the mummies are wrapped—the grave- clothes of the wealthier classes—amongst a people who expended large sums in honour of the dead, are evidently linen. Flax was therefore probably next in order. Flax and barley were growing during the plagues in Egypt, and their destruction is specially mentioned, for they were more advanced than the wheat and the rye. Wool and flax are put for clothing among the Israelites, at a later period ; from which their prevalence and use in the princi¬ pal articles of dress may be inferred. The patriarchs had probably been acquainted with the employment of wool in clothing, for as they used little animal food, the value of their herds is not on any other supposition ap¬ parent. The number of sheep belonging to the Hebrews even at the expiry of their captivity in Egypt, proves that the woollen manufacture was at that date established on the Nile. The kings of Greece, who were only small chiefs, at an early date wore garments which their queens wrought for them in the hand-looms of those days. Noble Roman matrons passed a considerable part of their time in spinning, and the ladies of the patricians plied their distaff with all the industry evinced by the ladies SWATCHES FEOM THE LOOM. 151 of the middle ages in embroidering tapestry, or modern ladies in crotchet work. The climate of Egypt enforced cleanliness of apparel, or inflicted a penalty ; and we find Joseph doing then exactly what any person sent for to court might do now—he shaved and changed his rai¬ ment. Distinction in dress was at an early date a means of displaying and feeding vanity, and of implying honour and rank. The narration of an incident in patriarchal life leaves the impression that Jacob had, in his house¬ hold, servants who could dye cloth or yarns, or that he was in direct communication with tradesmen whom now we should call tartan manufacturers. The inference ■ from Genesis, 37th c., 3d v., is, that dyeing was accom¬ plished within the household. A ring on his finger, a gold chain on his neck, and vestures of fine linen, were Pharoah’s gifts to Joseph on his elevation to the Premier¬ ship of Egypt, which, as in all arbitrary countries, in¬ volved also our office of Chancellor of the Exchequer. An affecting domestic incident, related respecting Joseph, in¬ dicates a similar feeling in humbler life —he gave three changes of raiment to his “ half-brothers,” and five to Benjamin. Farther on in Scriptural history we meet similar instances. Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David,and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle. Dress early became, and still continues, an indication of rank. Professional costumes existed at latest in the wilderness—Exodus, 28th chapter. Certain dyes were confined to the aristocracy or to members of the royal family. Purple robes were among many nations limited to the chief magistrate. Probably the last official act of the last Emperor of Babylon was the order to place a scarlet robe and a chain of gold on Daniel. A Persian 152 SWATCHES EEOM THE LOOM. Emperor, in tlie second or third generation afterwards, ordered the royal apparel to he placed on the porter at his gate, as a badge of honour. The progress of wealth was marked by refinements in dress. David, in his wild lamentation over the deaths of Saul and Jonathan, calls on the daughters of Israel to weep over Saul, “ who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel.” During or shortly after Saul’s reign, manufactures for the pur¬ pose of traffic appear to have been followed by the He¬ brews. Saul was a shrewd man, and a patriotic monarch, who was likely to perceive the value of manufactures, and to encourage their establishment. The Tyrians, who ex¬ celled in the arts, and especially in their dyes, were his neighbours; and they were on amicable and friendly terms with his successors, David and Solomon. At any rate, some ground is given for the inference, by comparing the words of David, already quoted, with those of his son, in the singularly minute character of a virtuous woman, contained in the last chapter of Proverbs—“ She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.” She prepares against the winter season, or, as it is poeti¬ cally expressed, “ She is not afraid of the snow, for all her household are clothed with scarlet.” She attends closely to her domestic arrangements, and “ maketh her¬ self coverings of tapestry.” Industry and skill place her in easy circumstances, for “her clothing is silk and pur¬ ple.” The characteristic which indicates the existence of manufactures for commercial purposes among the He¬ brews, in their days of national strength, is mentioned in a subsequent verse,—“ She maketh fine linen and sell- eth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchants.” The habits thus celebrated by Solomon degenerated SWATCHES FROM THE LOOM. 153 into a luxurious and vain passion for dress, denounced by Isaiah, 3d chap., 16th verse, &.C., which had not been worn out by centuries of reverses and trouble—1st Peter, 3d chapter, and 3d verse; but the abuse of the trade did not affect its character, for at the commencement of the Christian era virtuous women were still dealing in purple, employed in dyeing, or producing and selling fine cloths; just as at the same period other females were found en¬ gaged in labours closely resembling those of the clothing societies at the present day. Dress was emblematical of the feelings among the He¬ brews and other Oriental nations, as it is still in both East and West. The Israelites, in extreme sorrow, rent their clothes, and wore sackcloth. Ahab “rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.” The King of Nine¬ veh “ arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.” The practice extended over all Eastern countries. The domestic customs and manners of the Hebrews apparently resembled those of the neighbouring kingdoms, and simi¬ lar customs have been retained by the western nations. The scarlet robes of Samaria and the famous mantle of the prophet had a common origin. Both were derived from the earth. The rough garment that merely served as a covering from the heat and a protection from the cold, had the lineage of the gorgeous apparel worn in king’s palaces. The manufactures of Hindostan, shown in the Exhibition, evinced manipulation no less skilful than the products of Europe. The Hindoo weavers have not im¬ proved their art during many generations, and they atford gratifying ideas regarding the state of Oriental manu¬ factures at a far distant period. Their spinning apparatus 154 SWATCHES EROM THE LOOM. and rude looms equal the productions of costly machinery in this country. A scarf passed through a finger ring indicates a fabric like the gossamer for lightness, while their designs are often good and their dyes are excellent. The celebrated cashmere pattern in shawl-weaving was copied from Indian work, and the designs of Norwich and Paisley are chiefly founded on that basis. The Hindoo artists and workmen link Asiatic to European manufac¬ tures. Their productions indicate the state of art when Petrea, Tyre, and Alexandria were great commercial towns, and Babylon was the highest mart for manufac¬ tures—the London of those days, with its aristocratic quarter, its hanging gardens for parks, its Spitalfields, and, we do not doubt, its distressed silk weavers. The wonderful nature of vegetables, used for clothing purposes, is more apparent in tracing the flax grown in our own country to the finer cambrics produced in Irish looms, than by references to distant operations. The flax seed give no promise of the future cambric in their ap¬ pearance. They are buried in the earth, are partially decomposed and apparently die. The dew descends by night, and the sun shines by day, until by and bye, a thin, almost imperceptible, and pitifully weak and white stalk begins to rise from the small decomposing mass. This is the resurrection of the plant. Man cannot advance the great work. The curious little stem presses its way through the covering of earth, and becomes green when it meets the air and light. Then it shoots forth vigorously. Its roots search around its nativity for the nourishment necessary to the plant in its rapid growth. Weeks of warmth pass over and find its top waving three feet from the earth, and a small blue flower appears to clothe the flax-field with beauty. More weeks and more warmth SWATCHES EEOM THE LOOM. 155 find the beauty of youth fading into the maturity of man¬ hood. The seed are formed and the flax is pulled, hut the continuance of the species has been secured. The stems are tied in bundles steeped and prepared for the scutching-mill. They are then separated, and the stalks torn into their many fibres before they come into the spinner’s hands, who is to draw them into those microscopic threads of which a pound would measure a hundred miles. Thread of fifty miles per lb. is spun in some of the Scotch mills, and a square yard of fine linen from that yarn weighs three oz. The finest yarns produced in the Exhibition were spun from cotton, by Messrs. Houldsworth, of Manchester, who succeeded in drawing one pound of cotton into a double thread of 324 miles long, and another pound in a single thread to the length of 338 miles. The cost of this micro¬ scopic yarn is given at £28 per pound, and although the finest cotton had been used, yet the original cost of the raw material, after allowing for loss in spinning, must have been only a few shillings, since Sea Island cotton sells for one shilling per pound, and even less. These bundles are not, however, the greatest achievements of this firm, but only the length of yarn in one pound of weight, to which they had attained in 1840. They subsequently reached double that length ; and, as their final efifort, to the date of the Exhibition, they produced one pound of thread measuring rather more than one thousand miles. The progress of science in the cultivation of flax will produce a superior article than cotton, even for those pur¬ poses in which the latter is now preferred. The contri¬ butions of the Belfast Flax Society in the Exhibition evinced great improvements during the last ten years; and the specimens shown by M, Claussen promised the sub- 156 SWATCHES FROM THE LOOM. stitution of flax for other raw materials by his process of preparing the fibre. The cultivation of flax will probably, therefore, be greatly extended in this country. Farmers who have cultivated this crop for many years, say that it repays their expenses, and yields, as industry ever should yield, a fair remuneration for their labour, risk, and skill. It is a religious doctrine that industry should support the industrious, and the society is artificially diseased when that object is not effected. “ In the sweat of thy face shat thou eat bread”—Genesis, 3d c., 19th v.; but still the means of procuring bread were provided, and were to be successful in return for labour. The old objections raised against the growth of flax by landowners have been answered, and must soon be en¬ tirely removed. The propriety of extending, in the British Isles, this production of temperate climates is evident. During this year vast numbers of the rural population have fled from their own country to seek in other lands the comfort and independence which it refuses. The operation does not imply only the transference of a super¬ abundant population to some quarter where their in¬ dustry is more requisite than here, but a great change in the character and circumstances of those who remain. The large towns still increase with the rapidity, or more than the rapidity, of former decennial periods. The rural dis¬ tricts, and the towns evidently belonging to and supported by them, are alone stationary, while many counties have receded in population. The exodus of the Irish is one of the remarkable events of modern times ; which will be regarded with greater interest by the historian, who em¬ braces generations in his inquiries, than the politician who regulates his views by present wants. The decrease of population in agricultural and pastoral counties may SWATCHES FBOM THE LOOM. 157 be traced to several causes ; but among others, the de¬ fective application of art to agriculture in those districts operates partially to prevent the increase of their inhabit¬ ants. The symptom is unfavourable to morals ; for a thinly-peopled parish will not generally possess the same advantages of moral and religious instruction that a more numerous population, located on the same breadth of soil, can command. A county of foresters, game- keepers, and shepherds, would naturally present a lower scale of intellect and morality than one carefully culti¬ vated and thickly sprinkled over with little villages. The growth of flax is calculated to check the depopulation of the rural districts. The common linen trade, hitherto centred chiefly in the north-eastern counties of Scotland, in Ulster, and some districts of the north of England, requires a far larger amount of flax than our islands supply. In 1845, our entire exports of linen goods and yarns were worth no more, or little more, than the value of the flax imported. The accounts nearly balanced then, but their position has been partially changed since that date, and farther improvements might be advantageously efi*ected ; for the skilful culture of ten acres of flax, re¬ quires a greater amount of labour, and chiefly of that class of labour which commands a small remuneration in rural districts, than any other kind of crop usually pro¬ duced in our climate. The linen manufacture has always hitherto been more difiiised over a considerable space of country, and less centralised in large towns, than some other branches of trade ; and if the growth of flax were more generally pursued, the manufacture would follow the material to those villages where water-power exists, with obvious advantage to the operatives, in many particulars. The linen trade, from its origin to the highest appli 158 SWATCHES FROM THE LOOM. cation of art, has a satisfactory character; while the cotton business has many painful reflections connected with its commencement. Great Britain alone requires more than eight hundred tons of cotton daily, of which seven hundred tons are raised by slave labour ; and a finite mind can form no adequate idea of the crime in¬ curred, and the cruelty perpetrated by man on man, be¬ fore the cotton, in its state of raw material, is landed on our quays. The application of art to its production al¬ lowed the growth and present extent of this gigantic trade in cotton. It has to be cleaned from the seed which is found imbedded in the wool. The operation oc¬ cupied many persons ; and cotton could not have been supplied at its present price, except for the “ gins,” by which the separation of the seed is now effected. The flax trade possesses all the associations of great an¬ tiquity. An interest attaches to any process which ap¬ proaches the world’s age; and the manufacture of linen was pursued at the earliest period of which we possess records. Like our cotton trade, the fine linens of Egypt were stained by slave labour. Like the flax trade, the production of cotton goods will yet be relieved from that indignity. The footsteps of art will rescue the world from this great crime. The railways of India, and the liberated coasts of Africa, will yet give Great Britain stainless cotton; and this vast manufacture, which directly employs multitudes of freemen, will not always present its beautiful products with blood-spots indelibly scattered over their history. Although for a time art may be the servant of sin, yet it ultimately vindicates the object of science, in aiding to liberate the “bonded labourer.” The departments of the Crystal Palace occupied by the various products of the loom and the needle formed SWATCHES EROM THE LOOM. 159 a highly interesting and profitable study. The vast number of persons employed in the preparation of goods in these classes, the complete division of labour in their arrangements, the numerous natural objects brought together in one article, the high degree of art required for their combination, and the comparative comfort at¬ tained in recent times to the families of the industrious, by the abundance of material and the cheapening of production, were all matters for gratitude and thankful¬ ness. The exercise of art in the processes of manufacture creates a fraternity in employment between the tropical labourer and the artisan of temperate countries. It effects an equality of benefits between the holders of realised property and the producers of property, which all good men will delight to contemplate. An intelligent curio¬ sity would rejoice to know the price per yard that the ladies of the good Queen Margaret’s court would have paid for the printed cottons and ginghams, produced in Glasgow or Manchester for the millions of all countries. The embroidered dresses for infants and children of the middle and industrious classes, shown at the Exhibition, and sold in thousands, rival, probably, in real beauty, the robes wrought by high-born ladies of the “Norman” race, for that “Maiden of Norway” whose early death plunged Scotland and England into their most terrible war. The equality proposed by continental theorists is a barren speculation ; but that equality which is formed by raising the lowly, or reducing the comforts of existence to their level, is not only practical, but one of the valuable changes daily progressing towards accomplishment. Illustrations from the vegetable world are often em¬ ployed in the sacred writings. That arrangement indi¬ cates beneficence. The transference of land-marks from 160 SWATCHES FROM THE LOOM. this visible world into those high regions of doctrine and duty was kindly meant for man. The mind rejoices to meet in the demesne of spiritual study traces of the flowers that adorn, or the grass that clothes, this lower world, and the plants of earth by which material existence is sustained. Admirable are the products of our looms from the genius in design and skill in execution displayed by them. They scarcely could be less than admirable, for we remember the origin of this genius and this skill. But the workman, busy on the varied yarns employed to complete his fabric, can hardly fail to see the infinitely superior genius and skill that supplied the material. The con¬ trast between the cambric cloth and the flax seed, or the plant with its blue flowerets, or the withered stalk, would justify the reason of an uninformed man in doubt¬ ing their identity. The way of the flax seed to the beauty, and the honour, and the usefulness of our finest cloths has been through a double death. It has been a way beset, apparently from the beginning, with destruc¬ tion. Each stage was surrounded with apparent difficulties; but the small round seed, from the day of its formation, bore within it the germ of those qualities that were to distinguish the fine linen white and pure—so white and pure that it is made the emblem of innocence and the symbol of righteousness. The linen web would have been impossible, if long before the want arose it had not been foreseen and met. The prescience of the Creator foresaw, and his power provided for the weavers’ wants in that time when He said “ Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind;” and so among the songs of the loom there should ever rise first the hymn “ Marvellous are thy works, 0 Lord, in wisdom hast thou made them all.” ART AND FAITH, H FMGBENTS FROM THE GREAT EXHIBITION. THE SEED Ilf THE FURROWS. That class in the Exhibition devoted to suhstancesused as food was poorer in the British than any other depart¬ ment. The colonists partially supplied the deficiency, and the United States had a number of articles connected with this class which were calculated to vindicate the agricultm’al claims of the West; but the British farmers and provision-dealers either had few novelties to offer, or neglected to produce them. The collection of Scottish plants by Messrs. Lawson, of Edinburgh, was the only systematic effort to show the vegetable wealth of the country; and it was not confined to articles used for food. The agricultural implements were more fully represented than their results, although that collection contained few articles that were not previously and widely known. The Commissioners had pressed all kinds of productions into this class that by any process of reasoning, however erroneous, could be dragged into the compartment. Peat- charcoal and fuel were exhibited in one place under Class 3. Various specimens of cigars and tobacco were enrolled as food. Numerous packets of hops were shown • along with small quantities of starch. The most im¬ portant contributions in the department were preserved meats. The number of cattle killed in Australia, in South America, and in Russia, for what butchers here would pro¬ bably term the offals is immense; and it certainly appeared that their flesh might be advantageously preserved, ex^ ! K 162 THE SEED IN THE EIJEEOWS. ported to this country, and sold for a low price. The experience of Sir John Ross, in his Arctic Toyages, places the capability of storing “ preserved meats” for many years beyond doubt. The object is attained by various processes, of which the results were shown; but the general fact that the flesh of animals slaughtered far from markets, may be thus made available for the supply of food in crowded localities, should not be overlooked. The quality will not be equal to “ home production” in many respects, but it should be healthful and cheap. The destruction of animal life is effected in the colonies and countries already named for minor purposes; and if it can be made subservient to the wants of our population by science, even vegetarians will not, on humane principles, object to the use of the world’s resources. The chief food of mankind has hitherto been, and al¬ ways will be, of direct vegetable origin, Man in a state of innocence derived his support from that source. The herbs of the field were originally given for that purpose. , The grant was subsequently extended—Genesis, 9th chap., and 3d verse; but it has been denied that animal food was used, or justly used, by the antediluvians. A record of any clear right to destroy animals for food does not exist prior to the deluge; but the absence of any authority for the practice will not imply that it was un¬ known. The antediluvians did many things which they were forbidden to attempt, and they were not likely to pause in any course for want of authority to proceed. Animal food is not habitually consumed at the present day in Eastern and Southern countries. Vegetables still form in all lands the staff of life, and in many lands—and those densely crowded with inhabitants—they are almost the exclusive support of the population. Various causes THE SEED IN THE EURROWS. 163 may be assigned for the abstinence of these nations from animal food. The general poverty of the inhabitants may form one reason of their preference for the cheaper article. Another, and an obvious cause, exists in the nature of the climate; and a third in national prejudices and religious opinions. But three-fourths, or nine-tenths, of the food of the human family are directly and imme¬ diately derived from the vegetable kingdom. Its riches seem illimitable. After the experience and the inquiries of many thousand years new and valuable plants are still discovered, and new qualities ascertained in those pre¬ viously known, while fresh stimulants in tillage multiply the productive powers of others long cultivated. The raw material of clothing and food was not gen^a^ly, displayed with the anxiety and care shown for other prodiic-ts. The agriculturist and the horticulturist did not produce their goods with the zeal evinced by the artist and the manu¬ facturer; but the latter, indeed, exhibited the vegetable kingdom in its more complicated forms. Complaints of the distribution of medals by the juries have been made by disappointed competitors. Some of these remonstrances may be founded in fact; but the gentlemen who acted as jurors invariably exempted their own goods from competition, and voluntarily suifered all the loss incurred by the want of a medal. In some ^ departments the rule respecting jurors actually inflicted l| loss. Several producers advertise that their articles have j gained medals; and they have the means of making that I announcement because certain other goods, in the same i department, were taken out of competition upon the con- 1 : sent of their proprietors to act as jurors. The arrange¬ ment was altogether erroneous. The jurors should not ; have been exhibiters—and they should not even have been 164 THE SEED IN THE EUEKOWS. producers of the articles on the merits of which they were to decide, hut dealers. This rule, although ohjectionahle, should he remembered when the accuracy of the awards is questioned; and those in Class 3, are not all consistent with the apparent object of the department. Tobacco is not food; and prize medals for cigars are improperly be¬ stowed in the class of “ substances used as food.” One exhibitor stated, that he had made experiments at his own cost in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, with the hope of producing in this country a substitute for pota¬ toes, which are now deemed a dangerous crop. Two descriptions of lentil were exhibited from South Queens- ferry, in the vicinity of Edinburgh. They had been suc¬ cessfully ripened, although the crop, like rice, is generally considered one of the monopolies of warm countries. Another exhihiter from the same quarter, produced a plant which bears the Gaelic name of “ morthan,” called in English “ large red mace,” and scientifically known as the “ Typlia Catifolia.'*' The fibres of the stem are cap¬ able of conversion into lint, and the central part of the root can he ground into meal, which is said to he agree¬ able and palatable. The plant prospers in marshy soils; and might be made a valuable addition to our routine of crops, which is extremely confined and monotonous. Po¬ tatoes are comparative strangers to our climate and soil; and it is probably erroneous to suppose that the produc¬ tive powers of Nature are so far narrowed that assistance might not be found to them in their present distressed and unsettled condition. The capabilities of vegetables in accommodating themselves to climate and soil have never been fully tried. They can be partially acclima¬ tised, like the various races of mankind. Several parcels of British silk were shown, which, on a cursory glance. THE SEED IN THE FURROWS. 165 appeared to be excellent in quality. The fig tree bas pro¬ duced ripe fruit in Morayshire in 1851. We have seen a fig tree farther south in the open air, with a heavy crop. A substitute for tea, endowed with its pleasant qualities, was sent to the Exhibition by an English gentleman. Another sent a loaf of sugar, produced from sugar-cane grown in Surrey. The German agriculturists produce rice freely and profitably in a climate not superiorto many parts of Britain or Ireland. The continental farmers now supply in mangel-wurzel the material of more than half the sugar required in central and southern Europe. Indian corn has been imported into this country, and especially into Ire¬ land, in large quantities for several years; but maize was shown in the Crystal Palace which had been successfully' grown in England; and Indian corn has been ripened in Ismail quantities in Scotland. It has also been matured in Ulster, the northern province of Ireland; and even when the plant does not fully ripen it maybe used as an addition to green crops. The importance of this department rests on the necessity of providing food for the population. Some political economists have lived in dread of universal desti¬ tution and hunger, from the increase of population. The Malthean school of economists treat the question of popu¬ lation as they would a glut of cotton prints in the Calcutta market. Modern political economy teaches some wretched vagaries, arising out of the common mistake that man is I wiser than his Maker. Immortal souls are altogether different from mule-twist or railway bars. Over-produc- Jtion has been for years the chorus of politicians when the j cotton, linen, silk, or woollen market became dull and i‘prices fell. The phrase is absolutely erroneous. Opera¬ tives cannot over-produce, in the proper sense of the : term, while they and their families are not over-clothed 166 THE SEED IN THE EHREOWS. and over-fed. Society should have a better cure for temporal embarrassments than idleness. Even in the goods’ department over-production is merely an apology for errors. Over-population is a still greater error. An acre may he over-peopled, hut God made this world large enough for all whom He will send here. The powers of the soil astonish the inquirer when they are properly elicited. Prize barley in the Exhibition was grown in a field in Perthshire, 600 feet above the level of the sea. A second Scottish farmer produced wheat grown in Cawdor, of the first crop from land “ formerly worthless,” which yielded five quarters per acre. The weight per bushel was far over the average of the markets, and nearly the highest in the Exhibition. Some English wheat was produced which yielded four and a-half qrs. per acre; hut one English grower transmitted a peculiar variety of wheat which yields seven qrs. per acre. Thes tatements regard¬ ing it leave the inference that this is the yield of average soil. The additional two quarters per acre are equal to a high rental, and would throw the fears of the Maltheans far forward. The Perthshire barley read a solemn lesson to many persons in present circumstances. Men will he “not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord,” who are profitably imbued with Christianity. The heir of an honoured Scottish name and a large portion of the country, recently attended three different meetings within a short time. One was for the promotion of agriculture; but he iutimated his ignorance of that topic, which was naturally his business. A second was connected with a useful institution for the destitute young of large towns. The third was devised to expedite emigration, at the pub¬ lic cost, from a Scotch county, which has recently fallen in population, but increased in deer forests and waste THE SEED IN THE FURROWS. 167 land. The great landowner, who avowed his ignorance of land and its culture, although he sympathised with the condition of juvenile paupers in lanes, was yet clearly not diligent in his business, when waste lands were growing wider and more desolate, to afford better sport on his estates; and the lanes of large towns were crowded with the sweepings of his county. The barley grown at Pit- lochrie, Perthshire, si^ hundred feet above the sea-level, condemns vehemently the favourite policy in the manage ¬ ment of the north and west of Scotland. The informa¬ tion of a religious man is extremely defective who ima¬ gines that he can depopulate a parish for his own grati • fication; or who does not remember that he must give an account for the use of his hereditary acres. They are talents committed to his care. The flowers and fruits of the earth serve to illustrate many important truths in the history of man. The up¬ right person “is like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; his leaf also shall not wither —1st Psalm, 3d v.; while the hypo¬ crite resembles the rush without mire, and those who forget God, the flag that grows without water, in the language used by Bildad the Shuhite, in Job, 8th c., 10th V., &;c. The apostle James, desiring to exhibit the vanity of riches, compared the rich man to the flower of the grass, which endures only for a short season and withereth away. The common doom is contrasted with the death of flowers in the 103d Psalm, 15th and 16th verses:—“ The wind passeth over it, and it is gone.” The Psalmist probably referred to the scorching wind of the desert, with which the Hebrews could not be un¬ acquainted, and by which vegetable life is burned up, and animal existence is destroyed. The same idea is 168 THE SEED IN THE EURROWS. again employed in Isaiali, 40tli c., Gth, 7tli, and 8tli vs.; and it is apparently quoted by the apostle Peter in bis 1st Epistle, 1st c., 24tb and 25th vs.:—“ All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away. ” These illustrations are natural, and extremely touching. A sombre tint hangs over an October evening. The rust¬ ling of the brown, crumpled, and J^llen leaves before the rough wind, has a kindred effect on the mind to those hollow, solemn sounds that rise from the few spadefuls of earth which fall immediately on the coffin. “ The last rose of summer;” drooping on its stalk, proclaims, in a very low voice, but with a thrilling and touching power, the temporary character of earthly distinctions. The poetry of nature at all seasons reaches the heart; and the death of the flower forms a beautiful emblem of the death of man. The analogy does not stop even in the grave. It may be fairly drawn beyond and out of the charnel-house. We are certain of that fact, for the Spirit of God c^irried it farther in the inspired writings. A chapter of marvellous beauty in reasoning, and comfort in its conclusions—the 15th of Paul’s 1st Epistle to the Corinthians—refers us to the common and most useful plants for facts in some degree analogous to the great doctrine of the resurrection. “ That which thou sowest is not quickened except it die.” The faith exercised by the farmer in the spring-time of the year is most beau¬ tiful, and trusting ; like a child’s. The grain in his barns and yards is more than half consumed. The bleak and brown fields around his dwelling present no evidence of their future fertility. The March winds are bitter and sharp ; promising not to foster and nou¬ rish the life of a tender plant, but to blast it on its first THE SEED IN THE EUEROWS. 169 appearance. Yet how does the farmer act ? He takes the choice seeds from his remaining store, and throws them into those bleak fields. To render their death secure he buries them in the cold earth, and covers them care¬ fully with the soil. A rational man, entirely unacquainted with agriculture, who had not previously seen the simple and universal processes of farming, and had never read an account of rural proceedings, would denounce a coun¬ try parish in the spring-time as a large bedlam, and its population as dangerous lunatics. The practice and its results are universal, and therefore their peculiarities are overlooked ; but let any man, endeavouring to sepa¬ rate his experience from his mind, deal with the sub- I ject abstractly, and he must pronounce the operations of ! seed-time to be apparently irrational, and entirely melan- i choly in their consequences. If he turn up the soil a I few days after the insertion of the seed, he will find the apparent ruin of the grains of corn completed. They are dead, decomposed, and useless to man ; but there is life in this death, increase in this decomposition, I and support to man in this apparent destruction of the bread of life. Only a few weeks, or a few days farther, pass until those brown fields are made green with pro- I mise, and in a few months they become glad with the [ golden fulfilment of the world’s hopes. The analogies I of Scripture are always natural and never overdrawn. ' “ Cast thy bread upon the waters,” has had numerous explanations ; but it almost evidently refers to the seed¬ time of rice—the wheat of oriental and tropical countries —which is literally sown, under the most skilful culture, upon the water to the present day, and can scarcely be produced except on irrigated or marshy soils. The belief of inspiration does not interfere with the opinion 170 THE SEED IN THE FURROWS. that inspired prophets and writers evinced their natural modes of thought and talent in the productions ascribed to them. That circumstance clothes many beautiful passages of Scripture with a mournful interest. All readers must have noted the splendid genius of Balaam, in the brief records that have reached us of that prophet and poet’s sayings; and yet his gifts were unable to shield him from the results of greed. In his verses he borrows similes largely from the vegetable creation. The tents of Israel are “as gardens by the river’s side”—they are “as the trees of lign-aloes which the Lord has planted”—they are “as cedar trees beside the waters.” In the next verse—the 7th V. of 24th c. of Numb.,—he describes literally the sowing of rice along with the process of irrigation—“ He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters.” The literal character of this quot¬ ation has been noticed by those who have enjoyed op¬ portunities of witnessing the modes of sowing and trans¬ planting rice now pursued by eastern nations. And their systems, to the ignorant, leaning on their rational conclusions alone, would appear yet more irrational and foolish, if possible, than the proceedings of the farmers in temperate countries towards their grain. The rice is cast upon the waters, or the waters are immediately cast upon it, and the seeds are not only buried in the earth, but the earth that contains the seeds is buried in the water. When the seed germinates, and the plant, hav¬ ing pierced the earth, begins to appear above the waters, it is plucked up, its top is cut of, and it is then trans¬ planted into a strange soil, where it flourishes, and ripens, and brings forth food to a majority of the human race. All these processes appear to be in themselves ex¬ tremely “ irrational;” and yet it would be worse than THE SEED IN THE EUEROWS. 171 irrational” to deny their eflSciency. Human reason, until taught by facts, could not discover that the most suitable means for multiplying the bread of temporal life was to destroy the grains from which it is formed. The doctrine of the resurrection, which St. Paul illustrated by the agricultural processes of his time, is not more difficult to human intellect than the continuance and increase of rice by the plans adopted for its propagation. That fact does not prove the great doctrine of the resurrection of the body,hut after the promise has been given in Scripture, it removes the objection that it is unnatural and irrational. It then becomes an extremely natural doctrine. It, in other words, accords closely with the transactions observed in the vegetable kingdom. The propagation of food by frequent death and life was certainly unnecessary to the Creator, He might have adopted another mode, but he selected this plan, probably to keep the analogy before men—undoubtedly to sustain a feeling of complete and steady dependence on. His goodness and power. He might have made the wheat plant perennial. He could have bestowed on it the longevity and strength of the oak. He followed a different course, for wise reasons; and two of them may he to furnish, in doubting times, a perpetual witness to this grand doctrine of the resurrec¬ tion, in seed-time and harvest; and to render thankless recipients of His mercies inexcusable by their frequent renewal. The discoveries of science come out at singular intervals; so that an intelligent observer is compelled to believe that the facts are concealed until they are wanted. Balak, and Balaam, and all the host of Israel whom they overlooked while standing on the top of Poor, and turn¬ ing towards Jeshimon, died; and their dust has long been imperceptibly hid in the sands of the wilderness, and the 172 THE SEED IN THE EUEEOWS. soil on the mountains and valleys of Moah. This great globe of ours has become a vast sepulchre. Precious are the seed with which it has been sown. Precious to some forsaken mourner is every body carried down into the grave. Can these dry bones live ? Can the mounds of Nineveh again start into existence, and assume the bearing of living men? Will an organisation identified with that which clothed the long-forgotten chivalry, and poets, and politicians, apd patient workers of the past re¬ appear on the world ? That event differs widely from the propagation of plants by seed that have been only for a few days left in the cold earth. But it is not the circumstance that they have been for a few or many days in the earth that gives life to the seeds. The prin¬ ciple existed within them, and was educed by the pre¬ sence of the appointed agencies. Class 3 of the Exhi¬ bition was devoted to substances used as food. It was a hare and deficient section; and yet it contained some remarkable specimens. Several years ago an Egyptian mummy was opened. Three grains of wheat were found within the closed hand. The grains had been evi¬ dently placed there by the embalmers, or the friends of the dead. They were planted in one of our island gar¬ dens. After more than three thousand years’ concealment in the dead man’s hand, the principle of life remained in them. They died at last in the soil, but healthy and strong plants sprung from them, and ripened. The pro¬ duce was carefully preserved and re-planted through several seasons; and now we have from the mummy’s hand a new variety of wheat, of which the quality and quantity are both good. Life survived in the wheat through more than three millenniums; and no limit can be placed to its endurance. THE SEED IN THE FUEEOWS. 173 The earth is not indolent. If land is allowed to go out of cultivation, it will produce its own crop. “ The grass is growing on the streets” of deserted cities, hut no man cast the seed between the stones. Its existence was imperceptible. Men could not trace its presence. It was effectually hidden in the earth; but it was not less truly there than if the hand of the agriculturist had placed it in the soil. The existence of those living seeds, biding their time to spring forth into light, is not depen¬ dent on our power of vision to distinguish their forms among the atoms around them. It would be also irrational, and, as we see, unnatural, to argue that our incapacity to trace a germ of life in the decaying or decomposed dust of man, or in the frigid mummy from the land of the pyramids, infers the improbability of a resurrection. Some persons have stated that those ancient Hebrews who believed the immortality of the soul, did not expect the re-organisation of the body. This opinion is not founded on a careful analysis of ancient faith, or, we think, on any information contained in the Scriptures. The Saviour indeed brought “life and immortality” to light; but any person slightly acquainted with classical literature, knows that “ immortality,” as a fact, was be¬ lieved by even many Heathens long before the Christian era, although they knew little more of the subject than the bare consciousness of the fact. The popular super¬ stitions of heathen countries evidently lead upwards to a patriarchal period, when an expectation of the resurrection had been generally entertained. The mythology of ancient and oriental nations contains many fragments of truth. The atoning or sacrificial principle existed through nearly all the ramifications of the grossest corruptions. The judgment followed death, and an existence of happiness 174 THE SEED m THE EUREOWS. or misery followed the judgment. Pagan nations hear wit¬ ness to these great facts in all countries, in all their stages, and in all periods, with astonishing unanimity. Their fu¬ turity was accompanied hy fhe exercise of corporeal facul¬ ties and powers, and the existence of corporeal wants. Before the recovered world reached the age of many cen¬ turies men had forgotten the principles on which even their superstitions were founded; hut their origin was evidently combined with the idea of a future material existence and re-organisation—an idea which, unlike the immortality of the soul, could have scarcely originated in human reason, without some form or mode of revelation. Daniel distinctly and unequivocally believed and pro¬ claimed the resurrection of the body. Language cannot he plainer than the statements made hy him on this topic. The words of Isaiah, long before the days of Daniel, were equally distinct and precise—c. 26, v. 19, &c. Hosea is supposed to have been a contemporary of Isaiah, and the 14th V. of the 13th c. in his prophecies apparently refers to the resurrection. The most remarkable passages on this subject in earlier writings occur in the hook of Job. The belief in his time appears to have been general. He men¬ tions his own faith without any remark that could lead us to consider it singular or unusual. The verses, “ For I know that my Redeemer liveth,” &c.— 19th c., 25th, 26th, and 27th V., are not less distinct than any similar statement in the New Testament. The 14th chapter contains a chain of reasoning on this point, centring in the question, “.But man dieth and wasteth away, yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he ?” And the answer is, “So man lieth down and riseth not till the heavens he no more;” and in the prayer, “ 0 that thou wouldst hide me in the grave, that thou wouldst keep me secret until thy wrath THE SEED IN THE EUEEOWS. 175 be past.” Eliphaz the Temanite replies, “ What knowest thou, that we know not ? what understandest thou, which is not in us ? With us are both the grayheaded and very aged men, much elder than thy father.” The identity of this Eliphaz the Temanite might, if established, afford some clue to that of “the grayheaded and very aged men” who had told “from their fathers and had not hid” that faith and those facts on which they discoursed. Commentators now nearly agree in classing Job with the Idumeans. We know that he was a prince among his people, and occupied a high station. An incidental ac¬ count of the families of Esau and of Seir the Horite, occupies the 36th chapter of Genesis. Job is called a man of the land of Uz. There is little difference in opinion respecting the geographical position of the land. It is universally believed to be Idumea; and in the 36th chap¬ ter of Genesis, we are told that Seir had a grandson who was named “Uz.” One of the kings of Edom was “ Jobab the son of Zerah of Bozrah, ” a name which might be identified, without stretching the imagination, with “Job.” Esau’s eldest son was called Eliphaz, who for some reason named his eldest son “ Teman,” and this Teman became a chief or duke in Seir. Other names that occur in the Book of Job might be traced in the 36th chapter of Genesis. Elihu, the youngest of the speakers, is called the son of Barachel the Buzite, and a connection might have existed between this younger man and Jobab of Bozrah. Certainly an influential inhabitant of Bozrah would be distinguished as a Buzite. These coincidences may not identify Eliphaz the Temanite of the book of Job; but if they effected that purpose, we should be en¬ abled to recognise some of “ the grayheaded and very aged men” on whom he relied for information. 176 THE SEED IN THE EUEKOWS. The seed in the furrows gave hopes to these “ very old and very grayheaded men” of a future harvest, and emblems of that change on which they have long entered, and that restoration which will yet be accomplished. This bearing of common and familiar things on the greater destinies of mankind repays examination. The harmonious connection between the visible world and the world of faith is very pleasant and very profitable. All emblems affect the mind; and one so common as the seed in the field would exert an influence corresponding to its magnitude, if this kind of teaching were deemed advisable and more generally pursued. But the threads of connection be¬ tween the revelations in nature and those of Scripture are not sufficiently traced, and the labourers who till our fields derive little moral or religious benefit from the character of their trade. Those threads are often drawn very fine, but they never break away. A unity of purpose, like a veil thin and transparent, hangs over the revelation and the works of God, and thus no doctrine of Scripture is irrational or unnatural; inconsistent with art or with creation. The resurrection, solemn and thrilling as will be that promised re-animation of the dust in the earth, is consistent with many analogies in the world. The upspringing of bodies that have slept for a hun¬ dred ages is not the unnatural event that some have sup¬ posed. Terrible in its consequences, it requires no greater power than the animation of the seed in the furrow. The changes ever passing in our sight are not less miraculous than this great harvest of the world which will fulfil many promises, end the present stage of the world’s existence, and may precede a literal fulfilment of an oft-repeated assurance—“ The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever,”—37th Psalm, and 29th verse. ABT AND FAITH, IN PEAGHENTS PEOM THE GEEAT EXHIBITION, WEEDS AIVD WILD-FZ.OWEBS. i The diversity and the number of plants employed to , produce the results in manufactures shown in the Crystal Palace, were not considered by many thousands of the I spectators who examined that extraordinary collection. , More than one half of the space was occupied by the di¬ rect results of vegetable productions. The interest of ; cotton and flax and the various woods was apparent and recognised; but the less ostensible services of weeds and wild-flowers were not so fully acknowledged. The bril¬ liant dyes on the various fabrics produced have three dis¬ tinct origins—animal, mineral, or vegetable. On some common fabrics so many dyes are requisite that all the three general sources of supply have been employed; but a greater quantity of vegetable dye is used in this and in all countries than of animal or of mineral. The blue dye chiefly used in Europe for a long period was from “woad,” ' or, as the Dutch spell it literally, “ weede.” This shrub is still cultivated in some parts of England, chiefly in Lin- I colnshire, for manufacturing purposes. The dye is ex- i tracted from the roots, which are bruised by heavy ma¬ chinery—and the powder, after fermentation, is sold for the purposes of the dyer. The blue from “ woad” is per- I manent, but duller than the dye from indigo, which has I generally superseded the Saxon plant, although great |: exertions were made on the continent to keep out the 178 WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWEES. tropical invader, and maintain “ woad” in its old place. For many purposes the rivals are still mixed—the indigo gives brilliance and the woad imparts permanence. The preparation of woad has never been conducted with suffi¬ cient care in this country, and it is possible that the bo¬ tanical resources of temperate climates may he richer in dyes than our chemists yet believe. The neglected lichens of the British Isles often contain valuable colouring mat¬ ter, which has been, and is still. Used in some districts, and if carefully expressed might yield valuable additions to our products. Indigo is now chiefly cultivated in Hindostanj and that country supplies nearly all the demand for this dye in Europe. Those writers who have bestowed attention and inquiry on the history of this plant, allege that it was known to the ancients, and is mentioned by Pliny, in his Notes on Natural History; and they are apparently cor¬ rect. Pliny alleges that one dye was brought from India, and produced a “ wonderful mixture” of blue and purple. The existence of the indigo-fera —a common race of plants in oriental countries—must have been well known to the Phoenicians, who traded from Tyre and their other ports to the East, and who were proverbially curious in their dyes. But the foreign trade in this product was nearly lost to the Hindoos before their country fell into the pos¬ session of Britain. A hundred years ago our imports of indigo came principally from the West. The Spaniards found the indigo-fera in South America, and it was pro¬ bably used by the Americans and Peruvians for the pur¬ poses which it had long served in the East. The employ¬ ment of British capital in the growth of indigo has now en¬ abled Bengal and the other oriental presidencies almost to monopolise this production. The quantity used in Britain annually varies from two and a-half to four millions of WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWEES. 179 pounds; but the imports from India are eight to ten mil¬ lions of pounds, which are partly scattered over Europe, and the exports from Hindostan are still larger. The quality of indigo varies like the quantity, hut the average price may he 6s. to 8s. per pound. The plants of the indigo-fera are steeped in large vats, and the dye is precipitated. It is afterwards dried, and formed into the small cakes which are sold in this coun¬ try. Its value is often affected hy the incorporation of earthy matter, useless to the dyer. The great manu¬ factories of Britain, where indigo is consumed in large quantities, have mills for grinding and purifying the dye. The indigo is reduced to powder, and ground for eight or nine days under a heavy wheel, until the separate par¬ ticles are effectually crushed and mixed, so that nothing may he lost, and none of its powers are lost.' Sulphuric acid is used to dissolve indigo by dyers, before its em¬ ployment in their art. Uuhia Tinctorum is the scientific name of the various madder roots which are extensively used in this country for red dyes. The plant is a native of oriental and southern climes, hut has been naturalised in France and Holland. It has been grown in England, hut not extensively, for commercial purposes, hut it might be profitably cultivated in Ireland; and the quantity used in our manufactures is not less than 60,000 to 70,000 cwts. The value can¬ not he easily estimated, for the price varies greatly; hut the entire expenditure for this article may he d^l50,000 annually. One description of madder is imported from India; hut its cultivation for export has not been exten¬ sively pursued there for many years. Madder dyes are extracted nearly hy the same pro¬ cess as woad. The roots are dried in stoves before the 180 WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWEES. dyes are expressed. The small roots and the hark or skin of the larger roots are pounded or ground into powder together, which yields a cheap and indifferent dye. A medium article is obtained hy pounding the outer parts of the large roots; and the brightest and finest dye is produced hy the same process from their centre or heart. These three divisions are sometimes mixed, and produce a greater number of qualities in com¬ merce, of which the cost varies considerably, for the finest article is more than four times the price of the low and dark descriptions. The lichens of this and other temperate countries fur¬ nish several dyes. Red and blue orchil pastes were produ¬ ced in the Exhibition from this humble material. Liquors of the same character, and from the same sources, were shown for silk dyeing. Various colouring matters of ex¬ tremely fine and enduring shades are obtained from lichens and mosses. Cudbear is a purple dye extracted from them. The qualities and the hues of these dyes both vary. The finest cudbear is a very expensive article, and different shades are produced under the general title, which is popu¬ larly understood to be a corruption of Cuthbert, from the Christian name of the original patentee, Dr. Cuthbert Gordon. The archil or orchil dyes were prepared from a lichen procured in southern climates. The material has been known to command £1,000 per ton, but the price depends partly on the locality from which it comes. Eigh¬ teen or twenty years since Canary orchil sold for £300 per ton in London. The lichens from which cudbear is extracted grow commonly in this country. They, also, in their dried state are valuable, and even recently sold for £20 per ton. The same principle of manufacture prevails in all the lichen dyes, and with little change in WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWERS. 181 all vegetable dyes. They are dried, ground to powder, converted into pulp, saturated with ammoniacal liquor, and the colouring matter is separated by exposure, during agitation, to the atmosphere. The costly carmine and violet tints of the poor lichens and mosses thus pitilessly dried, and ground, and tortured, are brilliaiat dyes, but they are said not to be permanent, and are chiefly em¬ ployed in conjunction with indigo and madders, on which they confer a brilliancy that even the tropical products require to borrow. Torn from their peaceful nativity, the lichens are rendered useful by terrible trials. They pass through death to their position of honour and value. The orchil lichens were dead and dried at 1,000 per ton. They were broken, pounded to powder, mixed with new and strange ingredients, agitated, stirred, and ex¬ posed to many influences before they reached a propor¬ tionate price per lb., but they would reach it, for theirs was ultimately a high place on price lists. Art and na¬ ture witness that purity and worth are almost invariably the products of sufferings. One of the finest dyes is extracted from a beautiful annual flower freely grown in India, but never produced here, except as a hot-house plant. The flowers alone yield dyes —one of them a common yellow, and the other a rich red—fugitive when used alone, but at once the most beautiful and the most costly of red dyes. The safflower is almost entirely imported from the East Indies, and costs £6 to £7 per cwt.; but the quantity of the red dye expressed from the flowers is very small. Saffron is prepared from a bulbous plant, which may be cultivated in England. The various lichens and mosses of the Bri¬ tish Isles, if scientifically examined, might produce more and valuable dyes than they yield at present. Specimens I 182 WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWEES. of home-spun worsted were shown from the North of Scotland, in curious dyes, taken from native plants with¬ out much scientific preparation. The beautiful yellow dyes, easily extracted from the flowers of broom, give some reason to expect that more value exists in that and in other common vegetables than they have yet been made to yield. Paper is the most important of all vegetable produc¬ tions for the propagation of knowledge. Paper was ori¬ ginally formed from an Egyptian rush. The word is almost a literal rendering of “papyrus,” the name of that plant. Paper is now chiefly formed from cotton and linen rags. The process is very curious. After the vege¬ table fibre has served the world in one form, it is torn separate by powerful machinery, pounded by other ma¬ chinery with water into a paste, dissolved in a second deluge of water, caught in a sieve as a deposit, and spread out in thin sheets of paper. A British vegetable promises to yield a new material of paper; and it will he long ere the actual worth of British vegetables be fully known. A short time since a work was published, in con¬ nection with the Catholic series previously mentioned in these tracts, in which the author, who professes to be a minister of some religious denomination, undertakes to examine critically the books of the Old Testament; and concludes that they were not written before the date of the Jewish captivity in Babylon, because prior to that period the art of writing was unknown. The London weekly newspaper of the party—which circulates several thousand copies weekly—called for a refutation of this work, which Major Rawlinson was engaged in furnish¬ ing, without the consciousness that it would be required for that purpose, in his translations of the engravings WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWEES. 183 or writings on the monuments of Nineveh, which corre¬ spond literally with the Scriptural narratives where they are applicable to the same events. The monuments of Egypt—formed at a date probably prior to the birth of Moses, and certainly not posterior to the exodus of the Hebrews—contain figures of scribes sitting with a roll of papyrus, or parchment, before them, evidently used for the ordinary purposes of writing. The providential preserva¬ tion of these monuments, until a period when they can he authenticated, copied, and promulgated over the world, on, if not a better, assuredly a cheaper paper than that used by the Egyptians, is one of the remarkable evidences of care and design in the arrangement of those events which constitute man’s history. A specimen of cloth in the Exhibition, chiefly produced from bog cotton—a wild British weed that nobody loved—may be the precursor of a vast tillage and a great trade. The cotton plant, although the object of the largest commercial transaction in vege¬ table substances used for manufactures, is a disregarded and wild weed at this day in many parts of the African continent. “Weeds and wild-flowers’’are pleasant teachers; but all our flowers and plants were wild and weed-like once, and art was necessary for the improvement of their condition. Cultivation gives them no new characteristic, but it educes their qualities. It improves the beneficial, and restrains the baneful, tendencies of their race. The wild straw¬ berries, on an Irish bank or brae, differ widely from the fruit carefully cultivated in gardens; but that does not disprove the family connection. The wild roses in an English hedge are greatly inferior to those superb flowers which enrich their producers; but they are individuals of the same race. The wild rasps of Scotland are the 184 WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWEES. brethren of the fruit so successfully cultivated by many Scottish gardeners. The gowans of the field are the dai¬ sies of the flower-horder—those gentle daisies that were so loved by Heber, when he found them, like himself, exiled on the banks of the Ganges. Happy, and yet plaintive teachers are all our little flowers from their birth to their death. They tell in their beauty and bloom of their Crea¬ tor’s beneficence. They are lovely luxuries of creation. Mary Howitt, in one of her prettiest poems, says—as a groundwork for thankfulness—that “ God might have made the earth bring forth enough for great and small” —enumerates what might have been done, without danger to existence; and adds after, “but not a flower at all.” The beautiful forms and the rich dyes of our flowers are not necessaries of life; for bread might have fallen or grown for us like the manna in the wilderness, with all the con¬ tinuous monotony of the hoar frost on the sand. But ‘‘passing away” is written perpetually on them, as on all other living things and living beings. Thus they teach gratitude and fear—the first for the gift, and the second for its doom; because destruction is a fearful fate, from which ever the mind shrinketh, until unnaturally hard¬ ened by its crimes; and even then it shudders before and turns from the darkness that reason says would best suit its unforsaken and unforgiven guilt. Two classes of thinkers, or of writers, might bring their theories to the weeds and wild-flowers with advantage to them¬ selves, though not to their opinions. The school of pro¬ gress that makes the extremely crude work. The Ves¬ tiges of Creation, its last text-hook, and hints at growths of organisation, like those of turnips, from small to great, will find no support to their views in botanical studies. Men have laboured assiduously for the improvement of WEEDS AND WILD-FLOWEES. 185 plants, and they have reaped a rich reward. It was their earliest employment^and it wiU continue to the ^nd. The term “Art” should not he circumscribed hy imaginary lines. It absolutely covers the entire circle of industry. The Crystal -Palace itself was only the idea of a clever gardener,-and the skilful agriculturist .pursues the most valuable of arts. In that sense art has been employed’on weeds and wild-flowers for a very long period—fdr six -thousand years, or thereby—hut what has it done? The organisation'theofy, with all the aid of-art, has made’no. progress. The thistle -has not become a fig or-the thorn-a vine. The essential < con¬ ditions of vegetable existence remain unchanged. 'The qualities of-plants have been improved because ’that is man’s province ; but they continue the same • qualities— they are not new—they are not created—-they are only im- : proved. 'Left to itself the.plant never progresses. The species deteriorate, but they cannot advance. Even the retrogression of this organisation has a limit. The daisy will never, by any course of neglect, become less than-the gowan. Organisation might require ‘a long time indeed to reach manhood from froghood or wormhood, because the gulf is wide that separates them; but surely we might, in four or five thousand years, during which a succession! of intelligent men have watched over plants, have had some instance of grass stretching into oats, or oats rising up to the rank of wheat, if the theory had contained a particle of truth. It is a strange fancy for men who consider' them¬ selves the progeny of toads, or who believe that their race came from the mud through a respectable ancestry of lizards, to charge other people with credulity; but a man will take to such strange fancies that, while his body is unquestionably to be found in civilised society, of his l2 186 WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWERS. mind it must be true that, “ wild in bis woods the un¬ tutored savage runs,” since it is quite possible to have a misdirected though a strong growth of mind, as the gardeners find out to be the case annually in their de¬ partment of nature. This work, which caused some ex¬ citement in this country, is no more than the revival of a superstition, current among the .descendants of Cush, in the centre of Asia, after their traditions began to de¬ generate. This is not the only or the largest class of misdirected thinkers who might sit humbly down and take lessons from the flowers of the field. A still more numerous body deny the natural and universal corruption of the human heart—a doctrine clearly asserted in Scrip¬ ture, and a fact painfully experienced in life. The sar¬ casms which have been showered on this statement cannot move the support which it has in experience; but it also is singularly consistent with nature. The analogy between this doctrine and the position of natural objects is perfect to all the extent which their character can admit. All the flowers and plants that men require to cultivate are beauti¬ ful in their original state, yet they have an inferiority which is only removed by care. They do not remove it. They do not improve themselves. The labour and skill of the farmer or the gardener were requisite to bring them into their present condition of utility; and if these aids were withheld they would rapidly retrograde into their inferior, because their natural, state. Vegetable history is intimately wrought into our affections and feelings. We have witnessed the growth, the decay, and the reproduction of flowers and plants from infancy. The grass has withered and the flower has faded year by year before our eyes, since the first dawnings of perception. The flowers of summer and the wild fruit of autumn, have been more or WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWERS. 187 » less familiar to nearly all those who can revert to the days and years of a happy boyhood. This familiarity with all that class of objects in some measure deadens those impressions which they are calculated to produce. Their history might have more influence over minds less accus¬ tomed to their presence than those of this generation, yet our acquaintance with natural objects should not he narrowed, hut daily widened. We recollect to have sus¬ tained some inconvenience many years ago—in a night when snow was drifting fast and thick—from the anx¬ iety of a fellow-passenger, in the interior of a mail-coach, to open the window, and feast his eyes on the trees of Morayshire at every belt of wood on the highway. The scenery of Morayshire is often picturesque, hut a snow¬ storm and a hard frost do not increase the comfort of contemplating it by night from a coach window. Our companion explained his eccentric habits by stating, that for sixteen years previously he had not seen a tree which deserved the name. His anxiety on this subject would not have been remarkable if many other persons possessed similar experience; but trees are daily before our eyes, and because they are so common, and so near, the beauty of then- spring, and the warnings of their autumn, are practically overlooked. Our weeds and wild-flowers could teach a class far more numerous than any yet men¬ tioned. The wild-flowers of all countries require culture before they can occupy a place in the garden—and dili¬ gent care has been expended on their training. Social re¬ formation in society, or in the world, can only he reached by the same channel. Three-fourths of mankind, in our estimation, only yet occupy, in social existence, the place of weeds and wild-flowers in the scale of vegetable life. The means of improvement have not been communicated 188 WEEDS AND WiLD-FLOWEES. % to them. The ignorance of many, the prejudices of others, and the want of energetic action and organisation, in all cases, have for a long period rendered the teaching of Christianity in hedthen countries, corhpdratively inefS.- ’cient. The natur'al'analogy between ‘all departments of creatire ahd'providential Works, is not exactly compre- ‘hended by many persons who expect spiritual aid, for the regeneration of the world, without an adequate or propor¬ tionate exercise of temporal means. The dew descends, the rain falls, and the sun shines without affecting the slightest improvement on the natural strawberry plant. It con¬ tinues to bring forth smair berries, and sometimes sour as before. Art and man's labour are required to enlarge 'and improve the fruit of the ‘plant; but they would be perfectly useless without the dew, the rain, and the sun. A similar coiinectioti of agencies may'be generally requi- ' site in mental work; and men who expect rapid revolu¬ tions '6f mind, signalised by remarkable facts or feelings, which admit of being dated past in the memory, forget, perhaps, the greater influence ascribed to the gentle dew that distils unseen from heaven, than the rain which falls in torrents, accompanied by hurricane and storm. The dew almost invariably formed a part of patriarchal bless- ‘ ings. Jacob was to be enriched by “the dew of heaven”—■ ' Gen.,-27th c., and 28th v. In the very affecting farewell "address of Moses—Deuteronomy, 33d c., and 13th v.—< 'Joseph was blessed, among other great gifts, “for the 'dew;” and of Israel generally it is said, “his heavens shah drop down dew.” Job describes his original prosperity in the words, “ My root was spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.” The favour of monarchs is as “the dew upon the grass”—Prov., 19th c., and 12th v. A description of peaceful and prosperous WEEDS AND WILD-PLOWEES. 189 times inyolves, among other agricultural promises, that “the heavens shall give their dew”—Zechariah, 8th c., and 12th v. The figure is employed to denote chiefly the change to which we refer consequent on a nation’s conver¬ sion, which is nothing more than the conversion of many individual minds—“ I will be as the dew unto Israel”— Hosea, 14th c., and 5th v.—hut the entire chapter vindi¬ cates the comparison instituted in these pages. Famine is caused by the absence of dew—^Haggai, 1st c., 10th v. —^and yet this mighty agent is imperceptible, to a pro¬ verb—2d Samuel, 17th c., 12th v. It is quite probable, therefore, that although “ Paul may plant and Apollos water,” yet the increase is not always, and not often to be expected, except in some analogy with the correspond¬ ing natural results in the material world. Science now acknowledges the utility of all the weeds and wild-flowers of earth; although yet it has not converted them all into practical value. Faith far more confidently makes a simi¬ lar declaration concerning the “ weeds and wild-flowers” of the moral world; hut it lingers wretchedly in its labour of conversion. Adequate strength cannot he put forth to grapple with the ignorance and the misery in om* vast possessions, when the means of dealing effectually with the weeds of home are wanting. A bitter, though an early, frost of this autumn season had cleared the streets of a large city from all young children who had comfortable homes, before nine o’clock, on a clear cold night, when a little girl, four years old, or thereby, bare-footed and shiver¬ ing, offered for sale a box of “ fine lucifer matches. ” The infant’s tale to the passengers was common and sad. She wanted to raise threepence to pay her own and her mother’s lodgings. She was one of two hundred or three hundred infant match-dealers, engaged during that biting night L 3 190 WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWEES. on the same mission in that great city, where many nomi¬ nal Christians scarcely know, in carpeted, curtained, and cushioned rooms, on what new luxury to expend those surplus incomes for which they do say that they must account at the great day of judgment. The child’s mother is probably a had weed, cheating the parish by mis-appro- priating a small out-of-door allowance, and the parochial inspectors are perhaps willing to he cheated, for credu¬ lity is less troublesome than inquiry; hut the infant is a wild-flower which might he sheltered and trained into usefulness. On the same piercing evening, a woman sat at the corner of a street with two little children, two to three years old, blue and perishing in the hitter frost. One of our nominal Christians, wealthy in his way, passed them to a sumptuous supper in his warm dining-room, with a shrug and a truism regarding had and drunken mothers. The mother is probably very had and cruel, but what are the children ? Bad mothers are extremely common. A very had, and not an old mother, was stag¬ gering on a busy street with a little child in her arms. Another, and an apparently respectable woman, had guided the drunkard so far, and twice protected the infant from a fearful fall, but their ways parted. A man shrinks from the task of conveying a drunken woman and her infant through streets where he is unknown; but the poor child slept in the arms of its rough nurse, and its long fair hair, and blue, cold, small hands were very like other white locks and little hands ; and so a passenger con¬ veyed the woman and her infant to the nearest House of Refuge. The managers of these houses should be com¬ passionate men. This institution is supported by sub¬ scriptions, and admission is refused to intoxicated per¬ sons. The rule may be good or bad, but, being on the WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWEKS. 191 books, it should be mildly observed. In this case it was harshly enforced. Two men stood at the great door—fat, large men, with shining, “greasy faces,” and their hands thrust deep into their pockets. The woman stumbled on the steps, and would have fallen with the child, if a pas¬ senger had not prevented the probable death of the in¬ fant. The merciful men—paid substitutes of the benevo¬ lent—stood quietly one on each side of the child in danger. They excused their conduct by asserting that they had no business with the case. So falsely said Cain, “Am I m‘y brother’s keeper?” So, no doubt, said the Levite and the Priest—lazy, fat loungers on the Jewish road. What busi¬ ness had they with the Samaritan ? They were not paid to help the aliens. But Christianity debars that plea. The reporter of the proceedings in a Scottish criminal court found himself, again during the passing autumn, unable to describe the appearance of one prisoner, be« cause her head did not rise above the bar. She was charged with theft, and the libel described her as a thief by habit and repute. The age of this incorrigible offen¬ der was nine years. The evidence was undoubtedly com¬ plete; since the ferocious Jeannie Robertson, aged nine years, and a thief, was solemnly banished for seven years by the learned judge on the bench. At the same court, mother child of eleven years old was banished for the same period. The banishment of children, at these tender ages, should fill the hearts of the nation with astonish¬ ment and grief. Even the most scrupulous South-Afri¬ can, or Tasmanian, might admit within his frontier the Scottish felon of 1851, Jeannie Robertson, nine years old, without a dread of terrible consequences to colonial so¬ ciety. The children, probably, may not be banished; but the judge said that he knew no better means of putting 19a WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWEES. Jeannie Robertson out of the way of ruin, than by brand¬ ing “felon” on an infant brow. He is a humane man; and, perhaps, no better way exists in this Christian nation —set in the moral world like a city on a hill. At one far distant time, that blue flower on a long, slender stalk, to which the farmers now again begin to look for food to their cattle from its seed, and money for their rent from its fibre, was a wild weed. A Swedish peasant girl sent to the Exhibition a thread spun from its fibre by hand, measuring 4,000 Swedish ells, or 8,000 Eng¬ lish feet, and weighing less than half an ounce—very nearly fifty miles per pound. The finest linen has long been its product; and M. Claussen’s processes now con¬ vert its fibre into the form, and apparently bestow on it the qualities of cotton, of silk, or of wool. It is well for the world that Semitic Art was stronger in its enterprise than Scottish Faith—for the blue wild-flower did not re¬ semble food or clothing. Daily and nightly in our streets, young children, from their connection with negligent re¬ latives, or vicious parents, are hardening into the future weeds of society, or sinking into the grave. Their case has difficulties—but they could be surmounted. The parents of the match-merchants would generally appren¬ tice the infant dealers to benevolent and public institu¬ tions for the education of the neglected, if any establish¬ ments of that kind existed. They might, with few excep¬ tions, take a very small premium; and it would be wiser to pay the money, than to disgrace ourselves with nine- years-old felonry. A drunken mother will probably never train a child in virtue’s path. The light of hope, that ever lingers in the spark of life, is very slender in them. The miseries and the wrongs of the ignorant and the unprin¬ cipled are cheaply soothed for a moment by intemperance'. WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWEES. 193 and strong is that temptation, condemned hy many who never knew its power. Fines and imprisonment will not uproot it; although they might he advisedly directed against those who sell the means of dissipation to others who are apparently suffering from their use; hut the young can he saved by an economical process which Art teaches Faith. Let us gather up the fragments of our weeds and wild- flowers. Nothing is lost in nature. The wrecks of vege¬ tables were gathered together, and, under an enormous pressure, changed into coals. This material, used only in ordinary cases for fuel, may he applied to other purposes. Beautiful ornaments produced from coal were shown in the Exhibition. It had been carved, cut, and turned, like Ithe finest woods. In one place it had been used by the chairmaker, and in another for the mimic rivals of the chess-board. The employment of coal in this manner probably suggested the idea of artificial coal. One in¬ ventor in Birmingham mixed moss or peat with sawdust, and placing the material under a pressure of 800 tons, compressed the parts into a hard substance, capable of being polished and wrought into any form. He had also gained a plastic substance from moss and lime, which ap* pears to possess many advantages in the operations for which such materials are employed. The sawdust was waste, and the moss was disregarded, until a common pressure united them and rendered them valuable. For a long period the vast ranges of surface-fuel in Britain and Ireland were deemed little better than calamities. Now bnly their importance is partially acknowledged, and the products of the Irish and Scotch hogs may yet he more Valuable than those of wheat-growing land. The form¬ ation of turf fuel is a daily work. The weeds and wild- i 194 WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWEES. flowers are ever growing or fading, and accumulating into those great reservoirs of oils and tars and other valu¬ able produce, which chemistry extracts from our peat and turf. Irish hogs have recently had many admirers, from the scheming speculators of Capel Court to the generous Earl of Shaftesbury; hut all hogs contain more valuable elements than was once believed. Peat-charcoal is a cure for the potato disease in all its stages. Fields manured with peat-charcoal, produce healthy potatoes; which are kept sound by a thin sprinkling of that ingre¬ dient in their pits. These statements, attached to speci¬ mens in the Exhibition, induced the belief that the anti¬ dote had been prepared long before the appearance of the bane, and put past in stock, within those great stores, until it should he required, and now its utility is appa¬ rent. If the peat-charjcoal subdue this malignant vege¬ table disease, the Irish and the Scotch will have no reason to regret their hogs; hut the charcoal is only one of several products, which, doubtless, are contained in peat—although their preparation may not he so gainful as has been asserted. A small specimen of potato starch was shown in the Exhibition. The potatoes had been diseased, hut the starch was perfectly sound. When the roots were taken to the grater they were thoroughly worthless. This specimen was prepared by the paupers in the Dublin Union Work- house, but we have seen the operation years ago, for it is not uncommon, although its results are remarkable. The materials are evidently useless for their original pur¬ pose. Even the pigs, which formerly consumed all Irish debrisf turn from these ruins. Their odour proclaims their character—not useless only but pernicious. They are , WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWEES. 195 grated down on any simple apparatus in water. A com¬ mon tin-plate sheet roughly pierced, and affixed to a box as a bottom will answer; but a small mill, on the prin¬ ciple of a coffee-mill, makes quicker work. The subsequent processes are simple. The pulp thus formed, is allowed to settle and deposit the starch which has been released, by the grating, from its alliance with the other and diseased elements. This deposit, after numerous washings, becomes white and pure. The starch is uninjured by the disease, which seemed to have spread over the entire root, and it re¬ sembles closely the arrowroot of tropical plants, prepared in a similar manner. The nature of man resembles the material used in the Dublin Workhouse more intimately than many men admit. Homely things sometimes furnish the most apt illustra¬ tions, although neglected because they are homely. The roots placed in the grating-mill of the Dublin paupers were had, lost, and worthless; and yet they contained valuable elements, which could not extricate themselves. The rasping in the mill was necessary to save and sepa¬ rate all that was good; and from the most abandoned subjects, sometimes by similar fierce and tearing trials, a deposit—pure, white, and valuable—is saved. The wild violet is a beautiful flower; and yet the broad and purple-coloured pansies would scarcely he traced to their origin in the violet of the bank and brae. The pink and the carnation are the sweetest flowers of British gar¬ dens—and they would hardly he recognised in their ori¬ ginal and wild condition, although they grow naturally in British soil. The condition of men resembles them also. Cultivation cannot change them; hut it has been so arranged, that without cultivation they never will he changed. Education will not alone transform man’s na- 196 WEEDS AND WILD-ELOWEES. ture; but without education it will not be transformed. The dew of heaven must drop upon the flowers; and the gentle, but powerful dew of the Spirit from Heaven must drop, like its natural type, on the man, to render all other agencies effective. Activity is essential to success in the improvement of the world. Palestine flowed with honey, the most nutri¬ tious and pleasant product of weeds and wild-flowers; but its presence is detected by the instinct, and it is ex¬ tracted by the industry, of the little bee which wanders over these hills of heath in northern climes that man ne¬ glects, and draws honey from them equal to the produce of the richest flowers in southern plains. The gentlest statement regarding our moral weakness, alone and unaided, was made to a man of apparent cou¬ rage and firmness in very solemn circumstances, but justi¬ fied by the experience of that night—“ The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.” It re-appears in the form of confession by another man, who had been considered by the Pharisees an exemplary character—“For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.” This state of weakness strictly consists with all natural experience; but it does not correspond with those haughty ideas of entirely self-impelled and self-supported progress, which many proud hearts cherish. That class of opinions are unnatural, and, therefore, they are irra¬ tional. We meet with no perfect weeds or wild-flowers, and none that by self-supported progress improve them¬ selves. All of them, in their beauty and their weakness, invite culture now, because opportunities pass quickly away. They bear written on their flowers—“ For all flesh is as grass—the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.” AET AND FAITE IN FEAGMENTS FEOM THE GEEAT EXHIBITION. THE FOREST TREES. The debt of Art to the forest trees is large and ever accumulating. The Crystal Palace was perhaps not the best place for calculating the extent of that responsibi¬ lity; because many products of the forest, from their cha¬ racter, were not exhibited there. The western gallery contained, indeed, models of ships on a comparatively small scale; and the visitors from the Midland counties, who have no intimate acquaintance with floating batteries and granaries, formed no idea of their extent, from the specimens in that department. Wood is one of the few products which form the broad basis of Art. Trees were man’s earliest companions—and they were, probably, his first assistants in combating the animal, and conquering the material, world. After sin came strife and sorrow upon the earth; and its young trees were uprooted to make defensive and offensive weapons for mankind against the ferocious natures and the savage strength of the ani¬ mals that collected around the confines of Eden only to destroy. The club is the primitive weapon, and is yet the effective auxiliary, of untaught men against the beasts of prey. From other trees the first tents were spread; and ere a long time passed, wood was cut down to con¬ struct houses. Ingenious inquirers into the origin of fire, after numerous suggestions, and perhaps trusting to the hints afforded by the ancient Phcenicians, conclude that it was obtained from wood by friction. The opinion has M 198 THE EOEEST TREES. no other basis than probability and old traditions; but fire can be, and is, kindled by that process. Wood, most probably, formed the earliest fuel, in whatever way the fire was obtained; and was used at a remote period for domestic purposes. It thus became indispensable to the comfort of mankind. Scientific examinations ponfirm the statement that God made of one blood all nations. Philo¬ logical inquiries lead from the present diversity of lan¬ guages backwards to a common source. Mythological in¬ vestigations carry a thread through labyrinths of errors and superstitions upwards to a common and a pure faith. The monuments of Nineveh and of Mexico are rendered intelligible by the facts stated in Scripture. Memorials of man’s formation, and fall, and punishment in the deluge, exist among all tribes—separated far in their lo¬ calities, and diversified in their language. Classic au¬ thors are not the only circumstantial and traditional wit¬ nesses for the Bible—although some of them, who lived under the influence of heathen refinement, recorded tra¬ ditions of man’s origin not widely different in detail, and corresponding in great features with the Scriptural narra;- tive. Some modern authors and critics assign to the deluge only a limited sweep over the earth. The plains of West¬ ern Asia—or the world known at the period when the Scripture narrative was penned—were, they say, alone subjected to this grand catastrophe. These ideas and no¬ tions may be subtle, but they are not supported by scien¬ tific facts. It is astonishing that those who advance them never attempt to explain the possibility of submerging Ararat, which is 17,000 feet above the level of the sea, and yet of confining the deluge to a limited extent of coun¬ try, in tht immediate neighbourhood of the great moun¬ tain. The lUi’iversality of the deluge may be explained, but THE EOKEST TREES. 199 its partial character is unintelligible. One fact, however, is clear and satisfactory. If this calamity was only local, it is evident that all the tribes of men originated in the lo¬ cality; for they have all carried traditions of that terrible event to their several dwelling-places. They meet us from all quarters of the world, and point to a place and a time where the ancestry of all nations converge on one point. An understanding of the causes of the deluge is unnecessary to a belief in the occurrence. Men will scarcely he expected to describe extraordinary movements until they can explain the ordinary operations in nature; stiU, if the origin of a grand event appears intelligible from the achievement of one miracle, it is unnecessary to assert that two were effected. The submersion of the globe is possible, from its elements, and more probable than a district deluge rising 17,000 feet above the level of the sea. A consideration of the traditions of all nations, even unaided by the Scriptural narrative, would bring us to a common origin for mankind, distinguished by the grand C£itastrophe. The original abode of men v/ould also be i| traced to those parts of the world first distinguished by '! comparative civilisation and organised society. The plains j of the Euphrates and the Tigris contained those cities I which appear first to have acquired celebrity in the earth. I All evidence, therefore, coincides precisely with the Mosaic [narrative. The memorials, superstitions, traditions, and i worship of nations and tribes possessing no means of in- itercourse for many generations, and differing in appear¬ ance, in the customs and the manners of life, agree in great statements regarding their common origin, fall, and punishment. Wood was, at that time, the means of safety to that small portion of the human race spared from the great destruction. The Ark of Noah was built of gopher- 200 THE EOEEST TREES. wood. Naturalists do not agree in identifying this particu¬ lar wood, hut it was probably the cypress. A large quantity was obviously required, for the ark was an immense ship. It was not intended to sail, hut to float; and therefore the strongest description of timber was not requisite. It was not meant for a series of voyages, hut it occupied a long period in building, and a quality of timber had there¬ fore been selected which was easily found, easily wrought, and yet not liable to rapid destruction. The cypress abounded in that part of Asia during comparatively re¬ cent periods. It was extensively used in ship-building by the Phoenicians and Grecians. It was considered a sa¬ cred tree by the Persians, and apparently by the Assyri¬ ans. It was used in the formation of religious edifices on account of its permanence. It was not attacked by rot or worms, or any of those agencies that rapidly de¬ compose many descriptions of timber. It was easily wrought, and thus possessed all the qualities essential for the purpose of Noah. The word “gopher” does not occur again in the Bible; hut some linguists trace a connection between it and the Greek name of the cypress, while the employment of this wood in oriental ship-build¬ ing, and its prevalence in Western Asia, abundantly justify the conclusion that the cypress is the gopher-wood of the antediluvians. This tree was considered especially sacred by those Persians who refused to worship idols» hut bent before the sun. It was planted around their temples, and it was chosen for the coffins of great men; but its enduring qualities might have done more towards that selection than its sacred characteristics. The As¬ syrian monuments evince the respect and veneration with which the coniferous trees were regarded by that early people; and a reverential feeling towards the tree which THE EOREST TEEES. 201 formed the means of preservation to their progenitors may explain that circumstance, and “ the fir cones,” on their engravings, in connection with their sacred rites. The Hindoos venerate a species of the ahies, or fir-tree, growing on the higher districts of the Himalayas, where it attains an immense size. Ezekiel,referring to the ship¬ building trade of Tyre, minutely describes the different kinds of timber used. “ They have made all thy ship¬ boards of FIR-TREES of Seiiir”—“they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee”—“of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars.” The “ coni- fera” are among the most honoured and useful of all the forest trees. They embrace the cedars of Lebanon and the pines of northern lands. They have been separated into various species, but the multitudinous descriptions of firs meet under this generic designation. A garden of choice trees was planted eastward in Eden. It would not be difficult, and it would be interesting, to trace the general agreement on this subject in the traditions of ancient and primitive nations. The locality of Eden has been a question of curious inquiry; but it seems to be generally forgotten that Eden is an indefinite term. The extent of country comprehended by it is unknown. Eastward in Eden there was a garden—the first abode of mankind, according to the Mosaic narrative. The deluge may have efi’ected changes that would prevent the identifi¬ cation of this garden. The volcanic agencies in the dis¬ trict would also obliterate landmarks, for the Armenian mountains contain many vestiges of volcanoes. But Eden itself, embracing a wide range of country, might be identi¬ fied; although in six thousand years of great changes the leading features of the country may be entirely altered. The sources of the Euphrates afford substantial evidence 202 THE EOEEST TSEES. on the subject; and the fountain near some point from which other rivers flow would approach an identification. One head of the Euphrates is in the same hill from which the Araxes commences its course to the Caspian. The Tigris has its origin in the same district, flowing past Assyria, and is identified with the Hiddekel of Genesis. A fourth river, the Phasis or Foz, originating in the same range of country, runs westward to the Black Sea through Colchis; and it is singular that mines of the precious metals are still wrought in that country, “and the gold of that land is good”—Genesis, 2d chapter and 12th verse. Our translation, which gives Gihon, the modern Araxes or Aras, a course round Ethiopia, is easily explained to even a cursory reader by the marginal note “Cush,” that is to say, the land of Cush. Ethiopia was used as a general name for the lands occupied by the descendants of Cush. Persia was one of these countries, and the Caspian formed its boundary on one side. This district of country has, therefore, four large rivers flowing respec¬ tively into the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Per¬ sian Gulf. The structure of the country has so changed, even within the range of ordinary history, that a closer identification may be impracticable. For example, the Aral Sea, which is yet 250 miles long, and 130 miles broad, was at one time considered part of the Caspian; although now a wide range of country extends from the Aral to the present shores of the Caspian, and the former, while it receives the Oxus and other large rivers, and has no apparent outlet, is still losing in bulk. In a popular work, entitled Illustrations of Scripture^ by the late Dr. Paxton of Edinburgh, we find a state¬ ment regarding the garden of Eden. That author obvi¬ ously, and indeed avowedly, following Dr. Wells in his THE FOEEST TEEES. 203 Historical Geography, places it beneath the junction of the Euphrates and the Tigris, and above the partition of the joint river, into what he calls, without any apparent reason, Gihon and the Pison. Four heads are thus made out, by counting the junction two and the separation two, which is certainly a curious reckoning. Two ends and two beginnings are made to mean four heads—for¬ getful, apparently, that it was after the river went out of Eden, or had passed the garden, that it was parted, and became into four heads, which, when they were thus parted, compassed several lands named in the 2d chapter of Genesis. The term compassed does not mean that thpy encircled, but that they bordered, the lands in ques¬ tion. The Euphrates separates into two chief outlets, and, like nearly all great rivers, a number of minor branches, near its mouth. According to the opinion of Dr. Wells, therefore, the garden of Eden occupied the delta of the Euphrates. In BelVs System of Geography a map of the world as known to the ancients is given, in which the garden of Eden is distinctly marked between the Euphrates and the Tigris, which are not joined on the map, although they are brought together in their course; but the Euphrates at its mouth is called the Pison, while the Tigris gets three mouths, and the eastern out¬ let is named the Gihon. The anxiety to promote this opinion, like the opinion itself, originates in the circum¬ stance that a region of Arabia is named Havilah, which is said to be compassed about by the river Pison. The names of individuals were bestowed upon the districts that fell into their own and their families’ ]30Ssession. On re¬ ferring to the 10th chap, of Genesis, we find one Havilah, a grandson of Ham, and another Havilah, a more distant descendant of Shem, who had twelve brethren. The 204 THE EOEEST TREES. family were all cousins of Reu, the grandfather of Nahor, who was the grandfather of Abraham, and this family of patriarchs or their descendants had the same claim to the title Hebrews—if it is drawn from Eher, who was the grandfather of Havilah and his brethren—that Abraham and the descendants of Reu possessed. Havilah had one brother named Ophir, who probably gave his name to a district of Arabia. He had another named Johah, al¬ though not the Johah of the 36th chapter of Genesis, but who might he the Job of Scripture, as the land of Uz might have taken its name from the grandson of Shem. These circumstances merely show that there might he two Havilahs; and we can remember three on different maps— all of them, perhaps, fixed there without good authority; hut one of them is that land of Colchis, on the Euxine, watered by the Phasis, which has its head in the imme¬ diate vicinity of the Euphrates and the Araxes, while a co¬ lony of Egyptians, or probable descendants of the Hamite Havilah, are believed to have settled in that quarter at an early period. Both opinions are supported by various authorities, hut the weight of evidence leans decidedly in favour of the upper springs of the great rivers in Armenia. And when within the last twelve years earthquakes have shaken Ararat, cast rocks from the top of the highest mountains, destroyed villages, filled up valleys, and for a time arrested the rapid course of the Araxes; no diffi¬ culty exists in supposing that the events of even three thousand years, in a volcanic country, may have materially altered its appearance, changed the course of its rivers at the springs, or destroyed inland lakes and formed others; while the various streams have not been traced to their sources, and we know little more of the interior of Armenia than that it abounds in forest trees, with valleys enjoy- THE FOREST TREES. 205 ing a delightful climate, fragrant to the present day with flowers, and fertile in corn and oil. The names given to particular spots will not now materially aid this search, for the earth has many Edens. Britain has two rivers hearing that name. Therefore the argument drawn from the occurrence of the name Aden, a dreary district and fort in Arabia, now belonging to Britain, is valueless ; but the entire country between the Kir, which flows into the Araxes from the north, and that river was once termed Haden or Heden by the ancients, that is Eden. The rivers named become large streams near their source. They guided the migi ations of mankind to Europe on the west, to the borders of Hindustan on the east, to the plains of Asia Minor, the shores of the Mediterranean, and the coasts of Africa on the south. The formation of boats, canoes, or rafts, was one of the first and greatest achievements of Art from wood. The forest trees afforded means of transport from one country to another; and at a comparatively early age they were moulded into vessels of commerce and war. Some persons have supposed that the ark was the first vessel constructed, but very few writers have adopted that opinion. The antediluvians built cities, made musical instruments, wrought metals, and were evidently advanced in art and tillage. Therefore, they had required to cross rivers, and to descend their streams in the first instance; and they would not dwell long ill Armenia—a land of trees and rivers—without ob¬ serving that the former floated in the waters. The first boats or ships artificially constructed, were probably rafts, formed by the trunks of trees, lashed together by the tough creeping plants or the willows abounding on the Asian rivers’ brinks. The canoe, formed by cutting out the heart of the trunk of a tree, was an advance in art. Boat-build- M 2 206 THE FOILEST TEEES. iiig was a third and a more complicated stage. Oars pre¬ ceded sails, and were founded on natural movements in swimming. The rudder, and the scientific mould of sailing vessels were subsequent improvements. The use of edge- tools must have preceded the formation of the ark; but long before the order to build it was given, Tuhal-cain was working in metals—Genesis, 4th chap, and 22d verse —and probably manufactured edge-tools. The forest trees enter so frequently and intimately into the prosecution of art, that it is impossible to tell the de¬ partment in which men stand most indebted to them; hut their services in bridging rivers, seas, and oceans; in converting the deep waters into the highways of empires; in carrying the emigrant to new lands; in maintaining the intercourse of nations; and in sustaining the burdens of commerce, cannot easily be exaggerated. Trees have been the grand agents of civilisation and the bonds of union among mankind. Without their aid, only a small portion of the earth could have been inhabited; and their adaptation to the necessities of men indicates design and prescience in the formation of the globe. Trees are ornaments of the soil. The grandeur of the most sublime scenery is enhanced, and the tameness of fertile and level fields is relieved, by their presence. Eng¬ lish scenery is beautiful often because it is woodland, while it would be insipid and tame if the hedgerows and trees were cut down. The fir and the oak are the most nume¬ rous descriptions, and the most valuable in the populous regions of the earth. Several hundred different species of both these great divisions are reckoned by botanists. These species vary greatly in their qualities, although possessing family features in common. The fir and the oak of various species, and especially the former of gl- THE FOREST TREES. 207 gantic size, were common in Palestine, in Syria, and over Western Asia. Gardens and groves were the primary and simple places of worship, ere temples were erected. They were patriarchal; for Abraham planted a grove—Gen. c. 21, V. 33—at Beersheha, and called there on the name of the Lord; hut they were abused, and were forbidden to the Israelites. They, undoubtedly, possessed trees in great abundance; hut consecrated groves were cut down by good, and planted under the authority of wicked, kings. The tendency to celebrate religious services in groves was both natural and traditional. The quiet and the shade af¬ forded by them, their beauty, and—in oriental lands espe¬ cially—their fragrance, and their immediate services as a source of cheap and pleasant food; combined with the tra¬ ditions of that golden age of innocence and peace, when our progenitors dwelt in a place rendered pleasant by its trees; or that great calamity in which the ark of gopher- wood saved a remnant of the human race; to confer on groves a hallowed and hallowing character. The orien¬ talists could not advance a step in civilisation without the forest trees. Before they learned to make bricks for the construction of their homes, they dwelt in tents, or in tabernacles of green houghs; and finally, perhaps, as in the new settlements of western lands to this day, in log-houses. Even where more convenient material abounded, men have always inclined to make houses of wood. European cities, and our own British cities, were full of wooden houses at a very recent date. Other, and superior substitutes are now found; and each step to¬ wards the entire substitution of iron or other metals in the interior work of our houses, seems an increase of se¬ curity against the desolating fires which have long formed the most dangerous risks in large towns. 208 . THE EOEEST TREES. It is interesting to notice the value placed on trees at a very early date. When Abraham purchased the field from Ephron the Hittite, in which the cave of Mach- pelah is situated, it is stated that in the conveyance “ all the trees that were in the field, and that were in all the borders round about, were made sure”—Genesis, 23d c., 17th V. Oaks were patriarchal landmarks. Un¬ der an oak Jacob hid the ear-rings and the idols of his family, which were valuable, doubtless, for their material, when he and they emigrated from the land of Shechem. Under an oak Deborah was buried when she died at Be¬ thel—Genesis, 35th c., 8th v. The incidents of Bible nar¬ rative confirm its claim to truth and verity. When Jacob dwelt in Canaan, and was desirous of gratifying the Egyp¬ tian Premier, he sent to him a present of “ the best fruits of the land,” “a little balm, and a little honey, spices and 'myrrh, nuts and almonds,” the products of Syrian trees, which a Syrian chief, or rich man, would now em¬ ploy for the same purpose in similar circumstances. The walnut tree probably furnished the nuts, for it grows to an immense size in Syria at the present day. The almond tree yet flourishes in Syria, and the Jordan almonds are deemed the best in our markets, and bring often double the price of those from other countries. Judea has been famous for its balms since the earliest ages. The balm of Gilead was proverbially valuable in ancient times. “ Is there no balm in Gilead?” indicates the value placed on this product in subsequent ages. It is obtained from the Amy- ris Gileadensis, a tree apparently of the “abietic,” or fir genus. The quantity now sold in this country is very small, and almost in variably corrupted by the cheaper balm of a Canadian pine. The balm is extracted from the tree by incisions, as, in Britain, beech wine was often THE FOREST TREES. 209 obtained, and as in Canada tbe material of maple sugar is drawn from tlie tree by tbe perforation of the trunk. The juice of the tree not absolutely requisite for its growth is thus drawn out and saved. All the gums of commerce are obtained in the same manner, except, in¬ deed, in those cases where the juice voluntarily drops from the tree. The myrrh which Jacob sent to Joseph is evidently the substance in which those Ishmaelites traded, who pur¬ chased Joseph from his brethren, and carried him into Egypt, when they were on their ordinary journey from Gilead to the Nile. Myrrh is almost a literal rendering of a Hebrew word “mohr,” but that is not the word trans¬ lated by myrrh in this passage, and, probably, the same article was not intended. The Hebrew “mohr” appa_ rently means a description of fragrant spices or balm. It was used largely in preparing the holy anointing oil of the tabernacle—Exodus, 30th c., and 23d v. It is mentioned again in Psalm 45th, and 8th v. It occurs repeatedly in Canticles, and was used in the form of oil by the Persians —Esther, 2d c., 12th v.; and in all these and other cases it is mentioned for its powerful and sweet odour. A well- known plant in this country bears the name of myrrh. It is a native apparently of Britain; and certainly grows in a wild state. It is a beautiful but not a flowering plant, and valued for its fragrance. “ Oil of myrrh” can be manufactured from this common occupant of corners in country gardens; and it was valued once for its medical qualities. The ancients used one description of myrrh mingled with wine and strong drinks, on account of its narcotic qualities. A term so general, therefore, cannot now be easily defined, but it is apparent that at an early date Palestine was famed, as it lias continued famous. 210 THE FOREST TREES, even in its abandoned and degenerate ages, “ for the pre¬ cious fruits brought forth by the sun, and for the preci¬ ous things put forth by the moon,” “ and for the precious things of the lasting hills.” The Turkish division of the Great Exhibition was well arranged; and several curious products of art were shown from Jerusalem and Judea; but amid the embroidered cloth, the inkstands of olive-root wood, and the cups and spoons of '‘porphyrh;” the coriander'seeds, the almonds and tamarinds, the sycamore wood, the myrrh, and the frankincense, and the balsam, appeared more interesting than any other class of products. The contributions of the forest trees to art during their life, are very important and numerous. Our word balm is an abbreviation of balsam—almost the literal render¬ ing of the Hebrew word, ‘which expresses the substances voluntarily exuding from trees, or obtained by piercing them. Frankincense formed one of the most costly re¬ ligious offerings of ancient times. Incense was used, not merely in the Hebrew worship, but in the idol service of nearly all eastern nations. A remarkable example of the use of incense is found in Numbers, 16th c., 46th, 47th, and 48th v. Its application in that instance, was an ap¬ pointed means; but it is quite possible that the incense may have had a sanatory power in itself—as camphor and various balsams are believed to have, at the present day. From several passages in the Bible, it appears that the Jews imported incense ultimately from the East. Sheba is mentioned as the nativity of the dearest, and it may be presumed, the finest incense. Jeremiah states—6th c., 20th V. —that the offering of incense from Sheba was, by a sinful people, for no purpose; and joins with incense, “the sweet cane from a far country,” from which we THE FOREST TREES. 211 may infer that Jeremiah was not entirely unacquainted with the sugar-cane. But at that prophet’s time, Gilead was famed for its halm—46th c., 11th v.; and 8th c., 22d V. Josephus says, that an incision was made on the balsam tree with a sharp stone, and the ointment distilled out; but as he also states that the tree was brought from Sheba by the queen of that country, and as Gilead had balm long before her time, there must have been different trees yielding this valuable product. India produces a tree that contains precious incense, and it is called the frankincense tree. The trees which produce this incense appear to be chiefly different species of the fir. The common resin of commerce—imported in large quantities from the colonies, the States, and the Baltic—is balsam of a particular kind. Benzoin is considered the finest balm, or frankincense, imported into this country. It is taken from trees in Borneo, and other small islands in that neighbourhood, by incision, and is Avorth 10s, to 12s. per lb. The tree only yields good benzoin for three or four years of its life. The quantity of turpentine, which is extracted from pines, imported into Britain an¬ nually averages 20,000 tons, and its value in the ordinary arts is almost universally known. Rosin is obtained in the same manner, and the best qualities are the deposit of the discharge from the pine trees. Gums also may be procured by incisions, but the finest gum-arabic is yielded voluntarily, and the more sickly trees produce the largest quantity. The consumpt of Britain is nearly 1,000 tons per annum, employed in medicine partly, but chiefly in the arts and in printing colours. The best gum-arabic is obtained from the acacia, but many other trees yield gums, and they might be collected in this country. The value of forest trees iu this department is very great, 212 THE FOREST TREES. and tlie processes of collection, resembling all others in nature or art, correspond to man’s circumstances in this life. The poor and sickly acacia, pouring forth its little streams of healing gum, teaches patience under afflictions, and their value; while very frequently the world has found tried and weak members of society yielding, nevertheless, more valuable products of counsel and example than those who flourished exceedingly. The acacia appears to suffer nothing in transferring its riches to art for the world’s good; and seems to be the emblem, among forest trees, of those quiet and unobtrusive lives among mankind that confer great benefits on all around them, by an example which teaches more effectively than precept, and becomes ultimately in some measure a habit of life. Dragons’ blood is one of the most costly dyes in use, and is a balsamic or resinous extract from a plant of the palm species. The largest tree of this character described by botanists, was found in the island of Teneriffe, and is mentioned by several authors. Its circumference is given at 45 feet. The valuable dye mentioned is chiefly im¬ ported from the Eastern Archipelago, and is the resin of the fruit, and not the branches or trunk of the tree. Its price is subject to great alterations, and the quality is varied, but fine dragons’ blood has brought 4s. per lb. Camphor, although the product of an Eastern tree be¬ longing to the laurel species, is not properly a balsam. It is obtained by cutting down the tree, and is found at- the heart of the stem and branches. The crude camphor forms part of one species, from theyfibres of the root to the leaves of the branches. The tree is cut down, carefully chopped into small pieces, and exposed in vessels to a heat which volatilises the camphor, and on condensation it is found on the straw with which the contents of the^ THE FOREST TREES. 213 vessels are covered. The camphor in another plant exists, as already said, in a solid state, forming the heart of the tree, and is extracted by opening the trunk. A very large importation of camphor, equal, perhaps, to 400,000 lbs., occurs annually to this country. The value depends greatly on the quality. Specimens have been sold at 60s. to 70s. per lb., although not, we believe, in our home markets, and others have been purchased at Is. The price of the drug cannot, therefore, be easily averaged, but it is extensively used, and highly valued. The balsams, gums, resins, and turpentines of the forest trees, flow chiefly from incisions. The Jews pierced their famous balm-of-Gilead tree with a sharp stone. The Ca¬ nadians cut into the beautiful maple tree with sharper instruments for the material of sugars; and the specimens shown in the Exhibition as raw and refined maple sugars were creditable to the art and skill employed on this manufacture. The British colonies and possessions exhi¬ bited the greatest variety of woods and the products of trees in the Exhibition. Their vegetable wealth is in¬ calculable, and almost inexhaustible. Our purpose is eflected by merely mentioning the nature of this balsamic teaching. Many men, like Job, are, sometimes in sorrow, tempted almost to curse the day of their birth. Often the human heart murmurs that surely there is no sorrow like its sorrow. Often a viler temptation rises on the mind, tempted to doubt the existence of an intelligent and over¬ ruling Power; or the operations of Providence in little mat¬ ters. A fashionable turn of infidelity, in modern times, admits the existence of a Supreme Power, satisfied by denying His active interest in minor details. Its profes¬ sors draw no distinct line where intelligence ends and chance begins. They do not measure the magnitude M 3 214 THE EOEEST TEEES. of tlie events that may deserve the interference of God, or the limits of those smaller matters left to man’s activity and energy. The system is dim, indefinite, and vague, but dangerous; for the atflictedslide into it easily. It is infidelity, nevertheless; for, “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are numbered,” Tribulation is sharp discipline, hut it is promised, and fulfils the Scripture: it is reasonable, and consists with nature. Art, even rude art, follows an analogous course with the balsamic trees. They are bruised with sharp stones, cut with sharper knives, perforated by augurs, in some instances cut down, broken in pieces, literally roasted over a slow fire; in others torn open; and yield, in all those processes, the fragrant and valuable balsams whicji formed an important part of the Exhibition, and are essentially necessary for the promo¬ tion of art. The maples are a numerous family, passing from shrubs to trees of the most gigantic proportion, often rising 7 0 to 90 feet; hut they do not all yield sugar, although a single tree of the SaccJiarinum species will produce over 30 lbs. in some years; and their value, on a Canadian farm, may thus he very considerable. One species of a very common family of forest' trees—the ash—yields a resinous substance, known in commerce as “manna,” and “mannite. ” This tree, the Fraxinus Ornus, is a native of Southern Europe, hears a rich crop of white flowers, grows high, and yields manna in small white drops, which are saccharine. Many specimens of sugar, apparently of excellent quality, produced in temperate climes, were shown in the Exhibition; hut the greater number were extracted from mangel-wurzel. The beech THE FOREST TREES. 215 tree yields its wine from incisions, and its nuts give oil, which is not extensively used, because the vegetable oils of warmer lands are imported at a cheap rate. The palm- tree was one of the most attractive products in the Crystal Palace. Palms were among Eastern nations the symbol of gladness—Lev. 23d c., 40th v. They were the “arms” of the Hebrew people at one period, and were engraven on their coins. The circumstance gives an expressive mean¬ ing to the act of the Jewish people, who strewed palm branches in the Saviour’s path—Matthew, 21st c., 8th v,, with John, c. 12, v. 13. Because in Eastern countries the pahn was deemed a type of victory, the primitive Christians rendered it into a type of immortality—■“ 0 death, where is thy stingl 0 grave, where is thy victory!” Syria has now comparatively few palms, although they are the most beautiful of all Eastern forest trees—Jer., 10th c., 5th v. The palm oil of commerce is expressed from the fruit of one species; but they are numerous, and all of them are valuable. The oil is obtained by bruising the soft part of the fruit, and subsequently pouring over it boiling water. The oil thus separated, when cool, condenses to the con¬ sistency of English butter during summer. The chief im¬ ports to this country are from Africa. Large quantities of palm oil are now used in chemical works; and a jet of steam fixed into a cask, melts the contents with great rapidity. The cocoa is a species of palm, and a gigantic tree, rising often to 100 feet. Ceylon contains an enor¬ mous number of cocoa palms, but they grow easily in all tropical countries. The fruit is large, and the shell is employed for many purposes, after the extraction of the fruit. The leaves are used for thatching huts, and in the construction of small baskets. The fibres are con¬ verted into cordage, and the wood is adapted to nearly 216 THE FOREST TREES. all tlie purposes requisite in its native countries. Another species of palm furnishes sago. This tree, which seldom exceeds 18 or 20 feet in height, affords only one crop dur¬ ing its useful life. The tree is, indeed, one vast nut. When young, the interior of the trunk is occupied by a liquid substance, which condenses with age, and at ma¬ turity the sago tree resembles a long cask. The stem is hoUow, hut packed with the matter, which, when pounded down, mixed with water, formed into small cakes, and re¬ pounded, is the sago of commerce. Ohve trees abounded in Syria. Like the cedars of Lebanon, they have almost disappeared under the despotism which has long blighted the finest region of the world. Olive oils were exhibited by a number of foreign contributors. Italy, Spain, and Portugal, were the larger contributors; and for many years Italy has supplied the largest imports of olive oil to Bri¬ tain. The finest oil is easily pressed from the fruit; a second quality is obtained by more severe pressure; and the third, or lowest, is extracted from the kernels and husks. The lowest quality of olive oil is used, like African palm oil, in the production of soaps. Finer qualities are largely employed in machinery. The finest descriptions are nutritious, and are consumed at the frugal tables even of the humbler classes of Orientalists, and the peasants of Southern Europe. Olive oil forms a most important article of commerce, and numerous specimens were produced in the foreign divisions of the Crystal Palace. Our annual imports average, perhaps, 20,000 tuns, besides oil-seed cakes, and their value must be ^6800,000. The fig and sycamore fruit and trees are often men¬ tioned in Scripture. The fig-tree was used by our Sa¬ viour in illustration of some of those great truths which he taught. He employed it in a parable—Luke, 13th THE EOEEST TREES. 217 c., 1st to Sth V., —illustrative of the probationary state of mankind on earth. To dwell every man under his vine and fig-tree, implied peace and prosperity in Israel—1st Kings, 4th c., 25th v.; Micah 4th c., 4th v. The expres¬ sion has become almost proverbial in this country. The sycamore tree grows to a very large size, and in East¬ ern countries atfords a necessary and pleasant shade. The prophet Amos introduced himself to Amaziah as a herdsman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit, from which it appears probable that sycamore fruit was in his days an article of commerce. The import of this fruit into Britain is not less than 100 tons per month. The ban¬ yan tree is a species of the Ficus. The fig-tree grows, and its fruit ripens in the open air, under good management, in some parts of England, Scotland, and in Ireland, although its cultivation may not he profitable. The con¬ tributions of this genus to art have recently been large. Caoutchouc, now imported in great quantities, is the resin of a species of fig-tree, obtained, like balsams, by piercing the stem during its growth. Afewyears ago this substance was scarcely met except on desks in fragments used to obliterate pencil-marks, hut in the Exhibition it was presented in innumerable forms. It is used chiefly where elasticity or the power of resisting water is requisite. A great number of contributions in caoutchouc were sent from the United States; hut its uses in manufactures, especially in clothing, are well known. The fig-tree yields an acrid and poisonous substance, and the unripe fruit contains deleterious elements, which are neutralised in the stages towards maturity; hut some species of the tree are more poisonous than others. Jeremiah probably refers to that fact in his 24th chapter, although the poisonous species of the sycamore were not common in Syria. This 218 THE EOREST TREES. peculiarity of tlie common fig-tree renders it a remarkable emblem of man’s nature—bad in itself, and ripened into sweetness and utility only by external agencies in all cases, but in others, resisting tlie same apparent agencies, continuing to the end bad and poisonous, like the lives of the hardened and the wicked. The forest trees com¬ bine to show the strict analogy of Scriptural doctrines to natural objects. Another gum, never seen in England until within eight years, occupied, through its products, many corners of the Exhibition. The first articles manufactured in England from gutta percha were presented to the Society of Arts in 1844. It is now met in a hundred forms, and is used for as many purposes. Gutta percha is the balsam or gTim of a forest tree growing in the Indian Archipelago. The species is not yet well defined, but from the quantity of the gum imported, we infer that the trees are nume¬ rous. The manufactory of the Gutta Percha Company, in London, is one of the most interesting works in that city, and now employs a vast number of men, producing soles for boots, and the means of filling decayed teeth, with a long range of ornamental and useful intermediate articles, of which the most important are the tubes for conveying sound, adopted in several churches; and for conveying water, without the deleterious mixtures some¬ times caused by metal-piping; and for electric wires. Gutta percha came to the Western world exactly when it was required to convey the wires for, and writing by, electricity, which now binds together cities and kingdoms; for no other material yet known would have been equally suitable for that service. The means which art and science require to work with are often far separated in nature; yet, when a great end has to be accomplished, that Provi- THE FOREST TREES. 219 dence, forgotten often by men, brings them together, as the world believes, by “ a fortunate accident,” but there are no accidents in these arrangements. The plastic nature of this gum renders it extremely useful in the construction of cheap ornaments; and it will be yet extensively used in the propagation, at prices payable by all classes, of copies from costly works of art. Gutta percha is another credit to the account of the forest trees. A walk through the department of agricultural imple¬ ments, of the carriages or machines, of the carved work and furniture, was unnecessary to remind any man of our indebtedness to forest trees, for without their aid no move¬ ment can be made in any department of science. The teak from the East, the mahogany from the West, and the noble oak of home are cut down and employed to ad¬ vance man’s comfort and happiness. The furniture woods and their products were magnificent. The household orna¬ ments of Vienna and Paris, their carving, inlaid work, and polish, were extremely beautiful. The Spanish cabinet, containing 36,000 different pieces of wood, was itself an exhibition. Still more useful, probably, as a pattern-card was the table-top of British Guiana, formed by specimens of all the woods in the colony. The profusion of wood¬ work and wood-carving by British tradesmen and artists was also a singular triumph for the forest trees. But in every branch of this great department the way to honour and utility lay through the types of suffering and death. The “ knots” and “ swirls” in the fancy woods enhanc^e their beauty and their value; and yet they are evidences of disease and disorder. All our forest trees reach an endur¬ ance equivalent to that of the sycamore, by the same path. The workshop of a cabinet-maker, or wood-carver, or a wood-turner, is a little illustration in wood of the deal- 220 THE EOEEST TREES. ings with mind in the world. The artisan is grieved. He is haunted by care—he is tried by those sad separa¬ tions from the cherished and the dear, that admit no meeting again in time—or he is wasted by suffering, and there is no sorrow like his sorrow—no judgments like those that fall on his head—they are so unkind and un¬ natural. They might, and they would seem kind, if the man saw the end and the beginning. He means well by the wood that he is carving, cutting, rending asunder, and polishing. He wants it to occupy an honoured and a valued place. Every act in his trade advances its value, but none of them look particularly kind, from the woodman’s axe to the polisher’s glass, with which he smooths the surface. The discipline that causes sorrow is, therefore, not unnatural. It is very natural. It is so like daily work, that it must accord with Art, the child of Nature. And it need not be esteemed a judgment. Why call it by the name of judgment ? May it not be kind¬ ness?—Hebrews I2th c., 6th v. It is better to cherish the feeling of Job, 13th c., 15th v.; and have the experi¬ ence of the Psalmist, recorded in the last verse of the 88th and the first of the 89th Psalm, than to linger over the idea of judgment; for in those workshops the artisan ne¬ glects the wood on which he places little value, and on that alone which he esteems highly he bestows the labour and skill which have a close analogy with affliction; so if he would consider his own craft, the forest trees might become the means to draw him into the happy temper of Habakkuk, evinced in the last three verses of his book, wherein he says, “ Although . . . the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat . . . yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” AET AND FAITH, IN PEAGiTENTS EEOM THE GEEAT EXHIBITION. ART AND INSECTS. The value of designs for printed or woven fabrics, depends greatly on the harmony of colours. The art of designing for the large manufactories of this country has not been sufficiently studied by men of genius. The rea¬ son is perfectly obvious. Any new and tasteful pattern reflects honour on the manufacturer—but none, until re¬ cently, on the designer. The profession has not been encouraged by any of those inducements which satisfy a laudable ambition. British painters and sculptors stand high in the world; and British designers are rather un¬ der, or not over an average, because manufacturers do not yet see the propriety of paying for a design, as coUectors pay for a painting ; and the artist has, as yet, no other inducement to excel in designing than the 'money it brings. These matters will be gradually im¬ proved, because all fancy goods—and even many common fabrics—will be condemned by harsh and rough colours and designs. The artist has to study not merely the leading features of his design, but its practicability, when colours are concerned. It is possible to have a first-class design, in one respect, which is perfectly useless to the printer, because he cannot work its colours in the posi¬ tions proposed. He has a more difficult task than the manufacturer of china and porcelain wares, who stands also in need of good designs. The gaUeries of the Cry- N 22E ART AJfD INSECTS. stal Palace were divided by immense carpets; but many of tbem displayed bad taste in the arrangement of co¬ lours. Heartb-rugs were suspended from the front of the galleries which, seen from a distance—and they could not be approached—resembled paintings. Several specimens from Glasgow, or its neighbourhood, were very splendid; and yet some artists insisted that their character suffered by a nearer inspection. People generally look at hearth¬ rugs at a distance of two or three yards—and they should be designed under that condition of view. Artists, like other persons, are occasionally—not always, or even often—envious, and their criticisms are then ungenerous. Upon these rugs, certainly, most appropriate and beau¬ tiful designs for a distant ;view had been executed. In art, moreover, distinctions in taste are permitted; while a close approximation to nature will invariably be found successful. This harmony of colours brings to remem¬ brance that complete concord apparent in all the works of God. Their harmonious aspect forms a strong and unshaken evidence to the existence, the intelligence, and the perpetual providence or overlooking of a Creator, wise above our comprehension. Those hearth-rugs, beauti¬ ful as seen from the gallery opposite to that from which they were suspended, fell far short of the colouring be¬ stowed on a moss-rose or the body of a lady-bird; and yet nobody could imagine that the wool and the colour¬ ing matters were accidentally shaken together, and by vir¬ tue of cohesion, or organisation, or sympathy, or chance, or any other influences except those of honest labour and skill, became hearth-rugs. And yet men are found so blind¬ ed and infatuated, that while they take the minor achieve¬ ment to be, by itself, and within itself, proof of intellect in its production, they consider the major object a matter of ART AND INSECTS. 223 chance, of eternity, or of organisation. Many of our finest manufactures suffer from inspection. They do not hear close and severe study. The works of God are widely different in this respect. The painting of the forget-me- not has been finished with all the care bestowed on the dahlia, the rose, or the tulip. The structure of the in¬ sect is not less complete and perfect than that of the elephant or the leviathan. Carmine is the finest red used by painters, and its price is very high. This paint, which is employed also in extremely fine dyes, is prepared from cochineal. The latter was used for a considerable period in Britain, in the belief that it formed the seed of a vegetable. It was chiefly imported from Mexico, and the Spaniards distinguished the qualities as “fine grains,” and “ wild grains,” or “ forest grains,” grana sylvestra.” The name encouraged the erroneous idea; hut cochineal is now well known as an insect, which varies considerably in magnitude, and the domestic cochi¬ neal is the larger, probably from some mode of manage¬ ment adopted by the breeders and the selection of superior food. The purple dyes of Tyre were said to be expressed from a sheU-fish, but the process was not known, appa¬ rently, to the Romans. An erroneous idea in the trans¬ lation of words might have placed shell-fish for the small cochineal, which requires great care in its management, and was found in the possession of the Mexicans, who are believed by many to be descendants of the Phoenicians or their colonists—those Carthagenians who were supposed to know more of the Atlantic and its secrets than any other ancient nation, and were said to be under a mutual oath to preserve their monopoly of trade with the West, and its secrets. The cochineal insect is found in Peru, and the European discoverers of that country and those 224 AET AND INSECTS. adventurers who followed Pizarro, were astonished at the brilliancy of the dyes which the Peruvians imparted to those fine fabrics which they produced, for Europeans were then unacquainted with the cochineal. The in¬ sect resembles in size and shape a small grain of barley, round on what may be termed the back, and almost flat in the face, of a brownish hue, thickly spotted with white or gray. It feeds upon a species of the cactus; which is cultivated, not on its own account, but for the insect which it supports, as the mulberry is cultivated for its shelter and sustenance of the silk-worm. The shrub on which the insect feeds is generally known as the ’^'‘Cactus CocMnellifer,” and classified in scientific works as the ‘‘Opuntia Tuna.^’ The Gactacece are fruit-bear¬ ing bushes, but they do not grow well out of the tro¬ pics. The cochineal insects have been introduced to the garden at Kew, and in an artificial temperature feed busily on the cactus. The colouring matter in this in¬ sect is naturally purple, but it combines with other ele¬ ments, and muriate of tin is employed to elicit the car¬ mine tints. The employment of cochineal in fine dyes has rapidly increased in Britain within a few years. The imports in 1831 were 224,371 lbs., and the home con¬ sumption, for that and the two previous years, gave an average of 148,131 lbs. The quantity imported in 1845» was 1,095,800 lbs., but a larger quantity was imported during the first eight months of 1851, The price of co_ chineal was nearly 40s. per lb. thirty years since. It afterwards sunk to 12s. or 13s. per lb., and now averages 4s. to 5s. per lb. The number of insects in each lb. *ha® been reckoned at 70,000; but this must be a rough-and- round estimate, for sizes, and necessarily weight, vary* Even 50,000 per lb., which is probably under the real num" AET AND INSECTS. 225 her, gives for the importation of eight months in 1851, a total of 58,637,600,000 individual insects. The number is more than the mind clearly comprehends, but it comprises a limited portion of the. cochineal population; for only female insects yield dye, and the number given is the Bri¬ tish imports for eight months of one year, which were one fifth less than those of the corresponding period in the preceding year. This insect adheres closely to the plant on which it feeds, and is separated from its home by a small blunt knife. When a sufficient number have been collected, they are put into hags and dipped in warm water to destroy life. They are then dried in the sun, and packed for export. As they are used in colour¬ ing red from a faint crimson to a deep purple, according to the mode pursued in extracting the dye, the lives de¬ stroyed in giving a crimson tinge or a purple hue to a single article, are as nearly innumerable as the particles of gravel on a portion of the sea-beach. The slain were all sentient beings, capable of enduring pain or of feeling pleasure, and in their great world, the cactus bush, they enjoyed the pleasures adapted to their nature. The errors that once prevailed regarding the character of tropi¬ cal dyes, completely transposed their natures. Dragons’ blood was supposed to be the literal and proper name of the article, which is a vegetable production. Cochineal was considered to be the seed of a plant, instead of the insects who feed upon the cactus hush. Lac dye is also the produce of insects, but obtained, like cochineal, from trees. A small insect punctures the tender bark on the branches of several trees belonging to the ficus species. The puncture is formed for the purpose of depositing the ova of the insect, along with the substance known to commerce as lac, which is evidently intended for the pro- 226 AET AND INSECTS. tection of the ovum, in the first place, and not so evi¬ dently, hut probably, for the food of the future maggot. Similar deposits are made by insects within the hark of many trees in this country, hut the quantity being com¬ paratively small, and the quality perhaps worthless, they have never been collected for any purpose. The Indian lac is obtained by breaking off the twigs and leaves on which the insects have deposited the ova. The leaves and branches are boiled in water to extract the coloming matter, which is called seed lac. The deposit thus pro¬ cured, or seed lac, is again melted in cloth hags over a charcoal fire, strained through the hags, and rolled into thin plates, which are named shell lac. A considerable quantity is imported in the original state, and is termed stick lac. The quantity of cochineal dye, or the colour, ing matter which hears that name, and is nearly equi¬ valent to cochineal, is not much over four per cent, of the weight. The principal element—perhaps two-thirds of the entire weight—is a very fine resin; and shell lac is chiefly consumed here by the sealing-wax manufacturers, and by varnish makers. The dye is less brilliant, hut considered more permanent than that of the cochineal in¬ sect. The various forms in which lac is imported have recently become the subjects of large transactions, al¬ though thirty to forty years since these articles were little known, imported in small quantities, and sold at a high price. Thirty years since lac dye was sold at 8s. to 8s. 6d. per lb. Ten years afterwards the same article was sold for 2s. 6d. per Ih. It is now worth from 9d. to 2s. 6d. per Ih. according to quality. The imports were, in 1814, of lac dye, 278,829 lbs.; of seed lac and shell lac, 110,670 Ihs.; and of stick lac, 44,439 Ihs. Ten years afterwards the imports of lac dye were doubled, that of seed lac and shell ART SECTS. 227 lac were quintupled, while that of stick lac was not more than one per cent, of the quantity introduced in 1814. The ordinary statements of imports now only give the imports of lae dye, which, during the first eight months of the present year, amounted to 1,240,848 lbs.; being at the rate of nearly two million of lbs. per annum. We have no means of forming an estimate of the number of insects employed in the product of this vast quantity of lac. They are not, as in cochineal, included in the ge¬ neral weight. Lac is only the clothing which they have been enabled to provide for their young. A far larger insect population is, therefore, probably required in the production of lac than in that of cochineal; but if we take the British import of the present year at 2,000,000 lbs. of lac dye, and the estimate of 50,000 insects, as the number requisite to produce one lb. of this dye, we ar¬ rive at 100,000,000,000—a number of whose magnitude men form no adequate mental conception, although it is easily expressed in so many cyphers. The number of animals required during a single year to supply the wants of Britain in a single dye—cochineal— for that year, exceeds the entire number of human beings who have hved on the earth since the creation. The number of animals requisite to supply this little island with another substance connected with the art of dyeing during the present year, considerably exceeds the entire population of the globe during aU its ages. The one insect inhabits chiefly the East, and the other the AVest, but they meet together in those splendid dyes employed on the fabrics which decorate not merely the mansions of the great but also the homes of the industrious. Each cochineal insect displays in its construction all the care required in the formation of the greater animals, which 228 AET AND INSECTS. elicit admiration of their agility or their strength, or the complete adaptation of their structure to the part which they enact upon the world. The art of the dyer and the employment of the painter, when their materials are even superficially studied, should extricate them from temptations to gross infidelity. Their own workmanship evinces intellect. Its performance in- contestihly proves the presence of design, of power, and of skill. A glass head in an old Egyptian tomb proved the acquaintance of the ancient Egyptians with the manu¬ facture of glass. More abundant evidence was subse¬ quently produced, but this one glass bead was proof by itself of man’s part in its construction. The dyer requires cochineal, and the painter wants carmine, but neither of them can produce the insect or the bush on which alone it will feed. The art displayed in the construction of the cochineal is immeasurably greater than anything that man has done, and those who deny the evidence of in¬ telligence in its construction, claim vainly for their own works any power to prove that attribute in the producer. The credulity that refers the existence of these insects in numbers that cannot be reckoned—endowed each with the same brilliant dyes, extracted from the juice of the plant on which alone they will feed, and by a process which no other power can imitate—to accident, is itself a spectacle that amply justifies the saying—“ the fool hath said in his heart there is no God.” The production of the insect is not more remarkable than the control exercised over the distribution of its numerous armies. The rapidity with which the numbers of the cochineal or the lac insect increase, would render either of them more formidable opponents than the locust or the mosquito, if they were not restrained to particular descriptions of ART AND INSECTS. 229 trees, not necessary for man’s sustenance, and not com¬ mon, until tlieir number is extended by cultivation for the purposes of Art. But the smallest insect may be¬ come the means of subverting the proudest works of man; and if, as many scientific men allege, the potato disease has been caused by an animalcule, entirely impercep¬ tible to the naked eye, an example is afforded of the fa¬ cility with which kingdoms may be subverted by agencies that men consider mean and weak. The disease of the potato might have seized the wheat. Man can inter¬ pose- no effective shield between the palmer-worm—Joel, 2d c., 25th V. —and his fields of corn. The time has been when it could truly be said, “ The seed is rotten under the clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down, for the corn is withered;” and art could not avert the calamity. The artisans of England in their various trades have witnesses to the being, to the providence, to the power of God. The dyer and the weaver are taught by their materials. The cochineal insect is endowed with certain qualities which man cannot impart, but which he can improve. The grana sylvestris is less valuable than the insect reared and tended by the dreamy Mexican or the indolent descendants of Montezuma’s subjects; but it pos¬ sesses all the qualities that belong to the fine cochineal. The dyer and his material are, in a state of nature, alike imperfect, and alike requiring the control and guidance of an independent and superior power. Bough infidelity says to the dyer that his cochineals are all so many myriads of chance products. Very strange it is, thinks the man, that chance among these innumerable formations never goes wrong. That solution does not satisfy him; and then a more polished and subtle infidelity comes and 230 ART AND INSECTS. talks learnedly of natural laws. The cactus hush is peopled, it says, by a natural law, with a race of insects whose females contain the colouring matter which render your dyes so brilliant, and rainbow, or rose-hke; and other trees are pierced by a different class of insects, and covered over with a gum, from which you can make your varnishes and sealing-wax, and carmine itself. Very true, a natural law exists in the case. The man feels its opera¬ tion in his favour, and in that of his trade. He sees also the trouble which the House of Commons have in making their laws, although that assembly be the collective wisdom of the wisest nation on the earth. Occasionally when em¬ ployment is dull, and wages are reduced, he thinks that he could make better laws himself; but when business revives, and he can return to his home at night, wearied truly with labour, but rich in wages sufficient to make his wife and little children contented and happy in their humble way, the dyer has no farther ambition to construct laws, for he sees that they are not easily made, and he knows that all the legislators who have ever met in the world could never command the existence of a cochineal insect, al¬ though he requires to put the remains of a hundred thou¬ sand through his vats in a short time. He sees two con¬ ditions essential to the operation of any law: first, skill to devise; and second, power to execute. Natural laws cannot be an exception to this rule in law-making, for it is absolute from its nature. The artisan discovers, there¬ fore, clearly, that this natural law which furnishes the raw material of his work, was passed by a Power greater than human legislators, for the results are superior to those attained by them. Then he will observe that a law requires not merely skill to devise, and strength to execute, but also the subsistence of that strength and ART AND INSECTSc 231 wisdom during its operation. The laws of the Medes and Persians were unchangeable over many provinces of Asia, while the Persian empire continued; hut they have long been changed now, because that empire has long been conquered, and decomposed, and shrivelled within the limits of the Persian kingdom. A law is the volition of some power, and of force only during the existence of that power. A law resembles the branch of a forest tree, which flourishes only while life remains in the trunk. The natural law which supplies cochineal and lac must have a Lawgiver inflnitely gerater than any human power, for the results are immeasurably larger than human power can produce, and more enduring, because this law and similar laws are co-eval with the world’s date. The silk trade is intimately associated with the flne dyes. Their influence was more apparent on the silken textures shown in many departments of the Exhibition, than on any other articles. The use of silk by the hu¬ man family originated at a distant period, although the mode or the time of its introduction are unknown. It was employed in Rome after the republic had attained considerable possessions in Asia; and ultimately became, during the empire, the material of common, hut costly dress. Silk was then entirely derived from the East, and probably from China. The expense of transfer over land would alone render its use in dress objectionable; and it became a type of luxury, against which “ sump¬ tuary laws” were devised and executed. Its use in Rome cannot he traced farther hack than the struggle of Csesar and Pompey for the mastery of the republic. After that date, it is mentioned by several authors, and described as equal to gold in value, by weight; hut gold was probably more abundant then than now, if silk was not so plentiful. 232 AET AND INSECTS. Silk is tke produce of several species of worms pre¬ vious to their transformation into butterflies, and, like lac, exists for the shelter of their immediate successors. The different silk-worms feed only upon the mulberry trees. The trees grow in regions where the worms will not live; but in the Exhibition specimens of British silk were shown in different places. The management of the silk-worm may never he a productive employment in this country, hnt evidence was afforded that excellent silk can he ob¬ tained from English silk-worms. This class of insects and their food are carefully cultivated in France, in Italy, in Greece, in Turkey, in Asia, south of the line of the Caspian and the Himalayas, in aU the coasts of Africa, subject to any degree of civilisation, in many parts of Australia, and in very extensive districts of America. China is considered their native land; and more silk¬ worms exist in China, and perhaps a greater quantity of silk is spun there than in any other country or any other region of similar extent. The inhabitants of Cochin- China, and the people of Che-Kyang, a province of the Chinese empire, use silken fabrics for their ordinary apparel, from their cheapness. In all parts of China silk is comparatively cheap, hut the quality is often coarser than that more carefully prepared in countries where the worm and its food are not indigenous. The peasants of China were probably digging their rice fields in silken garments, while the patricians of Rome were paying its weight in gold for thrown silk. At present we know that the toiling female serf of Tonquin, labouring in the fields, is clothed with the material that forms the robes of the peeresses at the British Court. The threads spun by the silk-worm are found neatly rolled up in cocoons. The oioa of the insect are very numerous, and the con- AET AND INSECTS. 233 tinuance of the race is secured by preserving a small number of tbe cocoons. Tbe Cbinese females immerse these little balls in warm water, to dissolve the gum which hinds them together, and wind off the threads with great rapidity. The nature of the production is nearly the same in all climates, and the processes adopted in the families of the silk growers are, therefore, similar. Thrown silk is prepared by twisting together the single threads of the raw silk. For three centuries the quantity consumed in Britain has been considerable. The value of foreign silks imported into England two and a-half cen¬ turies since was annually from <£600,000 to £800,000. A century since the quantity of raw silk imported was 352,000 lbs., and of thrown silk 363,000 lbs. The quantity of raw waste and thrown silk imported in 1814 was 2,119,974 lbs. In 1828\the amount was 4,547,812 lbs. During the present year the imports will reach 5,000,000 lbs. We have no estimate of the number of worms required for our silk manufactures, although that might be easily ascertained; but our consumpt of silk is inferior to that of France and of Italy, probably of India; and that of all Europe is far less than the quantity used in the home trade of China. The army of silk-worms, therefore, probably equals that of the cochineal insects, and their power of increase is so great that they alone could curse the world of temperate and tropical climes with famine, except for one of the natural laws, those great bulwarks of mankind, which men’s power or wisdom never could have raised. The myriads of silk-worms would consume the vegetation of the earth, like the locusts, in their course, if they were not confined to one species of tree. Their organisation presents no apparent obstacle to tbe use of any similar tree. The law of taste stands 234 AUT AND INSECTS. between the world and destruction by tbe silk-worm, or by any of tbe numerous species of insects whose existence is requisite for art. It seems a fragile barrier, and yet tbe safety of the world depends upon its strength. The silk-weavers, like the silk-dyers, may trace all the arguments regarding natural laws from the history of their material. They can arrive at the existence and the continuance of an intelligent Power, great above our com¬ prehension, with whom the complicated works of Na¬ ture originated by which their art exists; and who mer¬ cifully continues to support the laws He framed, that they may have the means of earning bread by exercising skill. But the insect perishes. The natural law brings the ori¬ ginal dye and silk producer to an abrupt close. The curi¬ ous beings that work so hard for men are consumed at the close of their labour. Is that the fate of the silk-weaver? The question must arise to his mind. It was the ques¬ tion of questions with thinking men, apparently, before silks were worn in Europe. The insect world displays care, and prudence, and skill. They exhibit affection, and obedience, and respect. They evince anger, and hatred, and revenge. Their cells are carefully moulded, their materials are skilfully selected, and their homes are wisely wrought into a complete and perfect state. They accomplish changes of matter that men, with their arts and science, cannot imitate; and yet they perish by a natural law, having done their work. They have enjoyed the pleasure of which their nature is capable. They have basked in the sun—they have consumed their food in abundance—or they have passed from a low to a high stage of existence; and having com¬ pleted their circle of good to man, they disappear, and other generations foUow. Thus far, the argument seems AET AND INSECTS. 235 dark. The weaver’s mind is torn with doubts. His trade is poorly paid, and manifold cares encompass his path. Many visitors admired the Spitalfields trophy in the centre of the great passage through the British department of the Crystal Palace, and almost in the centre of the edifice itself. Many other rich and varied fabrics of silk were exhibited. The gorgeous collection seemed competent to satisfy and surpass the utmost cravings of luxury and wealth for display and splendour. And yet the artisans who produced them toiled at early morn and late night for a small morsel, and wore the pale and furrowed stamp of weary care. To them the thought of life beyond the grave should be extremely grateful; and through the weaver’s argument on natural laws a light breaks when he thinks over the wide distinction between Instinct and Reason. Instinct neither errs nor rises. It is a perfect power completely furnished for the sphere wherein it acts. It requires no school, and it stores up no experience for future generations. It is adapted for a particular pur¬ pose and a special want, and it cannot turn itself out of its destined routine. The bee invents no new plan for the collection of honey or the formation of hives. The cochineal produces no finer dyes now than were yielded a thousand years ago. The silk-worms spun a fabric as fine and as capable of producing “ soft and transparent robes” to the Cochin-Chinese, two thousand years since, as they now yield to the polished nations of Europe. The afiections of instinct are strong, but even they only serve their purpose and pass away. The love of their off¬ spring under instinctive influence, changes the nature of the mild and timid animals. It braces and endows the weak with fierce courage. And yet it endures only for a little while. It has no deeper root than is requisite for 236 ART AND INSECTS. the continuance of the race. When the young can search out their own food the feeling ceases, and is entirely ob¬ literated. Widely different is the affection of reason. It deepens with the lapse of time. It survives the necessity in which it arose. A mother’s affection for her child is perhaps the most enduring feeling in time—Isaiah, 49th c., 15th V. Its grasp is never loosened from the object around which it twines. Exceptions to this rule have been rightly considered miracles of misery or vice in his¬ tory, for neither distance nor death can usually weaken this strong affection. The silk-dyer and the silk-weaver can remember the difference between instinct and reason at their looms or their vats. They find them written out clearly in their several trades.' They observe a different natural law applied to the two powers. They see that the one is fixed and the other’progressive. They find no boundary to the progress of the one in their own arts, and their professions disclose evidence of the fixedness of the other. The natural laws, therefore, governing the subjects of instinct and reason are certainly not the same, although they have the same Author, and will wear a strict consistency. One thread—“goodness”—runs through all these laws. The artisans see it in their daily labour. It was good to provide suitable material for their skill. They allow that the Psalmist was right whenhe said “the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord”—33d Psalm, 5th verse. But the weaver, like the apostle, would he constrained to feel that if this life completed our being, the earth would not manifest the “goodness of the Lord;” and the prevalence of this law of goodness in every other respect may bring the troubled man to rejoice in another saying of the Psalmist—“ The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants”—34th Psalm, 22d verse. ART AND FAITH. IN FRAGMENTS FROM THE GREAT EXHIBITION. THE F1.EECE AND THE CLOTH. The fabrics of Macclesfield and Spitalfields, of Co¬ ventry and Derby, in the Exhibition, were produced from the cradles of worms. The richest silk has no higher ori¬ gin. The Roman emperor who weighed his gold against the silken robes which he coveted, only clothed him¬ self in the abandoned homes or the graves of a thousand butterfiies. The transmutation of silk into its finer fabrics pre-supposes refinements in art which can he only ex¬ pected among a numerous and stationary population. Silk was, therefore, adopted as a material for clothing at a later period than any of the other materials now exten¬ sively used for that purpose. Traces of the use of cotton exist at an earlier date than those of silk, while flax and sheep’s wool were employed at the date of the earliest written history. The nature of the article affords strong presumption that sheep’s wool was the first material adap¬ ted by mankind for clothing purposes. The peculiar character of this animal attached it to mankind. It was almost defenceless, and, unless he had put forth his cunning and strength in its favour, its race must speedily have perished in the war of beasts. This race appeared to possess more of the innocence that, according to old tradi¬ tions and Scriptural testimony, once distinguished the ani¬ mal creation than any of the other beasts of the field. We would rejoice to give the human family credit—when they 0 238 THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. were still fe w, and their fall and punishment were events of personal remembrance to some of their number, and of recent occurrence—for so much good feeling as would lead them to cherish those animals, on whose nature the curse seemed to have fallen so lightly that they were yet vestiges of the peaceful days spent among Eden’s varied trees and flowers. Their protection would he sub¬ sequently continued from the payment which it received. It might commence in sentiment, and be sustained by sel¬ fishness, without discredit to the protectors. The scenes of Eden gradually but rapidly became the stories of tra¬ dition. The time soon came when the great single patri¬ archal family began to separate. The climax of sin was speedily reached, and the marked murderer became a fugi¬ tive and a vagabond on the earth. The struggle for bread may have ere then involved time and thought. The struggle for clothing and shelter would soon commence. As one family after another followed some one of the many lines of emigration, they would successively, but rapidly learn the need of warm coverings. The skin, and very soon the wool of sheep met the want which skins of wilder ani¬ mals could not so readily supply, while they could not be so easily procured. The ancients treated their flocks with great tender¬ ness. They did not use large quantities of animal food. The Orientalists do not yet, in ordinary circumstances, consume animal food so extensively as the inhabitants of Northern and Western countries. Their flocks of sheep were, therefore, chiefly maintained on account of the fleece; for, unlike the Australians of the present day, they had not a market for tallow. Sheep constituted a great part of a rich man’s property in the East. Job, in his first period of prosperity, held 7,000 sheep. His flocks were THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. 239 ultimately enlarged to 14,000. The number of other animals possessed by him, contribute to fix the place of his abode and the nature of his business. The Idu- means yvere engaged in commercial pursuits at an early period. They held a large share of the transit trade be¬ tween the East and West. Therefore, Job was rich in camels and in asses; while the number of his oxen indi¬ cate the pursuit of agriculture along with his other avo¬ cations. Abraham appears to have been an extensive grazier and wool-dealer. He was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold—Genesis, 13th c., 2d v. He was not a landowner until the death of Sarah induced him to purchase ground for a grave. He lived on friendly terms with the neighbouring chiefs of cities and agricul¬ tural districts; from which it may he farther inferred, that he grazed his flocks in the unoccupied regions of Palestine with their concurrence. As he possessed abun¬ dance of silver and gold, and there were “ shekels of silver current with the merchant”—Genesis, 23d c., 16th V. —and as he did not probably seek out the pre¬ cious metals as a miner, he must have acquired bul¬ lion in payments for the produce of his flocks, chiefly of wool. The son and grandson of Abraham, pursued their ancestor’s business. Their relatives in Mesopotamia were also engaged in pastoral avocations. It is difficult to ascertain the quarter from which a demand arose for the produce of the immense flocks maintained in ancient ages and countries; hut large markets for wool, and, there¬ fore, woollen manufacturers, must have existed at a very early date. Laban had gone to shear his sheep, when Jacob arose and departed with his cattle, his children, and his wives—Genesis, 31st c., 19th v. The same pas¬ toral pursuits prevailed among the Hebrews up to the 240 THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. period of tlieir greatest national prosperity. Saul was seeking liis father’s asses—1st Samuel, 9tli c., 20tli v.— when Samuel assured him that he would he the first king of Israel. David was keeping his father’s sheep, when Samuel anointed him to he the second monarch of the Hebrew state—1st Samuel, 16th c., 11th, 12th, and 13th vs. Rich flockholders were expected to make a payment, after the manner of hlack-mail, to the chieftains of the de¬ sert, for the safety of their flocks, when they sent them to feed in the wilderness. Unless the custom had been prevalent, the irritation of David at the refusal of Nahal to comply with his demand of payment for protection af¬ forded to his flocks “ all the while they were in Carmel” would have been unfounded. The incident shows the extent of a great store-master’s property in these days. Nabal held three thousand sheep^—a number far inferior to the stock of many sheep-farmers now, and in this coun¬ try. The Hebrew princes were sheep-farmers, and sheep- shearing was always a season of festivity—2d Samuel, 13th c., 23d V. The sacrificial rites of all countries con¬ sumed a great number of sheep. They appear to have been selected on account of their guileless, innocent, and mild character. Their use in patriarchal times, and by the patriarchs, was consequent on revelation. Their employment in heathen countries, like the whole system of sacrifice, typifying atonement, may have been tradi¬ tionally derived from the patriarchs. The Evangelical Prophet, while foretelling the solemn scenes of the Atone- jment, in his 53d chapter, employs this animal twice as the aptest illustration of his sad theme. “ All we like sheep have gone astray,” for sheep were apt to stray into scenes of danger and destruction. “ He is brought as a oimh to the slaughter,” because the lamb is the most in- THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. 241 nocent, unoffending, and unresisting of sufferers; and not alone, because it had been, through many ages and in nearly all lands, sacrificed as a type of the Atonement. The figure is varied by the Saviour himself in the 10th chapter of John’s Gospel, to the 14th verse, and literally typifies the relation of His followers to Him in the 11th verse. All these circumstances bestow an interest on the most patient companions and followers of mankind not possessed by the other wild or domesticated animals. They have in all ages clothed mankind during their life, and supported them by their death. They afforded the principal means of sacrifice, the most striking emblem of the Atonement, and singularly, from their wayward¬ ness, a type of our guilt. Peter had passed from the earth. The timid man who feared to acknowledge his Master in the hall of the high priest, had glorified God in his death. The tradition is probably correct that as¬ signs to the aged apostle a cruel end. The only Scrip¬ tural information on the topic confirms the statement— John’s Gospel, 31st c., 18th v. But Peter was dead when John recorded a remarkable incident in our Lord’s inter¬ course with these disciples immediately before his ascen¬ sion. It resembles a farewell charge—preceded by the touching question, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? ” And there is a peculiar sincerity in the grief of the apostle, thrice asked the same question, for thrice he had denied Jesus, bursting into his last answer, “ Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.” StiU carrying forward the favourite emblem, even to the last hour on earth, the thrice repeated injunction was, “ Feed my lambs—feed my sheep.” Peter was a man of action, and more likely to preach much, than to write often. Those writings which he did leave, are characterised by 242 THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. the energy of his character. His former life was neither agricultural nor pastoral. He was a fisherman, to whom pastoral emblems would not naturally occur; yet he remem¬ bered the last-recorded words addressed to him. In his language, the Lord sutfered as “ a lamb without blemish and without spot”—1st Epistle, Istc., 19th v.—“Ye were as sheep going astray; hut are how returned unto the Shep¬ herd”—1st Epistle, 2d c., 25th v.—“Feed the flock of God”—2d Epistle, 5th c., 2d v.—“And when the Chief Shepherd shall appear”—4th v. Incidental peculiarities of this nature run through all the Scriptures, forming part of their internal evidence; and this is a very interesting de¬ scription of testimony, because it scarcely can he imitated. The difficulty of interlacing a great narrative with these threads of proof is apparent from their deficiency in all other works that men have doubted; and an accomplished critic would adopt at once this mode of trying the accuracy of statements. The various arts connected with the woollen manufac¬ ture were introduced into Britain at a remote period. They have been carried to the credit of the Roman inva¬ sion, and have been practised in England since the period of Roman rule in Britain; hut it is highly probable that they were known here before its date. The Phoeni¬ cians traded with England for metals, especially for tin. They did not obtain them for nothing, and as clothes were peculiarly requisite in our climate, they probably paid by cloth, among other articles of barter. The Bri¬ tons had sheep, and undoubtedly knew the use of wool. A people who had among their artisans chariot-builders, clumsy and rough as their war-chariots may have been, would probably be acquainted with the manufacture of wool. The aborigines of Britain could not have reached THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. 243 our shores without having previously exercised this trade, which was pursued in oriental families for the family com sumpt, as at a recent period it was generally followed in this country hy rural families for the same pm*pose. The construction of ships of some capability necessarily pre¬ ceded the arrival of any portion of the human family in Britain, and the art of spinning and weaving rough gar¬ ments, in all probability, preceded the appearance of curaghs, or ships, in the German Ocean. The woollen trade is one of our most ancient avocations, and its in¬ troduction as a household manufacture, in the families of chiefs, to a limited extent, was probably contemporaneous with the first immigration of the human race into Britain. The manufacture of broad cloths has existed in Eng¬ land for more than six hundred years as a distinct and se¬ parate profession. The trade appears to have centred at a very remote period in the towns of Buckinghamshire and Suffolk. Gradually it was removed to the north and west, and Yorkshire has now the greatest woollen trade in the kingdom, while the west of England is celebrated for the peculiarly fine quality of its cloths ; but the continental fabrics rival, in the opinion of many persons, the English productions, although that opinion was not supported by the specimens sent to the Crystal Palace. The manu¬ facture is extremely diversified, from the shawls of Paisley and Norwich to the coarse heavy goods of the colonies, certainly not less useful than the finest products of the looms. The character of the manufacture depends greatly on the material. Spain produced at one period the finest wools. A Saxon king transferred the merino sheep to ' Saxony, and Saxon wools have since then been deemed superior to those of Spain. The imports from the latter country to Britain have declined for several years, and 244 THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. those from Germany are now greatly circumscribed by the competition of colonial wools. Australia and the Cape colony furnish the larger portion of the wool con¬ sumed by our manufacturers, with the exception of home produce. The trade in both colonies, but especially in Australia, has grown rapidly. The transfer of this pro¬ duce over many thousand miles, and its profitable con- sumpt here, are modern wonders of art. The colonial wool is not produced in great quantity at, or near, the ports of shipment. The flocks graze far from the few ports at which a home commerce can be conducted. The fleeces have to be conveyed often for many hundred miles over a rugged country without artificial roads, and neces¬ sarily at a gi'eat expense; for colonial labour is dear, and African or Australian time is, in one sense, valuable. An ocean transit of thirteen or fourteen thousand miles has then to be encountered, with all its charges, dangers, and perils. When it has been safely accomplished, the wool has to be transported from London chiefly, for several hundred miles; or from Liverpool, in smaller quantities, but for a shorter distance, to the North of England or to Scotland, for the manufacturer or spinner. The history of a bale of colonial wool would afford a strange illustration of the complicated arrangements requisite in conducting our commerce and manufactures, and the incalculable natural wealth of our colonial possessions. The British department of the Crystal Palace would have been greatly reduced in value without the colonial contributions, and if the Exhibition effected no other political good, it must have afforded a clearer conception of colonial wealth than previously prevailed in this country, and may thus have contributed to advance the time when these “waste places” shall “be glad” with the multitude of settlers; THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. 245 and Cliristian faith will exercise a defective influence at home, if it neglects to spread its principles over those re¬ gions which will soon form the homes of great and power¬ ful communities. The number of sheep in a country will not give an estimate of the quantity of wool produced, for the fleeces vary in weight from I 2 lbs. to 10 lbs. The census of sheep has never been perfectly taken, and any calcula¬ tions which have been made, can only yield an approxi¬ mation to the actual number. At the commencement of the present century, the entire produce of all sorts of English wool was calculated at 90,000,000 lbs., and the number of all descriptions of sheep at 26,000,000, which gives 3| lbs. per fleece. The calculation was made for England only, and that which gives the num¬ ber of sheep now in the United Kingdom at 50,000,000 is perhaps an accurate estimate. The number of animals of this species is therefore nearly double the population; but their average lives are short, and during the exist¬ ence of one generation of mankind, reckoning the many early deaths occurring even amongst them, nearly ten times the number of sheep must appear and disappear from the earth. The proportions in many other countries are still more dissimilar; and over the whole world, after allowing for the comparatively small flocks of domesti¬ cated animals in Eastern Asia, the British average must be fully maintained. This calculation exhibits an enor¬ mous number of this species of animals, 8,000,000,000, living on the earth during one generation of mankind. It presents a striking idea of the gigantic aggregate of ani¬ mal existence; and for this particular division, weak as they are, it is a pleasant existence. Even their common death—referred to frequently as a cruel close to an innocent 346 THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. lifetime—is perhaps the most merciful that could occur to them. Except for the object served in supporting mankind, this race would have been long ere now de¬ stroyed. Except for their utility to mankind, they never would have existed in their present great numbers. These facts should not he overlooked by those who weigh the advantages of their life against the pain of their death. The manufacture of woollen goods requires great care in the selection of the material. A practised eye alone detects those defects or qualities, which guide the stapler in assorting his fleeces, and a mistake at the commence¬ ment is often followed by had results at the close; not unlike errors indulged in youth which grow into the sin that “ more easily besets” the man in his future life. The “gray flhres” interspersed in coarse wools some¬ times escape detection by all parties, until a far advanced stage of the manufacture, when they re-appear as red' spots on the cloth, injuring the colours, and marring its value after the mistake is irremediable, and the disap¬ pointment which they then cause might remind the artisan of the solemn words spoken by Moses to the Israelites—- “ Be sure thy sin will find thee out.” A process and a time will come by which and when the red spots on the web of many lives will come up, irremediably and for ever destroying their character and their happiness. “ Nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest”—Luke 8th c., 7th V. —^and hence the solemn necessity resting on aU men to accept and follow the injunction, “Be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace without spot, and blameless—2d Peter, 3d c., 14th v. Wool in its natural state requires cleansing. Spanish wools were preferred over British, because the Spanish store-farmers had their fleeces carefully washed before THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. 247 sending them to market, for labour and skill are neces¬ sary to secure the purity of colour required in the pro¬ duction of fine cloths on which light or brilliant dyes are to he used. The process accords with the natural law which requires the employment of some apparently foreign means for the purification of all the materials used in art. The value of wool is materially affected by its softness, and the nature of the fleece depends upon that of the pasture on which the animal has fed. This peculiarity is well established, and indicates the close connection between the soil and all its products. Rich deep soil produces pasturage and vegetables, which in their turn give to the sheep supported by them a comparatively soft fleece. Light soils on chalk formations, which abound in England, produce a difi’erent result, and the sheep reared on their pastures wear a comparatively hard wool of less value in the market than softer qualities. The distinction shows the perpetuity of the elements of mat¬ ter in different forms. Science has not discovered the manner in which wool is formed on the body of the sheep, and a difi’erent hut almost valueless covering on that of other animals. A goat and a ewe confined to the same little field, breathing the same atmosphere, enjoying the same climate and its contingencies, feeding on the same herbs, and these growing from the same soil, convert their food, and the various elements that support them, into substances of a widely difi’erent character by ap¬ parently the same processes. Men see the difference of results, hut they cannot discover the distinction of causes; and yet these mysteries, in the oldest and the most ordinary pursuits of pastoral life, condemn the vain presumption which impugns great statements, sup¬ ported by important evidence, on the ground that the 248 THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. stinted intellect possessed bj the higher order of minds among our race cannot explain their nature. The mys¬ tery of wool-making transcends man’s intelligence, and yet he is offended because all spiritual mysteries are not at once made clear to his understanding. The difference in the fleeces of sheep, fed on different soils, proves the existence in the earth of the elements, or part of the elements, which compose wool, prior to their arrange¬ ment in that form. The existence of distinctive elements in various soils is universally acknowledged; and corre¬ sponding distinctions in the direct or indirect products of the earth prove the transfer of its original elements to them—and thus confirm the opinions long entertained by philosophic persons regarding the permanence of matter, which appears in different forms, and submits to ever changing arrangements, but does not perish. The de¬ struction of the human soul, endowed with capabilities never in time altogether developed, with powers never entirely used out, with means of acquiring information never fully satisfied, appears, certainly, more improbable than the destruction of matter, which, nevertheless, by a natural law, perishes not in its changes. The know¬ ledge exercised in his trade teaches the wool-sorter, or the spinner, that the doctrine of immortality, revealed to him in the Bible, consists with nature; for in the per¬ manence of matter he finds an analogy to the immortality of mind in its highest sense; and told in infidel works, and by the followers of that dark school, that immortality is unnatural, he can reply that those materials on which he employs his time have a permanence under different forms, which renders the assertion certainly untrue, and the doctrine, assuredly, not unnatural. The various stages of the manufacture are imitations THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. 249 of the means often adopted for schooling minds to the highest attainments. The process of carding presents no difference in principle between the cards wrought hy hand, still used in many districts, and the cylindrical machines, which each contain miles of wire, and are wrought with great rapidity hy artificial power. Cards are formed hy the insertion of wires cut to uniform lengths, bent in the same manner, and of uniform thickness, in leather cut to the size of the cylinder or frames to which the skin is attached. Instruments more adapted to teaze and torment the ma¬ terial put within their grasp have never been contrived; hut the wool that enters them full of inequalities and small knots, comes out in rolls ready for the spinner, with every knot loosened and aU inequalities removed. The operative who superintends the carding-machines, in any of the large clothing manufactories, can hardly overlook the resemblance of his trade to the trials of a “teazed and tormented life.” He would not spend skill and strength in putting the wool through the carding-machines, if it had no inequality to he removed, no knots to he untied; and he may rely that a corresponding process is going forward in his own mind, if the future to him offer a prospective on which he can calmly and happily rest. The principle on which the finest spinning-machine operates, was contained in the spinning-wheels of rural households. “ To hold and draw” at the same time, are the apparently contradictory objects of the spinning-wheel, hut the change accomplished by it on the material ex¬ posed to its operation is most beautiful. The hanks of fine and regular yarns evince little apparent connection with the loose and weak fibrous materials from which they are evidently formed. Beauty and strength are bestowed hy the spinning-wheel on the wool which comes into its grasp 250 THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. and under its influence. The plan resembles so closely the entire life of many minds that it might touch the heart of the most thoughtless spinner. We all hold, or are held, closely by the world. The heart is twined round time and its interests, hut a continuous process draws out and winds off the soul. The operation is ceaseless, gradual, and nearly steady, like the pain¬ fully uniform progress of time; hut the movement never flags, until the man douhts whether the friendships he has formed, and the memorials raised in his affections, are more connected with the present passing or the future enduring world. The “spinning” is half accomplished then; but still the movement never flags until the balance be fairly established in favour of the future, until the entire life be wound off, and the last fragment has gently left its hold on time, and passed away into eternity. After the yarn has gone through the loom, the woollen web is put into the fulling-mill. The wool originally pos¬ sessed a cohesive property, which the fulling-mill brings into active operation, and by its strokes the length and breadth of the web are reduced, but its beauty and strength are increased. The cohesive principle in wool is rendered obviously useful in hat manufacture, when the material, after it has been carefully mixed, is compressed in warm water, until it forms the tough substance with which hats are occasionally covered. Both operations in art give heart and strength to suffering operatives who examine analogies. The strokes of the fulhng-mill are crushing and heavy. A casual observer thinks them calculated to destroy the web. The fuller knows better, and sees in his mill the machinery for strengthening the cloth and increasing the fineness of its texture. The operative who prepares wool-covers for THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. 251 hats, intends the application of steam or water heat to the wool, and its compression, as the means of strengthen¬ ing the loose fibres, and forming them into one firm and beautiful substance, while an unskilled man would deem the artisan’s practice wild and prejudicial. Still more irrational, apparently, is the employment of other opera¬ tives who pass wool through “iron combs” sufficiently heated to change, in the passage, the surface of the fibres, yet in burning to bestow upon the wool a more brilliant and silky gloss than it would naturally possess. But the system is opposed only to untaught reason, and any man who now called it irrational, would be rightly charged with ignorance, although in discussions regarding reli¬ gious opinion and practice, the term is applied with little or with no discrimination to subjects of which the writers must be necessarily ignorant. The error in the minor case would be rebuked as folly, which in the major passes with many men as ingenious and profound thinking. Cashmere shawls formed the best class of woollen pro¬ ductions ever executed. They transcend the achieve¬ ments of our artisans; and specimens of this manufac¬ ture have produced more than three hundred pounds each. The excellence of the workmanship is indisput¬ able, but the material of the best shawls is not properly wool. It is the hair of a species of goat which lives in Hindostan, but thrives better on the high plains of Cen¬ tral Asia. Other materials besides wool might be used in this class of manufactures. Cloth was shown in the Ex¬ hibition from the Highlands of Scotland made of hares’ wool. This particular material did not appear to produce a fine fabric, but the soft and valuable furs of northern animals, under skilful treatment, might rival the Cash- mere shawls. 252 THE FLEECE AND THE CLOTH. The designs on Indian shawls have been slavishly fol¬ lowed by British manufacturers, although the Cashmere pattern, which hangs round them like a had habit, really signifies nothing. The greater part of the patterns from Norwich and Paisley were founded on the Cashmere style, with floral additions, and the design rose in excellence as it departed from the artificial into the natural path. The higher orders of genius are not employed on these designs, as our operatives have reason to lament, for on that account the demand for their labour often fails and shrinks into nothing, making much misery at each ebb, rarely compensated by the flow; but the highest genius may vary the groupings supplied by nature, yet cannot invent anything equal to the patterns furnished in field and woodland. Art has vainly struggled to excel Na¬ ture in the use of its own colours; and the effort would be equally vain in the suggestion of forms; yet with a fatal blindness, some men acknowledge and admire the skill evinced in the design of a successful carpet or a shawl, and forget that the uncounted millions of far more beautiful and necessarily original designs, scattered profusely around and on our path, must also infer genius and power, harmonious and uniform, pervading all things, and embracing all space. The artisans and labourers in this, as in other depart¬ ments of business, may find an answer to the cold specu¬ lations of infidelity, by studying the history of those ma¬ terials on which they labour, and by which they live; hut they will find advantages more valuable still; for after urging the study of the works of Creation, of Provi¬ dence, and Redemption, the Psalmist says—“ Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall un¬ derstand the loving kindness of the Lord.” AKT AND FAITH, IN lEAGMENIS PEOII THE GREAT EXHIBITION. THE GRANITE ROCKS. Tlie earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” The truth of this statement has been denied hy infidels without any evidence to support the denial. The “wide wastes” of waters have been long considered benefits and bless¬ ings. The deserts may also have value which we do not know. A positive opinion given hy an ignorant man is an act of folly, and is in all probability absolutely erroneous. A man might guess correctly on a subject with which he is unacquainted, hut the theory of probabilities leaves him little hope of accuracy. The existence of desolate and wide deserts is known, hut all the purposes which they will he found capable of promoting are not known. They may he apparently irreclaimable to this generation, as they have been to their predecessors, while their suc¬ cessors may discover the mode of dealing with them profitably—“ The wilderness and the solitary place shall he glad for them f and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose”—Isaiah, 35th c., 1st v. The prophecy, in accordance with views stated in previous tracts, has a major, a principal, or spiritual meaning; hut the figure wiU yet be fulfilled to the letter. Christian art, in this as in other prophecies, will yet give to Christian faith another evidence of the strength of its foundations. The •desert is to “blossom abundantly”—it is “to rejoice with joy and singing” — it is to have “the glory of P 254 THE GRANITE ROCKS. Lebanon”—the forest trees; “ the excellency of Carmel” —the green and abundant pastures; and “ of Sharon”— those fertile fields and gardens of blossoms that rendered “the rose of Sharon” proverbial. The deserts of the East and South are larger now than at a former period. The ruins of great cities stand far beyond the limits of existing cultivation. Their traces are discovered where for ages no man has permanently dwelt, unless when a casual eremite sought shelter from a world whose cares he wanted courage to combat. The sands of the desert have intruded even on the old soil of Egypt. They will be rolled back by a flood of green vegetation, when Egypt becomes the property of a more energetic power than its present masters. The plains from the Armenian mountains to the Persian Gulf yield only a scant}^ subsistence to a small population. They will yet support great nations, when the old systems of irrigation are re-opened, and the farmer can expect to reap the harvests which he has sown. The deserts of Arabia, of Africa, and of Australia, want only water to convert them into valuable land. The artificial systems of irrigation in Hiiidostan indicate our means of surmounting the dif¬ ficulty in Australia and Southern Africa, where rain falls abundantly at some seasons. Artesian wells may meet other difiiculties, but they will be met and overcome when the land is required, which, in the meantime, is not wanted. The march of Christianity in its plain, simple, and true form, has ever been the progress of art, industry, and intellect; and thus, it will ever mark and map out the globe, until the world is brought under its influence. The desert may be recovered; but how will the solid rocks, that cover a large portion of the surface of the world, be converted into usefulness for man? The ques- THE GRANITE ROCKS. 255 tion is answered by daily experience. Those rocks shelter mankind when art and industry have shaped them to our use. They may serve other ends with which we are un acquainted. The hare gaunt mountains may he the ribs of the world. The long ridges of hard stone, running over continents in solid masses, may hind together the wide tracts which intervene ■ between them. They may he “ the girders” of this vast fabric, of which scientific men know little. The structure of the globe has not been analysed by them. Their researches extend littie be¬ neath the crust or surface. Geological investigations are recent; although theories have been formed and promul¬ gated as facts on imperfect evidence, connected with that interesting science. The internal structure of the earth i§ concealed from our investigations. Suppositions and theories have been promulgated on the subject, but no tangible evidence is afforded to show whether we live upon a hollow or a solid ball. The former character, more probably, belongs to our globe, in analogy with other laws observed upon its surface; but science cannot disclose the secret. Many individuals suppose that our planet is a mass on fire, of which the surface yet only is cooled down to a habitable state. They derive support to this opinion, so far as the fact favours it, from the in¬ crease of temperature observed by miners, as they de¬ scend into the earth. A regularly graduated increase would speedily bring them to a depth where life would be insupportable from that cause—although defective ven¬ tilation has hitherto prevented them from penetrating to a point where this obstacle was encountered. The granite, which, under casual modifications, forms the ma¬ terial of all the great mountain ranges on which other strata rest, is apparently mattet which has been melted. 256 THE GRANITE ROCKS. and in a state of liquid heat run into its present moulds. It is probable that streams of this liquid material crossed other rocks while they were in a state of par¬ tial formation, for it occasionally intersects them in dif¬ ferent positions, as if it had run into fissures, and there cooled ; but these interruptions are comparatively rare, and granite in masses appears to form the bones or skeleton of this great globe. “ The mountains were settled” and “the hills;” the “world was founded upon the seas and established upon the floods” by an inteUi- gent Power, and the selection of matter, or the mode of its application, were not fortuitous accidents. Granite proper contains quartz, felspar, and mica, but some one of the elements are deficient, and another is introduced in granitine formations. The generic term granitine is applicable to any fusion of minerals in the form of rocks, where one of the elements requisite in granite is wanting, and its place is supplied by a different material. Pelspar is said to form three-fourths or four-fifths of common granite. It possesses different colours, and is found white, or nearly so, grey, green, or red. It has been analysed by several chemists; but as their results do not quite correspond, its constituent parts are probably dis¬ tributed in different proportions. The following returns have been given by some chemists: 64 per cent, of silica, 18 of alumina, 13 of potash, 3 of lime, and a portion of the oxide of iron. The presence of potash and phosphoric acid is requisite to the formation and existence of vege¬ table life. Professor Fownes, of London, states that he found traces of phosphoric acid in an analysis of different descriptions of granite. He argues from that circumstance, in the Actonian prize essay, that the two essential ele¬ ments of existence have been stored past in the granite THE GRANITE ROCKS. 257 formations, and that the fertility of soils depends upon their presence. He considers that the most fertile soils are slowly formed hy decompositions of granite; and, thus, this hard and unpromising substance may really hold in retention elements far more necessary for existence, and Taluahle to man, than the gold for which the quartz rocks of California are now pounded to dust hy the most powerful machinery that art can furnish. The quartz rocks are artificially decomposed to relieve the atoms of gold existing in them, hut the felspar may have undergone atmospherical decomposition for many ages, to relieve atoms mfinitely more precious; hut slowly evolved because they are so very precious that life cannot exist without them; and thus our granite rocks are, like all other parts of the earth, “ full of the goodness of the Lord.” The fusion of granite hy heat would so far change orga¬ nic remains, that they could not easily be discovered in the mass, even if they had ever existed there, and organized beings had been involved in the fearful conflagration which boiled together those materials of the everlasting hills. The limestone rocks are regarded by geologists as younger than the granite hy many ages, in the scale of being; and they are supposed to contain vast treasures of organic remains. Some geologists assert that the chalk formations are merely great cemeteries of crusta- ceous animals compressed into a solid form. All these assertions are to be taken with a certain degree of cau¬ tion, for they emanate from enthusiastic students in a branch of science which has been hut recently opened, in which comparatively few facts are clearly ascertained, and where the field of inquiry is illimitable; and, in the meantime, for the greater part of its length and breadth, out of human reach. Men have only yet the means of 258 THE GRANITE ROOTS. learning a chapter or two in the rudiments of geology-r- an honourable position in a modern science, hut a dan¬ gerous foundation for theories. Remains of animals have been discovered in one class of formations, and believed to he vestiges of gigantic forms which pressed the world before it was fitted for the abode of man. The remains of similar animals have been subsequently found in posh tions which they might have occupied, if no great change had occurred on the world since their death. Distinct races of animals have disappeared from many countries within the range of a few centuries. All beasts of prey will gradually fly from the presence of man. A time may come, and it may not be distant, when the classes of greater animals, which exist to destroy, will be extirpated. The Anglo-African colony has progressed slowly, yet within fifty years the frontier of the lion has been thrown many hundred miles into the interior. The beasts of prey have been destroyed from before the face of man. A similar fate awaits animals of a less dangerous nature. A visit of wild elephants into a cultivated country would not promote the comfort or the prosperity of the colonists, and they also will be destroyed. Various animals once lodged in the forests of Britain which are now extinct, The bison, the wild boar, and the wolf, are unknown in the woodlands, and the eagle is almost driven from the moun¬ tain cliffs. Other species would have perished utterly except for the strict laws devised to protect game. These changes have occurred within a comparatively short pe¬ riod; and, if they had been effected before the date of his¬ torical records, or in a country where yet such testimony is not provided, the present generation would have believed that the animals mentioned never existed in this country. Commentators have generally agreed that the Book THE GRANITE ROCKS. 259 of Job is the oldest work in existence ; but they have not 60 generally concurred regarding the species of some animals mentioned therein. The characteristics ascribed to Behemoth and the Leviathan are not found in any animals now known in the world; and several critics have supposed that those passages described popular opinions, and not absolute facts; but the species may be extinct; and the skeletons found by geologists favour the opinion that, during the current period of the globe ani¬ mals existed at one time which have left no representa ¬ tives of their bulk and strength to the present day. The • commentators who proceed on the assumption that the animals mentioned were the elephant or the hippopotamus, under the term Behemoth, which, like Leviathan, is not translated; and the crocodile or the whale, under the name Leviathan, must allow that the descriptions are not en¬ tirely applicable. The hippopotamus, or river ox, reaches the length of twenty feet in Abyssinia, and possesses terrible power ; but the “ mountains do not bring him forth food,” for he is an amphibious animal, inhabiting large rivers and lakes, unable and unwilling to seek food on mountains. “ The shady trees” cannot be said, in any proper sense, “ to cover him with their shadow,” or “ the willows of the brook” to “compass him about,” for he rests in the water, and does not frequent brooks, unless where they fall into lakes* or rivers. The hippo¬ potamus has a remarkably short tail, and its movements have no resemblance to those of a cedar, while his strength rests chiefly in his immense jaws and powerful teeth. The characteristics of the elephant correspond more with the description of Behemoth than those of the hippopotamus; but the elephant is not naturally a fierce animal, and has been “ domesticated” or “ tamed” in all 260 THE GRANITE ROCKS. ages. The Leviathan is described in this announcement, “none is so fierce that dare stir him up;” hut crocodiles were hunted and killed in many districts of the Nile, while they were worshipped in others; and men have little difficulty in conquering them on land. It is probable that the term Leviathan is general, and includes all very large animals frequenting water. It might describe the hippopotamus family; but they were hunted and killed in great numbers by the ancient Egyptians, who made shields out of their skins; or it might mean a serpent of the python or boa genus, which were once more pro¬ fusely scattered over the world than now. They frequent rivers, and are the most powerful and terrible of organised beings, until gorged with a buffalo, a tiger, or some other animal fitted for a large meal to them, when they can be safely attacked and easily slain. The behemoth is probably an extinct animal. The Indians of America have traditions of ver}^ large animals now unknown. Their skeletons have been found, but they have no living representatives. They appear not to have been carnivor¬ ous; but they must have been, as the hippopotamus is, destructive to crops. The manner of their suppression i entirely unknown, hut “ He that made him can make His sword to approach unto him.” Arguments regarding the age of the world, drawn from organic remains, exist, therefore, upon a frail foundation. The ranges of rocks on the globe do not require the practised eye of a geologist to detect their utility. The world is indebted to the rocks for records of the past, re¬ specting many nations whose written documents have nearly all perished. They were used by early and orien¬ tal races, virtually to preserve records of extraordinary events. Many of the rocks of the deserts, through which THE GRANITE ROCKS. 261 the Hebrews wandered, are inscribed with characters which have not yet been intelligibly deciphered. Kock- writing was not an uncommon practice among Orientalists; and it does not follow, because the rocks thus inscribed ate in the probable course of the Hebrews, that, therefore, the inscriptions were made by them, although a solution of that question would be probably important and as¬ suredly interesting. Job refers to the practice of record¬ ing events and expressions in a book and on a rock— 19th c., 23d and 24th verses. The authorised transla¬ tion reads “printed in a book,” others, with perhaps greater accuracy, “ inscribed on a book but it now ap¬ pears that inscription in books may have been accom¬ plished by processes with which the ancients were recently supposed to have had no acquaintance. The use of en¬ graved plates was probably known to some of the oriental nations. Job proceeds, as an alternative, to desire that his “ words were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever;” and the ruins of Petrea yet witness the pre¬ valence in subsequent times of rock-engraving among the Idumeans. An incidental reference in the book of Amos— 1st c., 12th V., —assists the identification of Job and his friends with the Edomites. Foretelling the destruction of Edom, the prophet says—“ But I will send a fire upon Teman, which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah. ’ ’ Many persons suppose that Petrea is a gradually corrupted pro¬ nunciation of Bozrah; and if the opinion be correct, the palaces of Bozrah were the most magnificent residences of the East; for, hewn from the solid and many-coloured rock, their ornamental sculpture formed part of the mass, and their ruins stand in stately, solemn, and sorrowful grandeur after the brick palaces of Babylon and Nineveh have returned to the dust. Teman was a city of Edom 262 THE GRAHITE ROCKS. at a comparatively recent period. Job mentions to Elipbaz the Temanite, and Elibu tlie Buzite, tbe art of rock¬ engraving with iron, and filling with lead, as one with which they were all intimately acquainted. The records of greatest value furnished by the rocks are those ruins of ancient and powerful cities, whose me¬ mory would have perished except for the enduring cha¬ racter of the material employed in their public works. The burnt bricks of Nineveh and Babylon were weak substitutes for those almost imperishable stones on which the art of many nations was embalmed. Working in stone was an ancient art in Syria, where hills and moun¬ tains with their stores of stone abound. The builders of Babylon, of Nineveh, and of many other cities in the same division of Asia, had less durable material, and their finest works have thus been lost. The Syrian hills and moun¬ tains contain strata of limestone which atforded there— as limestone formations generally yield—large caverns, which served, perhaps, originally as places of shelter for peaceable men, their families, and flocks; subsequently for outlawed chiefs and their followers, like David and his men in the cave of Adullam; and ultimately, in nearly all lands, for the oppressed. The representatives of the patriotism of our own country, at one time, and of its moral and religious worth at another, have been compelled to hide from the fiery sword of persecution in the caverns of the mountains and the dens of the hills. The magnificent ruins which still prove the existence of high art, and a great population in ancient times, are necessarily objects of curiosity and interest. The chain of hills through which the Nile, at the cataracts, has burst a passage at some remote period are rocks of granite, from which the pillars had been taken that still remain THE GRANITE ROOKS. £63 on tlie mysterious isle of Philoe, or in the magnificent ruins of temples, to prove the genius for design and the skill in execution of the sculptors in the early ages of the world, well nigh fom* thousand years ago. The rocks conferred the means of perpetuating the evidence of ancient talent and power. They gave beauty and per¬ manent grandeur to the conceptions of genius and the labour of industry, in the temples of religion, not always false, and perhaps, when the older structures were reared, not greatly corrupted, and in the palaces which rapidly became the centres of despotism and vice ; but those who reflect upon the multitude of homes furnished by this material to the families of mankind in all ages—and of their comparative comfort and security-—will readily acknowledge that its employment for common purposes in many lands, and its great utility, vindicate this state¬ ment—“the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.” Quartz forms one of the principal ingredients of granite, and is crystalized matter of different colours and forms, supplying many of the precious stones employed for orna¬ mental purposes. The jasper, the agate, the opal, the onyx, and the sardonyx, are found in quartz. The Rus¬ sian contributions to the Exhibition embraced extremely valuable articles producedfrom the quartz rocks. Several large jasper vases, one of them three feet high, attracted, by the beauty of the material rather than the skill of the workmanship, much admiration. The royal vase of por¬ phyry, from Sweden, was the flnest article of this descrip¬ tion; but as it only reached the Crystal Palace a few weeks before its close, comparatively few visitors had the means of investigating this beautiful work. The art of cutting and polishing precious stones was intimately known at a remote period, Moses gave instructions to the He- 264 THE GRANITE ROCKS. brews, during their journeyings in the wilderness, respect¬ ing many stones found in quartz rocks. His directions support the opinion that the engraver’s art was ordinarily followed in Egypt, from which they emigrated, and that they had in their number artisans competent to cut with facility the hardest stones. The 28th chapter of Exodus contains many interesting details regarding the state of Hebrew art, even at the date of their bondage. The dis¬ covery of engraved stones and rings in the Egyptian tombs confirms the statements incidentally given on that topic in Scripture. The use of signet-rings, engraven with some crest or device, if not with initial letters, was not only very ancient but also common, for Judah used one during his father’s life, and while we have no reason to consider him possessed of much public importance or great wealth. Pharoah used a ring which he handed to Joseph, proba¬ bly as a modern monarch now gives to a new minister of state the seals of office, and for the same purpose. The incidental evidences arising out of modern inquiries possess some value in reference to the Scriptures, and great in¬ terest in the glimpses of ancient life which they afford; and the assurance given by them that art commenced its long pilgrimage over the world, even if in a rude condition, at an early date; and was pursued as a distinct profession, for not otherwise could engraved devices on metals, and far less probably on the crystals found in the quartz rocks, have been produced in the numbers that had been cut and sold, when a younger son of a retiring Shemitic chief (a man altogether different from his energetic brother Esau) wore a signet. The granite of the British Isles, without any separa¬ tion of its parts, now forms the best material for perma¬ nent monuments found in all the varied rock formations. THE GRANITE ROCKS. 265 The manufacture is of recent origin, and was commenced in the city of Aberdeen, which, built on the edge of the Grampian hills—the greatest chain of granitic mountains in Britain—has long exported granite in large quantities for building and the construction of streets. The north¬ ern granite held a high character in the London market. The general colour of the stone, quarried from the imme¬ diate vicinity of Aberdeen, is a greyish white, extremely permanent, and easily renewed by dressing the surface. A similar granite is found in the Mourne mountains in Ire¬ land, at Inverary in Scotland, and at various points in the chain of the Grampians. It is susceptible of a high polish, and ultimately presents a surface equal to marble; with the advantages of greater, and, indeed, indefinite endur¬ ance in our climate. Specimens of this polished granite were placed in the Exhibition by the originators of the trade, and by other parties who prosecute it extensively. The granite monuments in the London cemeteries wiU probably remain unchanged and uninjured, when all the fine buildings of the metropolis have been removed, and others substituted in their place, to share, in one or two centuries, a similar fate. In the Glasgow Necropolis, which is more exposed to a polluted and vitiated atmos¬ phere than any other cemetery of equal extent in the island, the polished granite monuments remain unstained. This hard material has hitherto been chiefly used for monumental works ; and a peculiar stone, of a brown or reddish colour, which abounds in the north of Scotland, appears to be preferred for that purpose; but granite has also been employed not only as a substitute for marble, in mantel-pieces and similar objects, but as ornaments, and for small articles. We have seen inkstands made from granite, and slabs of that material produce beauti- 266 THE GRANITE ROCKS. fill table-tops. The mode of working the large blocks dif¬ fers little from the art of the “lapidary"’ and the stone en¬ graver. The same principles are employed in both cases. The saws and polishing apparatus in the large granite works are all moved by steam, and the results astonish the spectator, from the simplicity of the strong machinery employed to produce them. The Derbyshire manufactures of the same class, like the Russian vases of jasper and malachite, are chiefly ornamental; but the Exhibition con¬ tained nothing more interesting than the Derbyshire pro¬ ductions. The variety of colours in the material of many articles produced a beautiful effect; and the abundance of these materials in the strata of Derbyshire have rendered the manufacture of ornaments from spajr a staple trade in that county, and one in which its artists have reached a high position. Their material is more easily wrought than granite; but it is more susceptible of injury. A third and beautiful class of manufactures of the same genus, has recently been prosecuted vigorously in some quarters of England, and promises to reach considerable import¬ ance. The slate formations of this countiy are numerous, and scattered at intervals convenient for the purposes of commerce. Slate furnishes the lightest covering for houses, and had been generally adopted for that purpose, without its other merits being recognised, until within a recent period, during which it has been employed in the construction of cisterns, and many objects of that nature. Slate has been still more recently, and is now extensivelyj, employed in ornamental articles for the drawing-room, because it is easily wrought; and without producing, under any process, a highly polished surface, it yields one on which the artist can operate with the facility of canvas ar paper. The beauty of this class of articles THE GRANITE ROCKS. 267 consists chiefly in the art displayed by the painter, and the brilliant colours and forms with which they are covered; hut the utility of the material for cisterns &.nd similar purposes is obvious, because its employment will prevent those injurious consequences that may follow the use of metallic substances. The slate quarries afford em¬ ployment to many individuals in rural districts, and the consumpt of slate in London alone is said to he annually from 60,U00 to 80,000 tons. Specimens of porphyry from many quarters of the world were shown in the Exhibition, i hut none of them exceeded the red, black, and green I porphyry of Cornwall, or the green granite of Ireland, j either in the beauty of the material, or in the art displayed li in working the Cornish porphyries. , The resemblance of Art to Faith in the stoneworker’s I profession is Scriptural, and cannot be deemed fanciful or strained. A series of texts exist in which it is used: The Author of our faith is described in Psalm 118, 22d v., thus—“ The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the comer.” Similar language is used by Isaiah, 28th c., 16th v.—“ Behold, I hiy in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner¬ stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste.” The 22d and 23d verses of the 118th Psalm were quoted by our Lord himself—Matthew, 21st c., 42d V.; Mark, 12th c., 10th and 11th vs. Luke narrates the same incident with a slight variation —20th c., 17th and 18th vs. The apphcation of the passages in the Psalms and in Isaiah is, therefore, made sure. Peter, when, with John, taken before Annas and Caiaphas, and their colleagues in eldership and rule among the Jews, applied the 22d verse of the 118th Psalm to the Bedeemer, and the authorities and people 268 THE GRANITE ROCKS. bj whom he was rejected and crucified. The two apostles were then for the first time dragged, for teaching Chris¬ tianity, before the civil power. Their appearance was the first of a long series of ecclesiastical cases, not yet termi¬ nated, in which temporal authorities have endeavoured to trample down the faith of the gospel and the rights of con¬ science. It occurred singularly before the men who had rejected the Redeemer and conspired for his destruction. The figure is carried farther in the subsequent inspired writings, and applied to all believers by Paul—Ephesians, 2d c., 19th to 22d v.; and by Peter—1st Epistle, 2d c., 5th V.— “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood,” &c. The hewer, the cutter, or the polisher of stones, wearied with heavy labour, pants for rest. His daily history corresponds with the narrative of faith. The quarries from which his material are blasted out, broken, or hewn, are full of debris and useless fragments. The skill of the artisan is not em¬ ployed on them. They are not dressed by the chisel, split open by the saw, or exposed to the ponderous machines with which granite is polished. They are exempted from that discipline, and appear to enjoy present ease and re¬ pose or rest, merely because they are useless. The fate of the blocks and pillars designed for future use is widely different. They pass to “ rest” through numerous pro¬ cesses. They are fitted for their future and useful station by the application of art with persevering labour, calculated to remind the artisan, as he plies his tools, that while “a rest remaineth for the people of God, ” the way to it may be through much suffering and tribulation; but the one thing necessary for him now is to be made “ a lively stone” in “the spiritual house” rather than to remain, even with present apathy, an idle fragment in the quarry, ART AND FAITH. IN FNAGMENTS FROM THE GREAT EIHIBITION. FLINT AND SAND IN THE FUENACE. Specimens in the various departments of porcelain and glass manufacture occupied a large space in the Exhibi¬ tion. The two manufactures have a similar origin, al¬ though they diverge from that point, and are accomplished by different processes. The production of glass has been long followed in some parts of the world, first, according to common belief, by the Phoenicians on the shores of the Mediterranean, and soon afterwards by the Egyptians. The priority assigned to the Phoenicians is not clearly established, hut rests upon an old tradition. A ship’s crew were wrecked, and, wandering on the sands by the shore, they stopped in some sheltered nook to kindle a fire with nitre from the wreck, hut they were astonished to notice that the fire melted the sand and fused its parts into a brilliant substance. They did not forget the lesson, and as the secret belonged to them they probably profited by their wreck. The little history carries its moral, for the wrecked wanderers of Tyre or Sidon had only contem¬ plated sorrow and suffering from their accident, while it was the step to a new path in life, and sent them home¬ wards enriched with the secret of a new art more value able than any freight that ever entered their country’s harbours. The world stands under a debt of extreme - magnitude to the Phcenicians, who were a people of high civilisation before the Grecians had made any progress in Q 270 FLINT AND SAXD IN THE FURNACE. the arts, and long before Rome was founded. Although the Egyptians often attacked the maritime tribes on the coasts of the Mediterranean, yet they formed originally part of the same division of the human family, and they share between them the credit of first producing glass. Its manufacture was extensively conducted at Alexandria during the Roman empire, hut ere then the trade was pursued in Spain, in Italy, and wherever around the Mediterranean Sea a sand was found capable of being successfully used. The glass utensils found in Egyptian monuments and tombs evince the acquaintance of that people with this art long previous to the existence of Alexandria; but glass appears not to have been applied by ancient and oriental nations for the purpose in which it is now most extensively employed. The style of house¬ building still adopted in the East does not require the extensive ranges of glass used in Western houses. The climate is more equable on the Mediterranean than the Atlantic, and the habits of the people differ so widely from ours that they employ a smaller quantity of glass than the European nations. Its employment in windows is, however, a modern arrangement in Britain. The majority of English houses in Queen Elizabeth’s reign had no glazed windows, although .the practice was par¬ tially introduced in the reign of Henry YIII. The Hebrews must have been acquainted with the manufacture of glass, since they were conversant with more difficult arts practised by the Egyptians, and were long upon amicable terms with the Phoenicians, who prac¬ tised glass-blowing; but the Bible contains few passages which can be fairly referred to this trade. The “ treasures hid in the sand,” ascribed to the possessions of the tribe of Zebulon—Deuteronomy, 33d c., 19th v.—^liave been FLINT AND SAND IN THE FURNACE. 271 understood by some parties as meaning the riclies derived from this business. The explanation is not unnatural, as the people of Zebulon were near the Phoenicians; but the sands might have contained many other treasures, and without other evidence we cannot decidedly conclude that this tribe either made glass wares, or sold materials to their neighbours for that purpose, although the scene of the Phoenician seamen’s wreck, by whom glass-making was said to have been accidentally discovered, lay on or very near the coast of Zebulon. Job was acquainted with crystal; and from the connection in which many precious stones are mentioned by name, we infer with artificial crystal, which he ranked with gold as alike inferior to ij wisdom in value—28th c., 17th v.; and as the Hebrews were intimately connected with the Idumeans, the know- 1 ledge of the latter must have extended, at least, partially 1 to the former. The Idumeans were a commercial people, who would certainly push business among their neigh¬ bours, and sell to them their more valuable products. One of the instructions contained in Proverbs, 23d c., 31st v. —“Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup”—incidentally leaves the im¬ pression that transparent cups were, like the crystal of our day, ordinary household articles in Hebrew life; for I the phrase “ giveth his colour in the cup” is not easily in- j telligible on any other supposition; and glass bottles were j evidently in ordinary use among the Egyptians long be- j fore the days of Solomon; who from his family connection I with Egypt, must have been familiarly acquainted with all -j the manufactures of its people, but who would not, in writ- il ings intended for popular use, mention articles which were not found in general consumpt; exactly as a writer of less wisdom, and without Solomon’s inspiration, in our time i 27?/ flint AND SAND IN THE FURNACE, would yet, while warning his readers against intemper¬ ance, avoid mentioning gold and silver cups, although they exist, and would use the word “ glass,” because it is in common and domestic use. Those oriental scholars who have devoted talent and time to Egyptian history, say that glass vases were used for holding wine by families on the Nile before the exodus of the Hebrews. We would infer from the circumstance that Joseph's cup was of silver, if glass vases and cups existed at his time, and were employed to hold wine, that they were comparatively cheap and plentiful, for the cup used by him personally would be costly and rare. The possession of mirrors by the ancients does not necessarily imply the use of plate glass, silvered over in their construction; for metallic plates highly polished served the purpose of modern mir¬ rors. A Greek word, “csopiron,” is translated by the English noun glass,”in James, 1st c., 23d v., where a mirror is evidently meant by the apostle. The same word is employed in 1st Corinthians, 13th c., 12th v., and has the same translation, although the apostle Paul there undoubtedly means a substance through which men might see darkly; and some commentators have supposed that he did not contemplate windows made of glass, but of talc, a species of mica, scattered over many parts of the world, and undoubtedly employed in glazing windows by builders in Rome, and other large cities at the period when the apostle wrote, as it is even yet used for the same purpose in oriental countries. Talc is found in the northern Scottish counties, and appears to be gene¬ rally connected with granite or granitic masses. Its plates can be separated into thin leaves, which being flexible, cannot be broken like glass. Leaves of nearly a foot or ten inches square may be had in Hindostan for FLINT AND SAND IN THE FURNACE. 273 an equivalent W fourpence. They are, therefore, much cheaper than glass, hut although partially transparent, yet objects are seen through them darkly, as the apostle says—even dimly—not altogether according to their na¬ tural appearance—and only at a comparatively short dis¬ tance. The passage, “ for now we see through a glass, I darkly; hut then face to face; now I know in part; hut then shall I know even as I am known”—is full of signi¬ ficance, if we suppose that the writer contemplated talc; and is inapplicable to our sheet-glass, which neither con¬ tracts, distorts, nor shortens vision. The original word, j ** esoptron,^’ throws no light upon these subjects, as it ^ proceeds from a compound verb—meaning to look upon, i| or into—formed by the verb rendered “to see,” and ' the translations necessarily depend upon the context. It I is quite apparent that the apostle John was acquainted j with the manufacture of glass and crystal, and expected I his readers to be cognizant of these productions as fami- I liar matters. I The word “bottle” in Scripture, does not infer glass Ij bottles, but those made of skin, still commonly used in I Western Asia. Bottles were occasionally made of ala- 1 baster—a stone common in Italy and Spain, found in I different parts of the world, softer than marble, varied in i colours, and wrought into statuary, tables, vases, and by 1 the ancients, into ointment bottles or boxes. One of the I latter is mentioned in the incident recorded in Matthew, j 26th c., 7th V. — where a woman poured “very precious I ointment” on the head of the Saviour from an alabaster ' box. Mark says—14th c., 3d v.—that the woman broke the box. Both evangelists record this incident at nearly j the close of the Saviour’s ministry on earth, immediately j before the passover-day and the night of treachery, and 274 FLINT AND SAND IN THE FURNACE. as occurring at Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper. This incident seems to he entirely distinct from one of a similar kind recorded in Luke, 7th c., 37th v., and on¬ wards, although the common name of Simon, belonging to the persons who, at different dates, and in distinct lo¬ calities, invited Jesus to their homes, has caused two cir¬ cumstances to he confounded together. The use of oint¬ ment preserved in an alabaster box implies its costliness, which is expressly mentioned by Mark and Matthew. The manner of opening the box by breaking, implies that,the “ alahastron” was formed like a bottle. These vessels were first filled with perfume, and then sealed. To break the box might mean no more than to break open a letter—namely, to break the seal. Some old authors intimate that horn supplied the place of glass in British windows several centuries ago. Many of the windows were lattice-work of willows at a period not very remote. In Egypt, where this description of windows are still common, glass, when used, is almost universally painted. Glass was first used in Britain for cathedrals and the windows of ecclesiastical buildings; and was also, probably, stained or painted. The manufac¬ ture was not extensively prosecuted in Britain until the sixteenth century, although it had been long previously known. The centre of the trade has gradually shifted through many lands from east to west. India was ac¬ counted by Pliny the native country of the finest glass in his time; but, although generally correct in his state¬ ments, yet for this preference he appears to have had no good authority, Alexandria at that date was, pro¬ bably, the seat of the best manufactures of glass. Venice was not then built; but in the middle ages Venetian glass was highly prized. The art from that commercial town FLINT AND SAND IN THE FURNACE. 275 gradually passed into Bohemia; and Bohemian glass-work is greatly esteemed in our own days. The French have very successfully prosecuted the manufacture of fine glass; and, until the Exhibition brought English and foreign productions together, an idea prevailed in favour of the continental manufactures, which now appears to be unfounded. The colour of glass is affected by im¬ purity in the sand, or the slightest mixture of alien sub¬ stances. A remarkabl}'' clear glass is produced in some districts of America from the purity of the material, and equally valuable sands have been discovered in some parts of Australia. The glass manufacturers of this country literally roast their sand before it is melted, in order to burn out impure mixtures. Various alkalis are employed in the production of glass, and its character and quality partly depend on them. Purified sand, from the Isle of Wight and some other parts of England, is employed in the manufacture of flint-glass, along, according to Dr. Ure’s recipe, with 60 parts of red lead, and 30 parts of pearl ash to 100 parts of sand. Sub-carbonate of soda is employed as an alkali in the manufacture of plate-glass; and kelp, the produce of seaweed, in the proportion, by weight, of 330 to 200, in the production of window glass. Kelp, or its residue from soap works, is also used in the manufacture of bottles. The sand and the alkali are placed in a pot of peculiar clay, flxed in a furnace, and they are exposed to an intense heat from sixty to seventy hours before the material is fused into a state fit for the workman. The metal, in its liquid state, is beautiful and flexible. It may be turned and twisted into any form, or drawn into extremely fine threads. Fine articles are generally produced by the glass-blower, who lifts a quan¬ tity of the red metal on the end of an iron tube, or rod, 276 FLINT AND SAND IN THE FURNACE. and shapes it with wonderful adroitness into the required form; but many articles are formed now in moulds more rapidly than hy blowing, although the quality is supposed to he inferior. The management of this work is pro¬ moted greatly hy the adhesive character of the metal in its semi-liquid state. A very small portion, placed on the end of an iron rod, effectually fastens the utensil which the workman is engaged in forming into shape. The various articles are subsequently placed in an annealing furnace, where they are tempered hy gradually decreas¬ ing degrees of heat to the stability essential for their future employments. The finer class of goods are sub¬ sequently taken to the glass-cutter’s premises, which form part of the manufactory. They are there polished, and those admirable designs, which are often observed on crystal goods, are cut. The process requires great skill in the artist, whose tools are extremely simple. Various kinds of stone are used for different descriptions of work; hut the apparatus of the glass-cutter is in the form of a common turning-lathe. The power in large works is de¬ rived from steam. The cutting or polishing stone is placed in the lathe, and the workman holds the article on which he is to operate. With no guide except his eye he cuts out in this manner the pattern of flowers, of fruit, and often of birds and other animals found on crystal goods. The figures are cut hy applying the glass on the tool, and not, as in ordinary engravings, hy the application of the tool to the material. The glass manufacturer requires purity of material in the first instance, and finds the ut¬ most difficulty in freeing sand and alkalis from mixtures. A small quantity of iron in the sand will impart a shade of colour to the product, which reduces its value ; hut coloured glass is requisite for many purposes, and is oh- FLINT AND SAND IN THE FURNACE. 277 tained by an infusion of metallic colouring matter. Tbe oxide of various metals are employed for this purpose, and tbe results are extremely beautiful. Tbe oxide of gold produces a rich brownish or nearly purple coloured glass. Tbe oxide of tin and gold combined to form one of tbe most beautiful purple dyes. Tbe colours in glass are peculiarly rich, and tbeir shades are extremely varie¬ gated by tbe position or tbe power of bgbt. Tbe skill now attained in colouring tbe metal has been greatly aided by tbe discovery of many metallic dyes. A profuse collection of articles in glass was made for the Exhibition, and yet many of them were carelessly displayed, and from tbe nature of tbe edifice could not be advantageously ex¬ amined. The invention of this noble art forms one of tbe highest benefits ever conferred on mankind. The Pbceni- cian seamen, if tbe tradition respecting them be correct, could not have foreseen tbe nature of tbe benefits conferred by tbeir calamity on mankind. They were amazed at tbe first gleam of that art which was to cheer and light the homes of myriads, to furnish tbe rich and tbe poor with their most useful and most ornamental household goods; to extend tbe vision of old age to tbe borders of the grave; to open to man a comparatively accurate know¬ ledge of tbe magnitude of the unnumbered hosts of worlds floating on tbe immense regions of space; and to exhibit to him myriads of animated beings, too minute for bis na¬ tural vision to discern, of whom hundreds may reside in tbe fold of a rose-leaf, or conduct the affairs of tbeir com¬ munities within tbe circle of a dew-drop. Tbe production of glass is a marvellous mercy to age, and tbe ladder by which science ascends or descends from tbe natural plat¬ form on which we stand to learn that farther than our knowledge reaches—and how much farther the boldest of 278 FLINT AND SAND IN THE FURNACE. our race have never dared to saj—the creative and the providential Power, who formed the nitre and the sand, the Phoenicians and their ships, and allowed the storm to rise, and the winds to blow, that cast them helpless on the Syrian coast, works with unlimited energy in kindness, and in love. That storm, at least, was fraught with kindness to the human race. We are allowed to see part of its purposes, and they are full of goodness. We cannot see the ends served by all the blasts that whiten the green ocean, and endanger the safety of those who go down to the sea in ships; and yet we are not per¬ mitted to doubt that mercy lives even under their terrific as¬ pect. They agitate and mingle again the atmosphere, so nicely balanced in its various parts, that we live by breath¬ ing a gas which, in a slightly greater proportion than it exists in pure air, is poison to living beings. They neu¬ tralise the miasma ever rising from populous or from waste places—and men may he assured, that they come on messages of mercy, to save more than they destroy. The potter’s trade is entirely different from that of the glass manufacturer’s. The latter brings his materials into a liquid state by heat. The former adopts a different process to attain a similar object. The productions of the potter are divided into three great classes—namely, pottery, earthenware, and porcelain. The divisions are convenient for commercial purposes, hut the manufacture of all the three descriptions may he fairly considered one great trade, although the materials requisite in the manufacture of porcelain are finer, and the skill greater than in the production of common pottery. Few arts have made greater advances than the potter’s during the present century. It had been extensively followed in this country for many ages without, perhaps, any material FLINT AND SAND IN THE FURNACE. 279 change in its character. Limestone caves have been found in the southern counties which long concealed the vestiges of a mysterious history. Their floors were co¬ vered with the hones of wild animals, mingled with hones of men and other relics of our race. The former were oc¬ casionally those of extinct species, and others were hones ! of destructive heasts of prey, which are now banished from Europe. Geologists explain the circumstance hy I supposing, that the hones of extinct species, and of de¬ structive animals, occupied the caverns before men made their abode in them; and that, subsequently, the hones : and relics of men had been buried in the caverns, and i gradually been blended with those of their previous ten- j ants. This is a supposition only, which is not and can¬ not now be supported by evidence; and other suppositions I equally probable might be hazarded. Among the relics j of mankind, instruments of stone and pottery have been I found, which must have been placed there at an early I period, and yet subsequent to the exercise of the potter’s j trade. The early inhabitants of Britain, and several I continental tribes, not only sought shelter in naturally I formed caverns, but they dug houses for themselves and j families, and burrowed in the earth. Although these I homes were, doubtless, dark and rude, yet they were on I the same principle as the habitations of the highly civil- 1 ised Idumeans—those palaces of Bozrah, which display i wonderful art and ingenuity in their ruins. Houses cut j out of the rock are yet inhabited in some parts of Britain, [ and they are comparatively numerous in France. The i Piets dug their dark homes in the earth, and specimens of pottery and cut or ground flints have been found in them. The highly valuable relics of Egyptian art contain re- I presentations of the potter at his daily work, and the 280 FLINT AND SAND IN THE FURNACE. precedence of this trade over the glass manufacturer in antiquity may he fairly inferred. The pottery of the Jews was produced in the same manner as that of the Egyptians. The prophet Jeremiah was sent to the potter’s workshop for an illustration of the sovereignty of God, and “behold he wrought a work on the wheels.” At that period, and many centuries afterwards, earthenware had been made in the vicinity of Jerusalem. The most remarkable sum of money that ever passed from guilty tempters to a slave of avarice, was finally paid for the potter’s field to bury strangers in. The potter’s clay had been wrought out before the sale of the field. Porcelain was originally manufactured in China and Japan. The Portuguese were probably the earliest im¬ porters of chinaware into Europe in modern times. This description of manufacture has been familiarly and long known in this country by the general term “ China,” a name which will perhaps continue for centuries to de¬ scribe one of those manufactures in which many thousand English families are now engaged. For a considerable period after the explorers of the East had returned with articles of porcelain, they were esteemed articles of great luxury, held at a high price, and caused some such en¬ thusiasm among their admirers as tulip roots once excited among the sober-minded Dutch, or antique copies of rare works always create among their admirers. The secret of the manufacture is supposed to have been conveyed to Europe by a Jesuit priest, who had gone as a mis¬ sionary to China. The French Court determined to produce porcelain for the nobility of that country, and Sevres china was the result. It has always commanded a high price, because the manufacture is not and was never conducted on “commercial, principles,” hut as a FLINT AND SAND IN THE FURNACE. 281 national manufacture. Dresden china acquired its cele¬ brity from a similar cause. Tlie porcelain of England lias been allowed to rise by its own intrinsic worth, and its present place in the manufactures of the world is highly gratifying. The acquaintance which the Romans are, by some, supposed to have forhied with Eastern por¬ celain, has been denied by others, and disputed with all the gravity of a solemn question. Augustus accepted one cup, perhaps more properly described as a vase, for his portion of the spoil of Alexandria, yet, like other leaders, he was accustomed to the lion’s share of the prey. Nero paid a sum of money equivalent apparently to £58,000 for another cup. The point questioned is, ' whether these were porcelain or formed of “ transparent stone.” The subject derives its chief interest now, how- J ever it may be decided, from one fact sufficiently plain— namely, that the family of a “ thrifty artisan” in our times, stand better for this particular article than the imperial household of Augustus or his successors. The porcelain and earthenware manufacture affords scope for ! the genius of designers, and a great number of persons are pleasantly and profitably employed in this depart- i ment. The consumpt of gold in gilding is probably now £1,000 weekly. The Exhibition derived its interest, I in a great measure, from the display of materials in I the various stages of manufacture. The materials of !' pottery are ground flints, ground granite, or decomposed * felspar, found in several districts of England—mixed with ! a peculiarly plastic clay. Chinaware is formed chiefly ! from Cornish clay, and ground felspar, and sand. The materials are in either case reduced to fluidity, passed ; carefully through a fine sieve—formed, in some cases, of silk cloth—into a furnace, where, exposed to a strong 282 FLINT AND SAND IN THE FURNACE. heat, the water is allowed to evaporate until the material acquires consistency, and can he moulded by the hand, or turned upon a wheel into the destined form. The wares are then baked in a second oven; and coloured goods, after receiving the pattern, are exposed, in their turn, to a high temperature in an oven. The glass and pottery manufactures employ a large number of persons in transferring nearly valueless material into costly and useful articles. Their price is almost exclusively the product of labour; and few employments possess greater interest from that peculiarity. The contrast of the hard flint, the decomposed granite, the various porcelain materials in their liquid condition, or after they have passed through one oven, and been subjected to one system of evaporation to fit them for the workman; with the finer classes of finished china, ex¬ hibits one of the most complete changes within the circle of art. A corresponding transmutation occurs in the manufacture of glass, but the arts are allied. The cohe¬ sion of the various atoms of sand with the alkalis em¬ ployed in their fusion, and their conversion into a bright transparent mass, is one of the most improbable opera¬ tions that the Phoenician sailors, before their shipwreck, could have undertaken. A man examining a tree would quickly ascertain that he could, with a sharp instrument, scoop it into a novel and more useful form. The origin of working in wood is natural and rational; but the origin of glass or porcelain manufacture does not accord with our preconceived notions. The idea of pounding flints into dust, reducing them with water to a fluent state, strain¬ ing the liquid through a sieve of silk, evaporating the watery particles in an oven, until a consistent paste be obtained, which may be moulded into any form, and then FLINT AND SAND IN THE FURNACE. 283 conducting the articles thus baked through the various ovens, and processes of gilding and painting which they pass before they reach the market, did not rapidly ori¬ ginate in the human mind, because it is inconsistent with this human reason, considered so correct and infallible. The history of porcelain corresponds very closely with the Scriptural delineations of mankind. They have hearts like the adamant, harder than flint, according to one prophet, and the experience of all who know the world and have read its lessons. Men sometimes do not know the hardness of their own hearts until they are tried. Many persons flatter themselves with the belief, that in certain circumstances they would do better than their conduct might ultimately realise. “Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this great thing? ” is a very common question, in the spirit, if not in the words. The Syrian statesman, Hazael, was probably sincere in the astonish¬ ment that dictated the question. He did not consider himself a cruel man. He was doubtless willing to be deemed brave and courageous, politic and sagacious, but he shrunk from a charge of outrageous cruelty. A slight germ of chivalry had commenced ere his time to cast out green leaves over even the horrors of war. He used a strong expression—stronger far among oriental than west¬ ern nations; for the dog is held in greater esteem here than in Syria even to the present day. Hazael’s future con¬ duct justified the prophet’s foresight, and the description of himself that he had drawn in a few words. The murder of his master was the commencement of his cruel reign; but Hazael’s ignorance is more common than his oppor¬ tunities of evil. The Syrian desired power and wealth. He received them, but not as blessings. Better had it been for him and for his memory if he had been checked 284 FLINT AND SAND IN THE FURNACE. in acliieving greatness. The potter at his wheel, the glass-hlower at his furnace, and the cutter at his lathe, may desire a lot which seems to them better and easier; hut Hazael was mistaken—and are they correct in the estimate of themselves which they form ? Their “ better lot” might bring greater temptations, for which they are unqualified, or from which they are mercifully withheld* The glass manufacturer lights his furnace fires, or the porcelain-maker places his flints beneath the hammer, not because he dislikes the material, for it is the best of its kind that he can procure; nor because he contrives its dishonour, for he desires to render it a vessel for honour, to his own praise. The potter places his vessels, after they are formed, in the oven, and the glass-hlower thrusts his stock into the annealing furnace, not to injure, hut to strengthen them. The transmutation of the hard flints and the brittle sands into those splendid works of art, which delight the eye by their beauty, is said to arise from the application of a natural law; hut, can any work¬ man believe in the existence of a natural law for matter, and yet suppose that mind has been left without law ? The existence of a natural law in the minor case leaves no ground to suppose that the major is neglected. The furnaces of aflliction, and the strokes of heavy trial, have been the means employed by a spiritual law to render adamantine hearts plastic and soft, to mould dis¬ torted and hardened minds into the designs and forms which they were meant to occupy; and men, even in the heat and glare of a glass-house, have felt the analogy between their daily work and the idea conveyed in the words—“My soul melteth for heaviness;” and acknow¬ ledged this truth—“ Before I was afflicted I went astray, hut now have I kept thy word.” AET AND FAITH, IN TEAGMENTS EEOM THE GEEAT EXHIBITION. DIAMOK30S AZffD FEABIiS. The Koh-i-Noor and its companions excited less inte¬ rest, during the Exhibition, than the promoters antici¬ pated. The Koh-i-Noor is the largest diamond in Bri¬ tain. It was the property of the celebrated Runjeet Singh, the late ruler of the Punjaub; and was regarded with superstitious interest by the Sikhs, who considered it the emblem of empire and the symbol of victory. Its ownership, therefore, became a matter of some political importance. The attachment of the Sikhs to their pre¬ cious stone is not without precedent. The Scotch once entertained a similar regard for the stone on which their kings were crowned at Scone. Edward I., of England, by its removal to London, expected the benefit of the prophecy that the crown would follow the stone. The people of London, during the next reign, were not less impressed with the value of this stone of state than their northern rivals, for when Edward II. agreed by treaty I to restore it, they rebelled to prevent this act of justice to its original proprietors. Various estimates of the value of the Punjaub diamond have been given, but they are entirely arbitrary. The marketable value of diamonds increases with their weight || and size, more rapidly than by simple multiplication. A j rule for estimating the price of diamonds was given by Mr. Mawe, in a work on the finest descriptions of precious R 286 DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. stones. Diamonds of 1 grain to 2| grains each are, he says, worth £7 to £8 per carat. Fine brilliants of 2 carats are worth £14 to £15 per carat. The price rises more rapidly for large diamonds. Brilliants of 6 carats are said to he worth £230 to £250 each, or £40 per carat. The carat for diamonds is 3.66 grains, and 5 grains in diamonds are equal only to 4 troy grains. If the few large diamonds in the world could be sold readily in their present state, their worth would be reduced by the labour of dividing them. A great Brazilian diamond, belonging to the Portuguese Crown, has never been cut, because its owners are unwilling to trust any stone-cutter with this mine of wealth, which was valued at £5,644,800. The estimate is only a matter for curious calculation, for, unlike, the precious metals, those precious stones are reduced in value by division, and it is not probable that any nation would give five and a-half millions ster¬ ling for this celebrated Brazilian diamond. The Koh-i-Noor, or mountain of light, has been valued at £1,500,000—a sum more likely to be realised than £5,644,800; but which the British nation would not have paid for the rather dull-looking gem which occupied a prominent place near the centre of the Crystal Palace. The Russian Emperor has a great diamond, valued at £5,000,000; but it cost only £150,000. The finest set of brilliants, or gems, in the Exhibition belonged to the Queen of Spain. They were formed chiefly of diamonds, emeralds, sapphires, and pearls. The setting was ex¬ tremely fine, and the varied colours produced a brilliant result. Two Dutch jewellers exhibited remarkably rich sets of brilliants; and all articles of this description dis¬ playing art and taste, were carefully examined. The dia¬ mond is the hardest known substance. It is crystaline. DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. 287 and becomes electrical by friction. It is found in several colours—yellow, red, brown, blue, black, and green; but is generally a languid pale colour, or colourless. The diamond is polished by its own dust; and cliiefly value- able, as an ornament, for its brilliancy. Diamonds are of great utility in the art?, and tlieir sale for ornamental is probably less than for practical purposes. Fine engrav¬ ings on gems and stones are finished by diamonds. Glass itself would be comparatively useless without the diamond point employed to cut it into the necessary forms. Crystals are sliced down by diamonds into any requisite shape; and all precious stones are engraven by their chief, which, alone, can only be cut by iiself. A diamond point was used in ancient times for rock-writing. “ The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a diamond—Jeremiah, 17th c., 1st v. The dia¬ mond occurs in the enumeration of precious stones in the 39th chapter of Exodus. Ezekiel, who was intimately conversant with the circumstances and wealth of oriental cities, enumerates it among the riches of Tyre. He is supposed to refer to the diamond in 3d c., 9th v.—“ As an adamant, harder than flint;” and Zechariah, 7th c., 12thV., says—“Yea, they made their hearts as an ada¬ mant-stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his Spirit by the former prophets.” The word adamant is borrowed almost ' literally from the Greek. It implies something that can- j not be subdued. The prophets used a corresponding term i evidently in that meaning. The Jews had hardened their hearts; but, like other men, they could not soften them again by their own unaided power. The hardening of the human heart is not so difficult a process as its soften¬ ing and subduing. That fact has a peculiarly melancholy 288 ' DIAMONDS AND PEAELS. interest on our history. In the days of the prophets, and for a long subsequent period, the term adamant was con¬ sidered correctly descriptive of the diamond. Subsequent inquiries have proved it to he inapplicable; for the dia¬ mond may he subdued, and is not only cut and polished by itself, hut is combustible. A diamond is pure carbon. No degree of heat to which it has been exposed affects its substance, unless in contact with the air; hut, under extreme heat, in contact with the atmosphere, it dissolves and disappears in carbonic acid gas, which is profusely mingled with our atmosphere; although by itself, or in an undue proportion, a sure and rapid poison, yet abso¬ lutely necessary to sustain animal and vegetable life. Thus even for the heart which has become hardened like the adamant, hope remains, neither in its own strength of will, nor in the employment of ordinary means, although they are requisite, as the combustion of the diamond would not be accomplished without heat; and yet the most intense heat employed by chemists would not soften it, unless in contact, not with a current of air, which might seem to increase the heat, hut simply with the air. This circum¬ stance in mineralogy beautifully illustrates a great hut oft-forgOtten Scriptural doctrine—namely, that while re- lio-ion is not formed in the soul without some obvious o instrumentality, still it is quite possible to use a formal routine of outward means very regularly without any softening influence, if the man shuts himself up in some shell of guilt, or of what is really pride, although he calls it rationalism; but that these means, under a real, and yet unseen, influence—the power of the Holy Spirit—en¬ tirely change the adamantine heart, and subdue its hard¬ ness. The illustration may be pursued farther. Ezekiel and Zechariah declared that the hearts of the Jews were DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. 289 adamantine in their hardness. The statement appeared to leave them helpless and hopeless; hut Scriptural figures, if fully examined, differ from the imagery of even our higher poets in their accuracy of detail. The diamond can he decomposed; and the agent is abundant, easily obtained, and ever present. The Jews then, and Chris¬ tians now, have no reason to complain against the law which renders supplication necessary to God who “giveth liberally, and uphraideth not”—and who has said of this, the highest gift, “ ask, and ye shall receive.” The sapphire is next to the diamond in hardness, and by some writers it is described as harder than the ruby; but other mineralogists class the ruby in the sapphire genus. The name “ ruby” describes the colour of the stone. Large and perfect rubies are not often cheaper, and they are occasionally dearer, than diamonds. Perfect rubies present the deepest and richest red in nature. They are very rare, and ruby stones have often a blue and some¬ times a pale tinge in the red, which detracts nothing from their extreme beauty, although it reduces their value, because the imperfect are more abundant than the per¬ fect rubies, which are put, in Proverbs, 31st c., 10th v., for the most valuable products of earth. Sapphires are of various colours, from the ruby red to blue, green, yellow, gray, and ultimately white, or colourless stones. They are very precious. The great light seen by Moses and Aaron, by Nadab andAbihu, and the seventy elders of Israel—Exodus, 24th c., 10th v.—“ was as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone;” yet they are among the riches of the earth—Job, 28th c., 6th v. “They are the foundations of the great city”'—Isaiah, 54th c., 11th V.; Revelation, 21st c., 19th v. Sapphires are found in Europe, with the exception of the ruby variety, which is 290 DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. confined, apparently, to a district of the Birmese empire, in Asia. The sapphires exposed to severe heat assume a purely white appearance, and become peculiarly lus¬ trous, increasing in value hy the process which changes and destroys meaner substances. They are precious illustrations of the Christian faith, which grows and strengthens hy the means used for its destruction. The world has never been without that description of wit¬ nessing to Christian truth. It commenced in Asia, and has been given in all quarters of the earth. Even the distant isles of the Pacific have seen the sapphire-like brightening of Christians in suffering. Madagascar, hold¬ ing to Africa the insular position presented hy Britain to Europe, ripens under a cruel persecution, and its Chris¬ tian faith manifests the sapphire’s peculiarity—brighten¬ ing in the flames at the martyr’s stake. The emerald is entirely green, and its hue affords a most agreeable relief to the eye. Ezekiel states that emeralds were found in Syria, or that the Syrians traded with emeralds in the market of Tyre. They are now found only in Peru; hut the emerald is a variety of the beryl which is still obtained in some parts of Europe. Pliny stated that the Romans procured their emeralds of the finest quality from Scythia, hut that name covered to the Romans a great extent of country. Emeralds are prized in proportion to their soundness; hut nearly all have some flaw, and the same green colour, while the beryls wear a variety of shades. The onyx is described hy several mineralogists under the general term agate; by others it is classed with beryls; by some a number of these conflicting species are cast, perhaps wisely, under one head. The onyx is a striped stone in which different colours are laid together in various DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. 291 strata. The sardonyx is a variety of the same species. Job calls the former “ the precious onyx.” The land of Havilah—Genesis, 2d c., 12th v.—was celebrated for the onyx and the bdellium. The latter term has been sup¬ posed to mean “ a gum,” and a costly and once highly valued balsam is still known by that name. Other opinions class the bdellium of Scripture with precious stones, and a third with pearls; hut it is scarcely neces¬ sary to take the word out of its common meaning. The onyx is so frequently mentioned in Exodus that it must have been well known to the Hebrews during their resid¬ ence in Egypt, and was probably found at that early period in the desert or the wilderness of Sinai, through which they passed. Onyx stones and marble stones are expressly mentioned by David the king, when enumerat¬ ing the stores provided by him for the erection of the firsf temple. Precious stones and glistening stones, and of divers colours, are also mentioned; hut the onyx is the only one specified by name—1st Chron., 29th c., 2d v. The agates are comparatively abundant, and numbers of them are found in several districts of England and Scotland. Diiferent stones are classed under this ge¬ neral title. These pebbles are almost purely silicious matter in a transparent state, tinged with metallic dyes. The various shades of the agate are caused by the pre¬ sence, in minute proportions, of metallic substances, which greatly enhance their beauty and value. They receive a high polish, and are much used in engraving. The Cairngorm crystals have attained, among native pre¬ cious stones, a high celebrity. The mountain on which they are chiefly found is one of the desolate and wild group in the district where Aberdeen, Inverness, and Perthshires meet, and the Dee commences its course. 292 DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. The crystals are occasionally found in large masses of various shades, and some persons earn considerable sums of money in searching for them. Large crystals, of considerable mercantile value, and the gems cut into different forms and set in numerous articles of jewellery, were shown in the Exhibition. Many theories have been propounded regarding the origin of the crystals, or the manner of their production. The quartz rocks in which they are found were, according to geologists, subjected to immense heat. All the vast masses of granite are pre¬ sumed once to have been literally melted together. The production of the crystals may be referred to the events which caused the existing condition of the matter in which they appear. The causes of their hardness and transparency cannot be easily understood, because the mind cannot realise the circumstances in which they were formed. A chemical analysis of their elements yields very unsatisfactory information on the subject, for simi¬ lar elements are found in the general granite and quartz rocks, but they do not possess corresponding qualities. Their existence justifies their employment as gems; be¬ cause the tint of the ruby, the sparkling of the diamond, and the green of the emerald, are concealed in their na¬ tural state. Their beauty comes out after the work of the stone-cutter and polisher; and without their labours men would never know the glowing tints that God has painted on the rock crystals. In all matters of this de¬ scription, men need the gift or the grace of knowing how to use the world without abusing it; but while the Scrip¬ tural writers were taught to rebuke vain displays of idle luxury, yet they encouraged the development of art, and the employment of rare natural productions, which illus¬ trate the richness of Creative Power. DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. 293 The analogy between the creation of matter and of mind can he profitably pursued in a mineralogical mu¬ seum. The precious stones are rare and scarce. They are found often amid vast ranges of common, hut useful, granitic rocks. They have been imitated, hut never equal¬ led, by art. The “ paste” of art only resembles the dia¬ mond of nature,''without possessing its qualities. The same Power that created the emeralds and the sapphires in small quantities, might have made the vast moun- ! tains into great diamonds; hut thereby reduced their uti- I lity to the human family. The dazzling whiteness of a I granite street or one of freestone severely tries the vision of many persons, hut a street of diamonds would utterly j destroy sight. They are sufficiently abundant to furnish Scriptural emblems, to give the mind a faint idea of future I scenes, and to illustrate the endless variety of form in which the power of the Creator may appear, or even to prevent a vacuum which their absence would cause in art; hut they are not absolutely abundant, for abundance would not change their nature, yet it would prevent them from appearing precious in our eyes. All absolutely necessary creations abound in nature, and all other substances are found only in the proportion of their necessity to exist¬ ence. Pearls were at one period more highly prized than they are now. They have been closely imitated, and the products of nature are cheapened by those of art. Pearls are found in several species of shell-fish, and they appear to he formed by disease. In this respect they correspond with the hezoar formed in animals of the goat species, to which orientalists ascribe great curative vir¬ tues. The pearl fisheries employ many men, both on the Eastern and Western Seas. The largest pearl hitherto 294 DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. described was sold for over one liundred tliousand pounds. The theory which explains the formation of this substance by disease, is generally received, aad indicates the exist¬ ence of some cause calculated to injure the pearl-maker in those waters where they are readily found. Pearls have been procured in great quantities on the South Ame¬ rican coast and on those of several West Indian islands. The old pearl-fisheries are scattered over the coasts of the Mediterranean, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. At one period pearls were more commonly found than now on the British coast, and beautiful specimens were sent to the Exhibition from the river Ythan in Scotland, and from a small stream which intersects part of the county Tyrone, in Ireland. The native gems were remarkably beautiful. The localities in which they were produced are far separated. Many rivers roll between the small rivulet in the centre of Ulster and the Aberdeenshire stream, and yet our pearl-fisheries are now, apparently, confined to those streams from which specimens were sent. The peculiarity which attracts pearl-bearing fish to these waters is unexplained. They are extremely rare; and although the pearls shown were of considerable size and value, yet the general product is unimportant. The Chinese, who assiduously prosecute those avocations in which they engage, propagate pearls by introducing into one description of shell-fish very minute beads of mother-of- pearl, and in process of time the beads are encrusted and enlarged by successive layers, closely resembling the real pearl. The seed are sown for twelve months in shell-fish before the husbandman expects to reap his strange harvest. An accurate estimate of the annual value of the pearl-fish¬ eries cannot be formed, for the price of the articles fluctu¬ ates. The seed-pearls are employed in Asia as a stimulative DIAMONDS AND PEAKLS. 295 for persons weakened by disease; but their medical value must be eifective in nervous distempers, if it ever be use- i fill; for where the imagination exercises great power, a medicine of high cost may be worth its price. The greater part of the pearls annually discovered, and all the more valuable descriptions, are exclusively sold for personal ornaments. Tbe annual value of the pearl-fish¬ eries in the Persian Gulf has been variously estimated from three hundred thousand pounds to one million and ' a-half. The minimum sum is probably equivalent to the I average; but in a country without any commercial re- I turns or statistics, a correct estimate cannot be formed. The fishings in the West India Islands and the Ameri- i can coasts are perhaps equally valuable. The city of Se- ' ville, in Spain, imported in a single year 697 lbs. of pearls ! from the West; but that year is now long past—two ! hundred and fifty years have rolled away since its date; * and this vast import may have consisted of accumulated stock on hand, instead of representing the diving industry of one season. The Spanish Crown had one pearl which was valued at rather over thirty thousand pounds. It weighed 250 carats, and was, therefore, estimated at the rate of £120 per carat. The value of the large pearl, per carat, like that of a large diamond, was indefinitely increased by its magni¬ tude. The quantity and value of the pearls found in the Indian Archipelago and the Chinese seas are less dis¬ tinctly known than even the business of the fishery in other waters. The money realised from this pursuit, on the coasts where it is extensively conducted, amounts, pro¬ bably, to one and a-half millions sterling annually for the ornamental articles;—a large sum in this department of expenditure. Diamonds and pearls are both imitated in 296 DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. art by materials of little value. The imposition is not easily detected by persons unacquainted with the trade. Diamonds possess characteristics which their substitutes cannot show; but until the latter are submitted to some of the trials employed to prove value and worth, they pass in a crowd for the most precious of earth’s precious stones, without challenge or suspicion, unless that now engendered by their abundance. The largest pearl in the Crystal Palace was the pro¬ perty of a member of Parliament. It is considered the largest in the world; measures four and a-half inches in circumference, two inches in length, and weighs 1,800 grains. It is a beautiful gem, but it might be imitated; and an inexperienced eye would not easily detect the .false from the true. Cheap imitations of the Koh-i-Noor are advertised and sold; and they appear to possess the lustre of the original diamond. Even the diamonds, spark¬ ling with many and rich colours, are copied with great precision. The copies possess many superficial qualities of the originals. They exhibit almost equal brightness; and they even pass with casual observers for genuine and precious stones. The deception is exposed by those severe trials which the diamonds pass uninjured—but which crush the paste to powder. The world is full of paste and pre¬ tence in the moral as in the ornamental department. The denunciations against deception in religion are required, or they would not occupy any lines of Scripture. They have been necessary at all periods of the world’s his¬ tory in some part of its surface. The profession of religion is popular and useful to men’s interests in cer¬ tain circumstances, and is made for the same reason which induces a tradesman to seek after a good con¬ nexion, a merchant to form an extensive credit, or a DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. 297 barrister to cultivate the friendship of attornies. The crime involves serious consequences to the man of paste himself, who must necessarily pass into places devoted to religion, and under the influence of religious teaching, without any design to profit thereby, and thus expose himself to the woe pronounced in Matthew, 11th c., 21st V. It is a loathsome crime, against which many warn¬ ings are given in the Scriptures. A considerable por¬ tion of the 7th chapter of Matthew is directed against this offence; and a plain rule is given on the subject in the 21st verse. The 23d chapter of the same book is one continued denunciation of hypocrisy; which is de¬ scribed by an illustration more obvious and striking to an audience in Palestine than to the people of Western ; Europe, in the 27th verse. A considerable part of the j discredit unjustly charged to Christianity hy infidel writ- I ers, on account of the miseries existing, and even in- j creasing, and multiplying, in nominally Christian coun¬ tries, originates with hypocrites, who incur the woe pro¬ claimed in Matt., 18th c., 6th and 7th vs.—for they are i causes of offence and stumbling to many weak-minded per- 1 sons. The crime exists—^but men can seldom identify the I criminal. We have no perfect lives recorded in the Bihle. j An infidel c techism, circulated in apparently large num¬ bers by a London association, adduces the sins of emi¬ nent Biblical characters as a reason for disbelieving the claims of the Bihle. The argument shows, that if the framers of that catechism, who are not deficient in tact or talent, had sought to impose a fictitious narrative on man¬ kind, they would not have followed the Biblical pattern, and yet the great intellectual powers of the inspired pen- I men are acknowledged by those who deny their inspir- " ation. T hese Biblical writers, therefore, endowed with 298 DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. the highest genius ever exhibited among mankind, fell into palpable blunders—which men of ordinary capacity could detect—in framing their narrative, unless its claims and statements he correct. The argument recoils with destructive force on the catechism and its authors. The Bible offers no materials of hero-worship. It narrates with equal fidelity the sins, the sorrows, and the repent¬ ance of those men whose transactions occupy a consi¬ derable number of its pages. It is not less a work of examples than of precepts. Its warnings are often con¬ veyed in the form of narrative, and they would not he ef¬ fective unless they were faithful and true. This fidelity in exposing all the darkly shaded spots in character or conduct, which deceivers would have explained away or omitted, is a perpetual proof of the good faith and sincerity of purpose entertained by the Biblical writers. An apparent object is served by this fidelity in narra¬ tive, which the compilers of the infidel catechism may not now comprehend, and may yet live to understand. Many souls might have perished under the despairing temptation that their sins had been so aggravated, great, and grievous as to leave no space for repentance, if those Biblical narratives had not become the means of soften¬ ing this adamantine despondency, and by pictures more powerful than precepts leading them to see that the red scarlet of sin may he made white as snow. The plain deal¬ ing of the inspired writers, in their short biographies, not only asserts the truth of their narrative, hut also materially serves the principal purpose of the hook. It also teaches us the difficulty of dealing so with the crime of hypo¬ crisy as to charge that guilt on individual men. It is quite possible to produce evidence, in certain cases, suf¬ ficient for the criminal’s conviction, hut the instances of DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. 299 that nature are not frequent. David might have been charged with hypocrisy, and yet he was not a hypocrite. The accusation might have been brought against Peter when he exhibited weakness, inconsistent even with our I common notions of honesty and honour, and yet he was in¬ nocent on that particular subject. Appearances are not in ! themselves always, or often, good evidence on this charge, I while men must judge by facts and cannot examine I thoughts. Therefore, the rule laid down in the Saviour’s ' discourse for men’s guidance—“ Judge not, that ye be not ; judged”—Matt., 7th c., 1st v —comes out with beautiful ' and peculiar strength in its application to this great guilt. Events arise in life,'concerning which a man is bound to examine his neighbour’s conduct and principles, so far as he can conduct the inquiry with charity and wisdom —1st John, 4th c., 1st v.; but these occurrences are not numerous, and the rule which should he in more common application is, “Let a man examine himself,” and then I undertake the profession of Christianity, which involves i many duties. Art and nature furnish analogies to all Scriptural doctrines, except one, the centre around which all the others move; and although men have not often clear and distinct evidence of hypoci isy in any of their fellowmen, yet is it a common and a deplorable evil; and one of which the artificial diamond and pearl-makers and wearers are placed in daily remembrance. The supply of diamonds and precious stones resembles genius in the world of mind. Comparatively few men of great gifts stand out in life, because hut few are required for its purposes. Matter and mind alike evince design, not in their formation alone, hut also in their distribution. The physical world would have been of less than its present value if diamonds and granite, beryls 300 DIAMONDS AND PEARLS. and coal, had changed places in creation. A miscalcula¬ tion or a mistake of that nature would have been attended by serious consequences to the human family, who would gain nothing by the transmutation of copper ore into emeralds, or the black-hand iron-stone into sapphires. The business of life is practicable by the existing arrange¬ ment of matter, and would not have been easily conducted under the transmutations named. The ocean pearls are pleasing to the eye, but they bring pain to the memory, for they are the fruit of disease. The diamonds are precious and valuable. Their companions are beautiful. They are tokens of God’s power and men’s wealth, and those may admire who cannot afford to wear them, but yet mingle their admiration with gra¬ titude, because precious stones are not more abundant; for, unlike the homely granite, rocks of diamonds would not decompose into that fertile soil which feeds all living beings. Intelligent men will never look upon a costly set of brilliants—and could not have examined the beautiful cases of mineralogy in the Exhibition—without remem¬ bering that the world has a . Creator, and so, by chance, it was not ruined with a great proportion of these materials in its structure. Christian artisans, who daily labom* on precious stones, and every Christian visitor of the Crystal Palace, could remember one end served by the diamond family. Men cannot comprehend heaven on earth, but they can believe that its mansions are gor¬ geous and lovely, because its flooring is “ as a sapphire stone,” its foundations are emeralds and amethysts, its street is pure gold, as it were transparent glass, its gates are pearls—terms employed to describe the inestimable worth of an inheritance open to those who can neither buy diamond nor pearl upon earth. AKT AND FAITH IN FEAGIIENIS FEOM THE GREAT EXHIBITION. GOLD AND SILVER. If a body of intelligent merchants and able politicians were to form a committee on the construction of a world, they would recommend the production of the precious metals, in the positions and the quantities in which they have been deposited in this globe which we inhabit. The transactions of an extensive commerce require an universal medium of exchange, by which accounts can be balanced. Barter is rarely or ever a nett exchange of one article against another, and the adjustment of mercantile deal¬ ings, by differences of quantity, would be incalculably more troublesome than by payment of price. A state of barter, moreover, would prevent that division of employment which, in labour, has achieved many high benefits to art, and is not less necessary in mercantile pursuits. The majority of transactions between subjects of different na¬ tions are now, and have long been, virtually settled by barter without its inconveniences. Payments are made by bills of exchange, and remittances of the precious metals are needed only to meet the balances which the subjects of one state incur in another, by buying there more value than they sell goods to pay. Without these agents of interchange, which are ever wanted by all civil¬ ised nations, the utmost inconvenience would be experi¬ enced, and commercial relations would be greatly re¬ strained. When the Creator planned the world, he pro- s 302 GOLD AND SILVER. vided for commercial dealings between the various nations of the earth, and stored past the means of payment. He did not make them abundant in quantity or easy of access, for then they would no longer have been precious. They would not have been suitable for the contemplated pur¬ pose. “ The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord,’^ and we recognise His “ wisdom in all His works” by the abundance of some productions and the rarity of others. The small quantity, comparatively, of gold and silver hitherto collected in the world has rendered them useful. Their existence in large accumulations, like iron ore,- would have destroyed their utility for their present em¬ ployment; and they could not have filled the place of iron. Several statements in ancient writings afford reason to believe that gold was at one period more abundant in the world than it has been since the revival of civilisation out of the darkness of the middle ages. The practice of wearing ornaments of gold and silver appears among the patriarchal families. “ Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold”—Genesis, 13 c., 2d. v.—when he went up out of Egypt. Abimelech, the king of Gerar, presented him with a thousand silver coins, or divisions of some description, then common—Genesis, 20th c., 16th V. In Abraham’s purchase of ground for a cemetery from Ephron, the price was weighed in silver, “ current money with the merchant”—Genesis, 23d c., 16th v. His servant presented an ear-ring and bracelets of gold to Eebekah, when she drew water for his camels at tlie well. The intimate connection of Abraham and Isaac with Abi¬ melech, king of Gerar, indicates the acquaintance of the Philistines at an early period with working in gold and silver. The figures of Philistines, on the Egyptian monu¬ ments, have ear-rings and ornaments, apparently of the GOLD AND SILVER. 303 precious metals. Similar engravings are preserved of ornaments and vases wrought in gold—the spoils of suc¬ cessful inroads into Canaan hj the Egyptians; hut it is more important and interesting to observe, that the Phi¬ listines, who, in a few centuries, became greatly depraved, were not ignorant of the true God in the days of Abra¬ ham. The mysterious king and priest of Salem is not the only evidence on the subject. Ahimeiech of Gerar was evidently a just man and a wise king, who made two visits to the Hebrew tents, in order to establish treaties of peace with their pastoral chiefs. The first is re¬ corded in Genesis, 21st chapter, when the negotiations were formed with Abraham; and the second in the 26th chapter, when the treaty was with Isaac. A period of at least sixty years must have elapsed between the visits, which supports the inference that Ahimeiech, in Gerar, like Pharoah, in Egypt, was a name common to successive monarchs; but this supposition renders also necessary the opinion that “ Phichol” was an official name or title bestowed on the commander-in-chief of the Gerar army; for which no farther ground exists than the fact that “ Phichol” appears, on both occasions, acting not only as the first military officer, but also “ the fo¬ reign secretary” to the Philistine monarch of Gerar. Other circumstances connected with the narratives sup¬ port the opinion that Abraham and Isaac sought refuge from famine with the same monarch, Ahimeiech—a young man in Abraham’s days, but well stricken in years when Isaac entered his territory. We have no reason to con¬ clude that the longevity of these patriarchs was uncom¬ mon to men of their circumstances, manner of life, and time. This Ahimeiech clearly “feared God,’’ and he claimed for his people even in prayer, the title of “ a 804 GOLD AND SILVER, righteous nation.” They were not a great nation these Philistines of Gerar; hut if they were comparatively a “ righteous nation,” they were better and stronger than their successors and kinsmen, who rendered Tyre the metropolis of earth’s commerce. Abraham did not know that the fear of God was in that valley. He might not unreasonably conclude that its people resembled the sin¬ ful inhabitants of the cities of the plain. In this respect, he was not better informed than Elijah the Tishbite, at a long subsequent period; but persons who would ex¬ amine those fragments of ancient history which we possess, must derive comfort from the evidence afforded in them, that the fear of God was by no means confined in those early days to that Hebrew family whose records have been preserved. In the highly artificial state of life among the Egyp¬ tians, gold and silver ornaments were commonly used by the wealthy classes. Judah had a signet and wore brace¬ lets, but he probably followed only the fashion preva¬ lent among persons in his position. Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites, or Midianites, for twenty silver coins or weights. He received from Pharoah, on his appointment to office, a ring and a gold chain; and he used a silver cup at his table. When the Hebrews left Egypt, although they had lived for several generations in a condition of bondage and slavery, yet they possessed many ornaments of precious metals and precious stones. They certainly received from the terror and woe-stricken Egyptians “jewels of silver and jewels of gold”—Exodus, I2th c., 35th V., but numerous Hebrews probably possessed wealth of this description, for so many of them wore golden ear¬ rings that Aaron was enabled, from that class of jewels, to cast the golden calf—Exodus, 32d c., 3d v.—which was GOLD AND SILVER. 305 probably a large idol, and required a considerable weight of gold. Previous to that crime, and in the 25th and other chapters of Exodus, instructions are given regard¬ ing the furniture of the ark and the tabernacle, which infer the possession of a moderate quantity of gold. It is probable that the ark, the table, and the vessels con¬ nected therewith, contained a talent of pure gold. The value of the talent is generally taken at a little over £5,000—a small sum, certainly, for the purpose, but one befitting the condition from which the people had then only escaped. Other calculations give a much larger quan¬ tity of gold, and they are, perhaps, correct. . In the 7th chapter of Numbers, an account of large ofiferings of pre¬ cious metals, by the princes of the twelve Hebrew tribes, for religious purposes, is inserted. The metals were wrought into various requisite instruments for the taber¬ nacle, and in this instance we find silver offered along with gold almost in the existing proportion of the two metals at the present day. The conquest of Canaan by the Hebrews gave them large quantities'of bullion. The rules of war, even against tho^e nations which they were to destroy utterly, permit¬ ted the retention of all the metals as mentioned in Num¬ bers, 31st c., 22d and 23d vs. Accordingly, when they conquered Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, and seized their numerous cities, the cattle and the spoil of these cities were carefully saved. The records found now on old Egyptian monuments indicate the great wealth of the Canaanites, at and before that period, in the precious metals. Their gold and silver, and even less valuable minerals, were accumulated in the Hebrew trea¬ sury—Joshua, 6th c., 24th v.; and the trial and punish¬ ment narrated in the next—the 7th—chapter, shows that .106 GOLD AND SILVER. the Hebrew military law rendered the private appropria¬ tion of this class of spoil a capital offence. The chapter is interesting in another particular; for it casually proves, if one term he correctly rendered, the fame acquired at that early time hy the manufacturers of Bahylon, whose city was for many centuries the Spitalfields, the Paisley^ or the Macclesfield of the ancient world, and not its Man¬ chester, for the Babylonian artisans were distinguished hy the production of remarkably fine fabrics—which were a staple of their city’s great foreign trade, and materially enhanced the power of the empire. Incidental references, scattered through the Bible, af¬ ford a greater acquaintance with the details of ancient life than can he obtained from any other source, for the monuments in ancient ruins exhibit the employment of the people without supplying correct information regard¬ ing their domestic life. Balaam resided in a settled, and probably a wealthy, country, where gold and silver were current coin; and so with enlarged ideas on the subject, he told Balak’s officers, that “ if Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God to do less or more.” The history of Balaam is peculiarly mournful. The prophet struggled hard against his besetting sin, hut it proved too strong for him—because he seems to have rested entirely on his own power to keep the line of duty; and never used the prayer, “lead me not into temptation, hut de¬ liver me from evil;” and so he was allowed to follow his own desires to the conflict with temptation which he had chosen, and where he perished miserably. An anecdote regarding a man of Mount Ephraim, Micah, his mother, her savings, and their priest, related in the 17th chapter of Judges, probably to show the rapid spread of idolatry. GOLD AND SILVER. 307 and its origin, gives an idea of the money which an eco¬ nomical person in Israel, during the period of the Judges, might accumulate. If the pieces of silver mentioned, were, as is most likely, “shekels,” then the mother of Mieah had collected <£130 in our money; and the idol which she ultimately agreed to make, contained silver valued at £26, and must have been of small size, or in our time would weigh a little over one hundred ounces; for the cost of construction is not, apparently, included. The wages of the Levite, if shekels he correctly inserted, were to he only twenty-four shillings annually—less than sixpence weekly—in addition to clothing and food; so that ecclesiastical engagements were badly remunerated. Mat¬ thew Henry believes that this anecdote is particularly narrated, because it seems to have been the first instance of the revolt of any Israelite from God and the insti¬ tuted worship, after the death of Joshua and the elders that outlived him. Certainly, the occurrences related in the 17th and 18th chapters of Judges do not appear in the order of their dates. It is not necessary to be¬ lieve that Micah lived during the life, or after the death of Samson, recorded in the 16th chapter; hut he had apparently no difficulty in finding a founder, although the tradesman might have belonged to the Canaanites who were not expelled from the land. The Hebrews dwelt for more than five centuries in Palestine, and, under Saul and David, had subdued the Edomites, the Syrians, and the rich tribes on their bor¬ ders, before the gold and silver were accumulated for the construction of the temple. The quantity mentioned is extremely large; but the spoil of all their enemies for five centuries had been preserved in the treasury. The amount, acp' rding to one calculation, rather exceeds the 808 OOLD AND SILVER. national debt of Britain; and it is supposed bj many that the talent mentioned is not the Hebrew talent, but one of much less value, while others say, that the exactly round numbers are put for an inexact sum, and their opi¬ nion is sustained by the 16th verse of the 22d chapter of 1st Chronicles. Hostile critics attack this naiTative as an obvious error and exaggeration, but they are not sup¬ ported by good arguments. The writer probably meant a very large quantity, and sought to prevent misconception by the statement in the 16th verse. He might even, as there were more than one description of talent, have em¬ ployed, in this instance, the smallest. But under any view of the case the law, promulgated before the Hebrews en¬ tered Canaan, placed all the gold and silver taken from their enemies in the common treasury, to which, during the governments of Samuel, Saul, and David, great ad¬ ditions were made. Some parties alleged that bullion in the largest possible quantity, according with the state¬ ment in 1st Chronicles, never existed on the earth in a col¬ lected form. They wrote before the modern discoveries of California, of Australia, and of Queen’s Island, on the Oregon shores. The Californians calculate their produc¬ tion of the present year at fifteen millions sterling. Thirty years of this yield would give all the weight of gold left by David in the Hebrew treasury for the work of the temple, without implying that in his time it possessed its present worth. The commercial relations of the world were then comparatively limited, and gold was probably less valuable than it is now. The people of this country are accustomed to regard gold as an article of fixed worth, because in Britain the price is at present regulated by law. This floating idea is absolutely erro¬ neous. Merchants are still engaged in business who have GOLD AND SILVER. 309 sold gold for £4 10s. per ounce, or even £ 5 , and who might have purchased it during the current year, through their agents, for £2 10s., because it has been sold in Aus¬ tralia for that price. The existing product of gold in the world will, if continued, materially alter its value in ten or twenty years. It is unnecessary, therefore, to believe that a weight of precious metal, which would in our time pay off our national debt, had the same or nearly the same value in those days when David closed his adven¬ turous life and successful reign at Jerusalem. The Mexi¬ cans and Peruvians did not value gold at the Spanish price when their countries were subjugated by the adventurers from the Spanish Peninsula. The temple of Coricancha at Cuzco, the capital of the old Peruvian empire, accord¬ ing to the statements of the Spanish historians, was “lite¬ rally a mine of gold.” The name in the Peruvian dialect meant “ the place of gold.” The Peruvians worshipped the sun, and Coricancha was his principal temple. Gold, in the poetic language of that primitive people, was “ the tears wept by the sun.” The interior of their great tem¬ ple was covered with this metal. Massive plates and vessels of gold were employed in the service of the temple. Silver was used chiefly in the instruments and work'of the temple of the moon. The Spaniards stripped these temples of their fixed ornaments, but the natives concealed the far more valuable vessels of solid bullion, which are in the meantime lost to the world. Their value must have been immense, for large gardens were attached to the range of temples dedicated, in the city of Cuzco, the residence of the Incas, to the service of the sun, the moon, the stars, the thunder and lightning, and the rain¬ bow; while all the instruments used in the tillage of these gardens were of gold or of silver. The world may lament 310 GOLD AND SILVER. tlie barbarism of the men by wbom tbe nations of Ame¬ rica were spoiled, robbed, and murdered. The treasures of gold, of silver, and precious stones, are of small value compared with those treasures of learning and tradition which were, unquestionably, destroyed when the empires of the Incas and the Montezumas were overthrown by Europeans, incomparably more cruel and “reckless” than the rulers of the West. The fragments which remain enable us to trace a comparatively pure worship on the Western continent—such as may have existed at Ur of the Chaldees, before Abraham emigrated westward, or may have actuated the early founders of Nineveh, and the first workers in PhiJoe; struggling with the gradual corruptions and cruelties of the priesthood, until, indeed, the altars of Mexico were reddened with the blood of many human sacrifices, crying to heaven for the vengeance which came and swept from the earth a great branch of the house of Canaan, which had spread its roots and boughs deep and far in the pleasant isles and the romantic regions of Southern America. American crimes will not obliterate the cruelties of its invaders, who made the islands and the southern continent the burial place of its old people—evidently far more numerous than the existing inhabitants of that continent. The Spanish race is now rapidly yielding to a more energetic family of mankind. Their ancestors were cruel; but many of the Peruvians sought refuge in suicide from power which they could not resist, and service which they detested. The priesthood, ere they perished, committed their most expensive pro¬ perty to the lakes, the rivers, and other hiding places, from which they may yet be brought, like the monuments of Egypt, and the ruins of Nineveh, to confirm Scriptural statements in an indirect manner, but with all the strength GOLD AND SILVER. 311 attached to distant and independent evidence. The deco¬ rations in the temples of the West, hy indicating ancient customs, confirm the statements regarding the metallic riches in the temples of the East. Gold and silver are not easily destroyed; and in the ruins of the East and the West wealth may yet he found sufficient to repay research. Palestine, it has been said, had no goldmines; hut this has not been proved. Job was evidently well acquainted with mining and washing for gold. “ Surely there is a vein for silver, and a place for gold, where they fine it” —28th c., 1st V. —and the earth “hath dust of gold” ■—6th V. The character of Idumea resembles intimately those regions in which gold is found in great quantities at this day. Idumea formed, certainly, no part of Palestine proper, but David subjected it to the rule of Israel. An old Egyptian monument contains engravings of all the processes in gold manufacture, from the washing of the sand to the fusion and melting of the metal into the forms required. The Bible writers frequently adduce the measures adopted to refine the precious metals as illustrations of personal troubles and public woes, and the benefits which calamities may confer on individuals and nations. The house of Israel, according to Ezeldel—22d c., 18th v.— is the dross of silver—they are gathered into the furnace and left there to be melted—20th, 21st, 22d verses. The silver is become dross—Isaiah, 1st c., 22d v.—and the dross will be purged away—25th v. The extraction of the dross from the silver brings forth a vessel for the finer— Proverbs, 25th c., 4th v.—and the fining pot for silver, or the furnace for gold is again used in the 27th c. and 21st V., as it had been in the 17th c. and 3d v., to illustrate the means, whereby, in Scriptural language, “ the Lord GOLD AND SILVER. 312 trieth tlie hearts” of mankind. The same illustration had been employed hy the Psalmist—66th Psalm, 10th v. Malachi uses it, when he asks, “ who may abide the day of the Lord’s coming?” for “he is like a refiner’s fire,” “he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver,” “he shall purge them as gold and silver.’’ Whatever great event the prophet contemplated as the final object of his warning, no doubt can he entertained that, like other passages of Scripture, this 3d chapter of Malachi refers to all those innumerable ways, whereby, in mercy, often under the appearance of judgment, “ the Lord cometh” to the workers in precious metals as to other men, and deals with them as they operate on their material, not in anger, hut in love—not to destroy, hut to purify; and to those great national calamities or persecutions in which the gold of the living world is washed out of its sand, purified and refined hy agitations and sorrows, not to he cast away and contemned, hut to he carefully preserved and greatly valued. The silver and gold collected in the Crystal Palace exhibited vast wealth allied to high art. The nature of the material admits exquisite workmanship. It is neither extremely hard nor in any degree brittle; so that the finest carving can he executed in it with comparative ease, and is retained with perfect certainty. The value of the precious metals in the shops of dealers might he readily ascertained, hut that in private houses cannot he correctly estimated. The annual consurapt of Great Britain, for the manufacture of plate, has been estimated at the sum of £2,500,000. This manufacture has been carried on for centuries, although not in that quantity; and the value of bullion locked up within the country in plate and ornaments, must he now great. The precious GOLD AND SILVER. 313 metals have been found in nearly all countries. Silver is again profitably extracted from lead in British mines. Gold was certainly found in Scotland during the reign of James V., who had a crown foi med from Scotch gold for his young queen. The existence of gold does not prove the propriety of working it, for unless it is found in sufficient quantities to repay the cost, the trade can¬ not be profitable. Oriental countries formed the great source of gold, until the discovery of America. After that event, the accumulated stocks of the West gradually supplied the European markets, and the Eastern mines were neglected. Africa has hitherto supplied only a small quantity of gold, obtained exclusively by washing the sands of the rivers. This source of supply must be invari¬ ably confined to those particles washed from the rocks by currents of water, or set loose by the tedious process of their atmospheric decomposition. The system now adopt¬ ed in California of obtaining gold dust by crushing the auriferous rocks, will produce a larger and more regular supply than any other plan previously pursued. Similar means have not been applied to the African rocks from which the gold dust found in the sands of its rivers have probably been carried by floods. All the power of art will be exercised on those Australian fields, which have already been unexpectedly fertile in the highest-priced metal. The Russian Government will soon employ those artificial means that promise to increase the yield of the Ural Mountains. The literal “golden age” is yet in the future; and the influences of a greatly enlarged supply of gold on the circumstances of mankind cannot easily be appreciated. The general direction of the current may be indicated, but its strength cannot be ascertained, and its windings cannot be traced. It will tend, appa- 314 GOLD AND SILVER. rently, towards tliat equality of condition, unexception¬ able, and even desirable, when it is approached by addi¬ tions to the rewards of industry without legislative re¬ ductions from the value of property. The productive gold regions of the nineteenth century may have been concealed for nearly six thousand years, and brought into the possession of the Anglo-Saxon races, who chiefly dispense the Bible, teach Christianity, and maintain the purity of the faith as it is maintained over the world, to enable them to complete the moral contest with error, and come victorious out of the war of opinion which a great statesman foresaw in the form of “ many battles.’' This contest may be both moral and physical in its cha¬ racter; but the former conflict has commenced; and great means, with enlarged hearts to use them well, are requi¬ site to dissipate, by gospel truth and freedom, the mental despotism and superstition overhanging so many hearts at home, and so many lands in and out of nominal Chris¬ tendom; that while they continue in their present mas¬ sive strength and brooding darkness, Christianity can¬ not exercise the influence in the world which it claims, and which it needs, ere it may be justly chargeable with any responsibility for the misery often following sin, and then, and in that position only, lying like a dank, thick mist between the miserable spirit and the light and peace of faith. The golden discoveries of this Exhibition year, which closes with no more remarkable feature than the development of new stores of this rich metal in many quarters of the Anglo-Saxon lands, maybe one of those means which God in his providence has prepared for the short, but sharp struggle of the latter days, and the world’s pleasant evening, when it shall be light. Gold and silver have been used in all ages for the pur- GOLD AND SILVEE, 315 poses of idolatry. Demetrius and his friends at Ephesus were engaged in the craft followed by the founder whom Micah employed. At the present stage of European his* tory a similar class of craftsmen gratify the same love of the human family for material objects of worship. The Crystal Palace contained many figures which were scarce* ly in their proper place within its precincts. A darker building would have been more suitable for them than that temple of art and industry. The silver crucifixes, and figures or paintings, on rich stained glass, of saints with a doubtful origin, above the legible inscription, ‘ ‘ pray for us,” closely resembled instruments of idolatry; for, while the request is very properly addressed to our fellow- men, yet, when made to saints, who have passed into the eternal state, it implies the possession by them of the attributes of Divinity, the Omnipresence and the Omni¬ science, if not the Omnipotence of God. Another description of idolatry not quite so apparent, centres in gold and silver. “The love of money is the root of all evil;” not indeed the money itself, which may be used for great and noble purposes, but that inordinate love of it which becomes avarice, turning easily into covet¬ ousness, greed, and dishonesty; for avarice is altogether incompatible with honour and generosity, and directly op¬ posed to that plain doctrine of the Bible which renders a man responsible, not as owner, hut as steward, as clerk, or cashier, for all the talents and faculties, or gifts, that he has received in trust; and among other gifts and talents for the money committed to his charge. When men have rightly learned the place and value of money, they will esteem its possession, like that of art, of genius, of learn* ing, or strength, as something which they have existence to use, not in gilding a cofiin or a “ will, ” not even in white- 316 GOLD AND SILVER. washing a tomb, but in brightening a life, and in burnishing the world. Wealth is a temptation which great grace is requisite to surmount, for we are told on the highest au¬ thority, not that it is impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, hut very difficult, like the passage of a camel through the smallest gate in the walls of Jeru¬ salem, which was effected by bending down the high proud neck, and relieving the camel of its burdens, with consi¬ derable exertion and labour. Gold has not been zealously employed for the emanci¬ pation of mankind from their errors. It once was, and over a large portion of the earth’s surface is yet, the di¬ rect agent of idolatry. It forms, even in Christian lands, the object of worship to many individuals. Once among a poor people—placed in a barren land, which was not their own—for they were strangers—a plate of pure gold was dedicated to religious uses, and they inscribed thereon “ Holiness to the Lord.” That plate of pure gold, with its inscription, foreshadows the destiny of the precious metals whenever their owners believe with the Psalmist, that “ the judgments of the Lord are more to be desired than gold, yea, than much fine gold”'—19th Psalm; and can say with him, “ I love tby commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold”—119th Psalm; hut until the gold and silver of the rich are consecrated to that end—as if to prevent the workman from waiting for the wealthy— the copper of the artisans, if art were wedded to faith, could carry out the last of these commandments—“ Go ye therefore and teach all nations.” The errand faith¬ fully done, w.ould he successfully done, for He who orders also promises thus—“ Lo, I am with you alway;” and its successwGuld be like “life from the dead”—the eman¬ cipation of the world. AEI AND FAITH, IN FRAGMENTS FROM THE GREAT EXHIRITION, THE CRVSTAZi PALACE. THe Crystal Palace contained the best collection ever made of the products of art and the works of nature. Therefore, it was the best school ever formed for study¬ ing the connection of art and nature with revealed reli¬ gion. That connection has been very generally over¬ looked; and yet the accuracy and frequency with which Revelation is mirrored in the pursuits of industry form effective witnesses of its truth. Natural theology has been a favourite study of many intellectual men in all ages, but it never has been popular. The works on the subject are frequently written in a complicated and dif¬ ficult style, which is not popular, because it is not easy or light reading. The study is not prosecuted with ar¬ dour in colleges and universities; and, therefore, many teachers of Christianity have not learned in youth to esti mate this science at its real and great value—for God “left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, fill¬ ing our hearts with food and gladness”—Acts, 14th c., 17tli V. “ The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handy work”—Psalm 19 th, 1st V.— indicating, without any doubt, the propriety of seek¬ ing in astronomy evidence of His glory who “ maketli Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the South.” The old inspired writers had a remarkable ac- T 318 THE CRYSTAL PALACE. quaintance with, natural philosophy for their time. Their writings substantiate their claim to immediate inspiration, unless we believe that the unwritten revelation made to the fathers included facts in natural science which were forgotten in darker subsequent ages. Job and his friends were all profound natural theologians; and we are com¬ pelled either to acknowledge the existence of higher in¬ tellectual acquirements in their time than appear among the earlier philosophers and poets of Greece, or admit the supernatural guidance under which they spoke and wrote, when they were employed to speak and write for all ages. Job, proclaiming the greatness of God, says —“ He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing”—26th c., 7th v. The statement would not have been made by a clever deceiver at or after the date of the Babylonian captivity ■—a period to which some men have ascribed the Book of Job; because, in the popular apprehension at the time, it would have been deemed false. Any writer desirous of imposing a narrative on public credulity would not make an assertion inconsistent with the current opinion on a topic uneonnected with his history. Job could not have used more accurate language, if he had lived to write in the present day, than—“He hangeth the earth upon no¬ thing;” but in that early age of the world, when he con¬ versed in his “dark middle days” with his friends, had he and they science equivalent to that of our own age? Theo¬ rists assert that men advanced from a low to a higher stage of existence, and that the race has had a progressive de¬ velopment, from the organisation and wisdom of worms, to the position occupied by these writers. This assertion is made without a vestige of evidence; but the writers who believe that the original men, near the beginning of the THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 319 world, possessed great experience and massive intellects, have in their favour evidence and probability. Belie¬ vers in the Scriptural account of creation must almost necessarily regard the first man as the possessor of great intellectual and physical powers. The character of the parents of our race does not elicit the interest that the subject might be expected to command. Their morning of light was soon to be shaded by sin, leading to suffer¬ ing, and passing into toil. Sin continued to pursue them with its consequences long after their expulsion from their pleasant home. The woes of these early years, spent in providing sustenance without tools, cannot be easily ima¬ gined now. They had everything to invent; but the intellect which named all animals, fallen as it was, must have rapidly overcome these difficulties, and had gra¬ dually formed another home, around which happiness had begun to cluster, when the first grand crime—the first death—revived, in the utmost sorrow, the memory of its cause. We have formed acquaintance with death. It is familiar to our minds. But to Adam and Eve it must have been a terrible * mystery which they could not solve. The problem was wrought out at last. There was the answer in the cold and mangled body of one son, slain by his brother. The first funeral had possessed a solemn and thrilling interest that never more mingled in the sadness wherein men lay dust to dust. Sin had brought forth its fruit on earth, and the mourners were storing it past, casting the first sod in this great cemetery—for the earth is intersected by graves. The days of Adam were many, but they must have been those of a grave and sombre life. The Scriptures contain no direct information regarding the spiritual state of the first man and the first woman after the fall; but there are cir- 320 THE CRYSTAL PALACE. cumstances in tlieir history which confirm the hope that the promise made to them in their representative, applied to them also in their personal, character. The names of three only of their children are mentioned—the first martyr, the first murderer, and Seth. They had evi¬ dently taught the fear of God to these sons, and success¬ fully to Abel and Seth. They had inculcated correct principles among their descendants, for Cain knew that even his relations would punish him for his crime—“every one that findeth me shall slay me.” He fled, therefore, from the place where his father dwelt, to the land of Nod, on the east of Eden, for the first family of mankind-seem to have lingered long in the country of Eden. Adam appears, certainly, to have lived with Seth and his de¬ scendants, who preserved the fear of God, and probably never met again, after that day when Cain talked with Abel in the field, his eldest son or his posterity. Adam undoubtedly lived nearly seven hundred years after “men began to call upon the name of the Lord”—probably in a collective form, in public worship—being then divided into many families; without referring to the emigrants who had gone far away. From these facts, which appear obviously from the Scriptures, his descendants may confi¬ dently infer that the first of men was also the first of those patriarchs who maintained in the early world the fear and the worship of God. Successive generations would learn from him the history of the fall and the pro¬ mise of the restoration. He was, most probably, the pro¬ fessor from whom Enoch, the preacher of righteousness, derived his theological knowledge. That was not the only knowledge which the human family would cluster round their great progenitor to learn. The fidelity with which he told a narrative that was ever humihating to THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 321 liimself, is evinced in tlie traditions of all heathen or idola¬ trous nations—traditions which could not have been bor¬ rowed from the hooks of Moses, and which he could not have copied, because they were woven into a complicated fabric, overshadowed with allegories and superstitions, in that learning of the Egyptians with which he was ac¬ quainted. If it were supposed that Moses derived his information solely from inspiration, and not that he was merely inspired to write correctly the testimony of the fathers, still the identity and the universality of the tra¬ ditions regarding the fall, its cause, its punishment, and the restoration; from the figures of the woman, the ser¬ pent, and the apple, in Mexico; to those of the Deity, crushing the serpent in llindostan; can only be explained on the supposition that the narrative was carefully con¬ veyed by Adam downwards to Lamech, who told it to Noah, and from whom his sons, the patriarchs of the new world, derived their information. These circumstances show that Adam and Eve were humble and repentant persons; for they would not otherwise have circulated facts calculated to destroy their influence with their de¬ scendants, and which they might have easily concealed; because a special revelation to Abraham or to Moses would not in any way explain the resemblance of univer¬ sal traditions. Adam and Seth were both dead before the birth of Noah. Enos and Cainan died, the first in the 84th, and the second in the 119th year after that event. Their withdrawal from the world may have enabled the current of guilt to acquire more strength than it attained during their lives. All the antediluvian patriarchs men¬ tioned in the 5th chapter of Genesis, died before the flood came upon the earth, with the exception of Me¬ thuselah. Lamech, the father of Noah, died five years 32?. THE CETSTAL PALACE. before that grand catastrophe. Methuselah, the grand¬ father of Noah, died in the year of the flood. It is not stated that he perished in the overwhelming waters, and it is more probable that the son of Enoch, and the grand¬ father of Noah, was taken from the evil to come, in a good old age and in peace; for, although before his death the statements are made that “all flesh had corrupted his way”—and “ the end of all flesh is come”—yet the lan¬ guage evidently excepted Noah and his house, and may also have excepted his father and grandfather, who had seen Adam, and learned from him the truth. The Sa¬ maritan chronology, in that version of the Pentateuch, makes the age of Methuselah 720 years, and that of Lamech 653, and terminates the lives of both in the year of the deluge. The chronology of the Septuagint differs widely from that of the Hebrews or the Samaritans, and places the death of Methuselah after that of his son La¬ mech, but six years before the flood. The connection of these matters with the Crystal Pa¬ lace and its contents appears remote, yet it exists, and the chain is too curious to be neglected. The contents of that edifice could not be correctly ascribed to the labour and the science of one or two generations. The tide of human invention and practice ebbs and flows. The deluge was partially destructive to art and knowledge; but the experience of past years was not entirely lost. The magnificent ship, in which a family floated over the prevailing and victorious waters, contained specimens of antediluvian art, and of the tools by which its work was accomplished. Noah and his sons were not surprised by the deluge. They had early information of its approach. They knew the reason of their own preservation; and, therefore, they most probably acquired all the knowledge THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 323 tliat was advisable, if not requisite, in re-commencing the world. The art of the antediluvians was not, there¬ fore, extinguished utterly; and their successors were not compelled to toil through the same labour -of failures in invention that must have followed tbe expulsion from the garden of Eden at the fall. The superior intellects of the parents of all mankind were thus destined to assist their posterity; and the language which narrates their creation leaves no reason to doubt, that in strength of mind, in genius and talent, they were superior to their descendants, while this superiority was doubtless employed in clearing the paths of art and in¬ dustry, on which materials were thickly strewn without a knowledge of their purpose, or the way in which they could be made serviceable to men. Those two persons who dwelt once in “ the garden of the earth which the Lord planted”—who had an intercourse with the spiritual world once that their descendants never could fully com¬ prehend—who at one time knew freedom from sin and its power, which their descendants never understood—must have been endowed with a depth, an energy, and a warmth of pure affections, far greater, probably, than were vouch¬ safed to any of their childi’en. They loved, undoubtedly, Cain, and Abel, and Seth, and the children that played around their hut on the banks of the Euphrates or the Tigris. Their love must have increased their mental suffering, as every unsuccessful incident in their career recalled the memory of the fall. They would blame them¬ selves for no small part of Cain’s guilt, and charge upon their own consciences the loss of Abel’s society. The promises made to them, and the faith for the future that they almost certainly held, were not intended to extinguish sorrow or even suffering for sin. A mournful picture 324 THE CKTSTAL PALACE. might be drawn—without overstepping probability and reason, or venturing far into the region of imagination—of the sufferings and toils of our common ancestors for a period of six*hundred years. An event then occurred which, as it is briefly and expressively narrated in Scrip¬ ture, was calculated to cheer the remainder of their weary pilgrimage, and to revive the remembrance of the promise made when justice and mercy were proclaimed together in the garden of Eden. They struggled, accord¬ ing to this highly probable view of their state, to teach the fear and the love of God to their family, and the fami¬ lies of their sons and daughters. They soon found ini¬ quity prevailing against their warnings, and bringing forth gross crimes; hut one of their descendants, in the sixth generation, must have gained a large share of their affections; for he listened carefully to their teaching—he then participated in better and higher teaching—he re¬ stored to them in his own person the memory of the past—for Enoch walked with God. Hitherto they must have seen many of their descendants carried to the grave. Diseases of childhood and youth, the beasts of prey which surrounded mankind, the incidents of field and forest, and the violence of wicked men had often, ere six hundred ^^ears rolled away, done their appointed work. Our old Saxon “God’s-acre” had been often tilled and trenched before the lapse of that long period. Before the close of the sixth century many graves had been opened and closed, and death had collected numerous ruins, destined to he rebuilt. It would he wonderful if these two spirits, hearing together a load of sorrow, such as none of their children knew, although supported by the same great hope, had not sometimes fainted in their trial. Sin had gained overwhelming strength in the world ere THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 325 that date, and those who laboured to oppose its progress needed some great event to re-animate their minds. “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” The greatest favourite of good men upon the earth walked no more among its people. The beloved descend¬ ant, in the case supposed, was taken while the aged were left. The circumstances and manner of his departure, unlike those connected with the removal of Elijah, are not recorded. Doubtless they were calculated to comfort the family of Seth, and warn those among the immoral descendants of Cain who were made acquainted with this strange occurrence. They had been like balm to the fainting and wounded hearts of the parents of the human family, for the translation of Enoch resembled a repeti¬ tion of the promises, and was a prop and security to their faith. With renewed strength they would labour stiUin their vocation of secular and religious teachers of the races that followed them. Their religious labours were not ab¬ solutely or nearly successful in stopping the spread of de¬ pravity. Guilt flourished rapidly in a favouring climate and soil. It stretched forth its roots and spread out its branches, until a great portion of the land was darkened by its shadow. Moral and religious calamities followed the human family in rapid succession; but the events recorded in the flrst five verses of the 6th chapter of Genesis may have extended over a long period, or they may have been contracted within the seven or eight cen¬ turies from the death of Adam to the deluge. The end of his trials was followed in seventy-five years—a short period comparatively—by the death of Seth ; and their removal as living witnesses from the earth may have with¬ drawn obstacles to the progress of public depravity and personal guilt. 326 THE CRYSTAL PALACE. The secular teachings of the original progenitors of the human family were more successful. Flocks and herds and cultivated fields were spread around them. The timber of the forest, and the iron of the mine, were press¬ ed into the service of man. The fleece yielded its cloth¬ ing, and the blue flowers of the flax bloomed by the water courses. The distatf was plied in the house, and the shuttle flew across the loom. The dye-stuff filled the vat, and the embroiderer plied her needle. Houses succeeded huts. The burnt brick and the quarried stone were built up in large edifices. Cities arose on the site of hovels, and the sweet sounds of music, mixed often with the wild revelry of dissipation, were heard in their man¬ sions. Better than the residences of the rich, the barns of the farmer were built, and his harvests saved and stored against the days of want. The first great war of men was with the ferocious beasts of the forest, and gradually inclined to the victory of reason over strength. Each new discovery in art and science was an ally gained in that great strife. The discovery of the ore, and the smelting of the iron, decided the combat which had been doubtful while the club and the flint-headed arrows, or darts, were men’s only weapons. The invention of the bow and the sling had greatly changed the position of the combatants. The manufacture of iron, and its employment in edge- tools, gave to man a complete superiority in the war; and if the production of weapons has covered many battle¬ fields with the vigorous and the young of our race, it saved that race from extinction when the lion and the tiger were not the greatest opponents of our ancestors in their strife for life. Rivers were bridged, roads formed, labour probably was divided, large communities were established, furnaces burned, the potter’s wheel had com- THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 3:27 menced its rounds, canoes and boats bad succeeded rafts, and tbe sun bad risen often over busy baunts of art and industry, before a long, a solemn, and a sad procession fol¬ lowed tbe corpse of tbe great first man, tbe founder of our race, to that silent tomb where it was to crumble and moulder into dust, in accordance with tbe sentence pro¬ nounced against bim—“ for dust tbou art, and unto dust sbalt tbou return;” and where it was to wait for tbe re¬ surrection. Tbe display of tbe products of art and industry in tbe Crystal Palace was extremely magnificent; and tbe excel¬ lence in art and skill in industry which produced those vast results cannot be ascribed to the genius or tbe talent of one generation. Tbe spectacle was peculiarly grand and solemn, when considered as tbe achievement of suc¬ cessive generations of mankind; and this was not a fanci¬ ful, but a legitimate, view of art in its present state. Tbe great collection of the world’s industry in Hyde Park, in 1851, was thus connected with those sturdy weavers of the Low Country who struck down tbe power of Spain in tbe day of its highest pride, when they left their webs to achieve their freedom;—with the persecuted silk weavers of France, whom bigotry exiled, and who rather aban¬ doned a well-beloved land than desert a still dearer faith; —with the glass-blowers and artisans of Venice, who, when the strong arms of the Goths revenged at Rome the wrongs of a world, fled to the marshes of the Adriatic Sea, and piled among its waters the foundations of a city destined to be for centuries the barrier of Italy and Germany against the invasion of the Turks;—with the sculptors whose art was embalmed in those marbles of Greece that seemed almost to breathe;—with the house¬ holds of ancient Rome, where high-born ladies plied the 328 THE CRYSTAL PALACE. distaff and produced fine linen, like the Hebrew matrons commended by Lemuel’s mother;—with the artisans of Tyre, whose carved work and eastings were wonders in the world, and whose rich purple dye became prover¬ bial ;—with the manufacturing operatives of Babylon, whose goodly garments were exported to Jericho before the arrival of the Hebrews from Egypt in the promised land;—with the Egyptian goldsmiths, whose various pro¬ cesses were engraven on monuments erected two hundred years before the emancipation of the Hebrews, and their march out of Egypt;—with Bezaleel and Aholiab, .the wise-hearted craftsmen of the Israelites in the wilder¬ ness;—with the Philistine or Phoenician seamen, who discovered the art of glass-blowing when wrecked on the coasts of Syria;—with the builders of the ark;—with the art of the antediluvian world ;—and upwards with the great father of art and knowledge, whose wisdom foresaw the character of all living animals, and bestowed names on them consistent with their difterent natures. The thread of art, thus reaching from Eden downwards to our day, is not only a matter of antiquarian and of lite¬ rary interest, but of practical importance. It rebukes the errors of those men who believe that the knowledge of ancient times was extremely defective and limited. It destroys the theory of progress—from the mud or the ocean upwards—an old fable revived in recent times with the impress of novelty; exactly as the electro-plater’s art turns out old goods fresh and shining, but yet of base metal at the heart, and still old notwithstanding their novel aspect. A fair judgment on the degrees of merit attached to the contributions to art would give the greater rank to those men who discovered the principles on which different arts proceed, than to others who improved their THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 329 practice. The man who originally discovered that the fibres of flax might he separated, spun into threads, and woven into cloth, displayed a higher class of genius than M. Claussen, whose remarkable improvements in the ap¬ plication of that plant promise a great change in the cloth¬ ing trade. This thread of art connects us not only with ancient nations, hut with their descendants. If modern Euro¬ peans are indebted to Phoenicians and Egyptians for the arts of life, they are in gratitude and honesty bound to discharge the debt, in conveying knowledge to their de¬ scendants. The Anglo-Indian department of the Exhi¬ bition was peculiarly rich in displays of art, and the effects of patient industry. No other heathen nation produced a collection of skilled work nearly equalling that in the Hindoo’s quarter. British connection with the country aided to swell the contributions from the Ganges and the Indus; hut the quality of the Hindoo manufactures ex¬ ceeded that of other heathen nations more than their quantity. The shawls of Cashmere and the silks of Bengal have now been celebrated by the beauty and richness of their fabrics for ages. After all the exertions of Western operatives, they have not even equalled the dyes and fabrics of the East in these departments. The carving and ornamental work from Hindostan were equally re¬ markable for the perseverance and the skill displayed in their production. Although the origin of letters has been commonly ascribed to the Phoenicians, yet various cir¬ cumstances support the opinion that this great invention, which placed history and literature on a sure basis, and rendered possible the written intercourse of nations, be¬ longs to Hindostan. Future investigations may cast more light than we possess on this subject; but following 330 THE CRYSTAL PALACE. out the preceding idea regarding flax, the inventor of the first letters was a man of higher genius than the con¬ structor of presses and types—the inventor of printing in the popular meaning of the term. The people of Bri¬ tain profess great esteem and respect for “the press,” although they impede its development by obstructions and taxation which do not exist in any other civilised, constitutional, and Christian country. They ascribe the maintenance of liberty, the promotion of science, and the successful teaching of Christianity, in a great measure, to printing. A careful consideration of the subject will teach us that the invention of characters to express sounds overcame the first great difficulty in the establishment of the press. Progress, from that time onward, became comparatively easy, and the modern world has greater reason to he astonished with its slow development than its rapidity. The cunieform characters in ancient writings were pro¬ bably the earliest used by mankind; but the diversity between them and hieroglyphical writing indicates a dif¬ ferent origin. The prevalence of the latter among the Mexi¬ cans and Peruvians affords reason to infer their separa¬ tion from the eastern families of mankind at a period when written characters were not in ordinary use, at least among the race from whom they sprung. Their emigra¬ tion must also have occurred long subsequent to the de¬ luge, for they preserved a tradition of the main features of that event, yet with such diversities of detail as the lapse of several centuries might form in the popular narrative. The attachment of their literati to picture wTiting, and an abandonment of fixed characters, may indeed have arisen from the desire of the priesthood to exclude the people from the knowledge which they possessed, and to throw THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 331 mystery over tlieir history and observances. This feel¬ ing existed among the priesthood of all heathen nations, and exists yet, to the shame of enlightened Christians, among two-thirds of the nominal professors of Christianity, thus teaching the magnitude of the work before the Pro¬ testant Churches of our time. Three general forms of recording events and ideas exist in the world. The hieroglyphical—extremely difficult to read—because different makers of figures may have at¬ tached various meanings, to the same, or nearly the same, sign:—the expression of ideas and words by many different forms or signs, like the Chinese writing—also difficult to comprehend, from the great number of figures neces¬ sarily employed: and the use of fixed and small figures, not to convey ideas or words, hut the sounds by which words are formed. The latter is complete; and while the pronunciation of spoken language varies widely, the writ¬ ten letters continue fixed, permanent, and legible. The common fact that many persons cannot speak, and yet can read or write a foreign language, arises from this peculiarity. The letter-press specimens in the Exhibi¬ tion embraced beautiful work in that art. The printing machines were not novel, but they accomplished work with an astonishing rapidity, which would have been deemed fabulous even twenty or thirty years since. The Bibles, shown in nearly one hundred and fifty dijfferent lan¬ guages, formed the greatest trophy of learning and perse¬ verance in existence. But for these—for all the pleasures of literature, the knowledge of history, the truths of reli¬ gion, and the wisdom of the past recorded in printed works —the world stands indebted to the inventor of letters—a greater genius, though a forgotten man, than the inventor of printing. ^ 332 THE CRYSTAL PALACE. The same truth is applicable to all art. The man who first melted the iron ore in a small furnace was the real originator of the machinery in the northern area of the Crystal Palace, and of the railways and steam-engines which conveyed millions of persons to that singular edifice. The person who drew out cotton, flax, or wool, into their first threads was the actual originator of the complicated machinery by which these materials are now rendered use¬ ful to mankind. These considerations repudiate the idea that we are beings of a graduated intellectual progress; for it appears that labourers in art, whose names may be concealed in the mists that overhang early ages, displayed genius and inventive talent equal, if not superior, to that possessed by any contributor to existing industry; and that these men were the most effective contributors to the art of this late age. Another theory is destroyed by a careful consideration of the history of art. It has been alleged that reason is the result of material organisation, differing from instinct merely in a greater complication of brain, or nervous mat¬ ter. Instinct has a prescribed course, out of which it never travels. The nest of the bird, the hive of the bee, the home of the ant, were formed with the same ingen¬ uity and regard for comfort in the early ages which they now exhibit, with no less taste and with no more skill. The homes of mankind have been the subjects of pro¬ gressive improvement—arising, however, it may be said, from their superior organisation; but if the material or¬ ganisation had anything to do with the matter, it would have done it well at once. Hovels and huts would not have succeeded holes in the earth, or caves in the mountain, to be in their time superseded by commodious or stately mansions. The spinner’s art would not have commenced THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 333 on tlie distaiF; but at once would have been prosecuted by that wonderful machinery which excites the admira¬ tion of all persons not intimately and practically conver¬ sant with the processes of manufacture. The invention of letters, according to the manner of instinct, would have been accompanied by the use of types, and those printing machines that throw oif hourly six to eight thousand printed sheets. Instinct is perfect for its purpose, and reason is imperfect; yet the imperfection of the one im¬ measurably surpasses the perfection of the other. Instinct gains nothing, and it loses nothing; for the bee on the plain of Shinar now, is not less active and skilful than those ancestral bees which plied their craft among the flowers, in the gardens that occupied the suburban districts of once populous cities, of which now scarcely a vestige marks their site; but the men of the East have fallen from their ancestors’ place in art and knowledge. The lonely fisherman of Tyre knows nothing of the Tyrian dye carried to the richest markets by the fathers of navigation. The Arabs, who aided Dr. Layard in the excavations of Nineveh, have no sympathy with the aptitude in art buried under its mounds. The enslaved Copt of Egypt cares not for the ruins that vindicate the past greatness of his race. The wandering tribes by the Euphrates cannot fabricate “the goodly Babylonian garments” of antiquity. Reason advances and recedes in localities, but its march is onward, and its career is endless, evincing by its nature the enduring character and fate of its possessors. The threads which linked the Crystal Palace, as the representative of existing art and industry, to those ages wherein art began its course, and industry commenced its progress, rendered it also a solemn place—a great ledger, wherein stood inscribed our debts to the past u 334 THE CRYSTAL PALACE. and our duties to the present. Europe has received art, industry, learning, letters, and faith, from the East. The acknowledgment implies no inferiority on the part of European races; for their ancestors came from the East; hut it infers a charge to labour for the regeneration of the old home of mankind, with an energy unknown in the West since the last of the crusaders, and their exertions were misdirected. They sought by the sword a conquest which we should seek by the Bible and its faith. Their victory would have involved the destruction of those whom we should strive to save. Their warfare had, therefore, an excitement not yet generally imparted to really Chris¬ tian crusades and crusaders; but the latter must be sup¬ ported with the reasonable enthusiasm, ere ever the North and the West repay the good claims upon them held by the South and the East. This thread of art confirms the Scriptural statement, “ God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.’’ Doctrines of this character, occurring in the Scriptural narratives appa¬ rently without a necessary bearing on the topic discussed, ratify the truth of Scripture. Their vast importance is often overlooked. The apostle Paul was a scholar, an ora¬ tor, a powerful reasoner, and a man of considerable rank, a Roman citizen, intimately conversant with the world and its practices. He was addressing the Athenian philo¬ sophers when he used those memorable words; and he could scarcely have employed language more revolting to their pride and selfishness—j^et he was impelled to declare the truth, without considering its immediate ef¬ fect on his audience. A deceiver would not, although a fanatic might, have uttered disagreeable opinions; but Paul was not a fanatic. He possessed admirable saga- THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 835 city in the construction of his arguments. He employed all the arts of an orator to seize the feelings of his hearers. He abandoned no ground that he could lawfully retain; but his mission required him to speak the whole truth, and he did not shrink from the task before governors who trembled, and philosophers who sneered at his message, or Pharisees who conspired to assassinate the messenger. The grand fact proclaimed by Paul on Mars Hill, at Athens, is confirmed by the testimony of literature, of science, and even of superstition—three witnesses often employed against the religion of Christianity, although by taking two of them—^literature and science—out of their natural position. Languages have been traced upwards to a few common sources corresponding with the Scrip¬ tural divisions of mankind, and exhibiting a common affinity. The characteristics of the various races of man¬ kind arise from climate, from education, and from em¬ ployment, while the most minute investigations confirm the belief in their common descent and origin. Mythology exhibits in its most degraded form the vitiated elements of a true faith, and its various systems may be traced, through circuitous wanderings, to the religion of the patri¬ archs, recorded in the Bible. Art has a similar connec¬ tion with the past. Its numerous departments may all be traced to the East. The processes employed in them have a common character, which evince a common origin. Until within a very recent period mankind had no new motive power, and no arrangement in the various depart¬ ments of industrial art that might not have been traced, in its principle, under successive improvements, to the remotest antiquity. The discovery of steam-power has changed the relations of life, and rendered possible the fulfilment of prophecy, which seemed by natural laws. 336 THE CHYSTAL PALACE. previous to its employment, almost impossible; but until its appearance the world bad added nothing to its motive powers for thousands of years. One of the strongest internal arguments for the truth of Scripture is found in the bold predictions of events that were highly improbable, and by those to whom they were immediately addressed, undesirable. From the earliest of its works to the end, not only the spirit but the plain language of the writers was opposed to cherished feelings and prejudices. To kingdoms crushed under despotism they said that all men are brethren—“whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them.” To the schools of pharisaism and philosophy they admini¬ stered the same rebuke in different language—“there is neither Jew nor Greek” in their system. To the slave¬ holder, when the nations of the earth were composed very nearly of slaveholders and slaves, they denounced the com¬ mon crime. Men have argued regarding the meaning of one or two words used in the original; and slaveholders have endeavoured to adduce an apology for, or an argu¬ ment in favour of, their crime from Paul’s Epistle to Philemon, which effectually, in any acceptation or inter¬ pretation of the words, destroys the pretence to hold slaves. The only benefit that a slaveholder could draw from it is “ the return of Onesimus, ” accompanied with the strict injunction that he was to be treated as “a brother beloved”—preceded by the intimation that a cer¬ tain course or line of conduct, fully understood, doubtless, by Philemon, was convenient, and might have been en¬ joined, if the apostle had not desired to afford his corre¬ spondent an opportunity, for “love’s sake,” of doing what he could have ordered. Any slaveholder would find a difficulty in the way of administering his property THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 337 if its component parts stood to him in the rel ation of “brethren beloved,” especially “in the Lord,” for he could hardly command them not to read the Bible, or punish them for teaching their children to search the Scriptures. Moreover, before any slaveholder can ex¬ tract comfort from the Epistle of Paul to Philemon, he must settle in his own mind the question whether the apostle, in addi'essinghim, would have said, “having con¬ fidence in thy obedience, I wrote unto thee, knowing that thou wilt also do more than I say”—and he had said sufficient to imply absolute emancipation. To the ma¬ jority of existing slaveholders it is certain that the apostle would have written in a different style on this subject, and very improbable that he would have made a fugitive slave the bearer of his letter; although he was anxious that Philemon should illustrate Christianity by doing for “love’s sake” what the apostle says—as probably foresee¬ ing the manner in which his words might be twisted by others, although not by this disciple—he might have en¬ joined not as a matter of taste, but as a duty “ in Christ, ” whose messenger he was, and whose servants they all three—apostle, master, and servant—were. The apostles were to plead before emperors, and kings, and deputies, generals and great men—raised to their positions, and preserved therein by warfare—^in behalf of peace;—they were to preach to Pharisees, shrunk within their prejudices and pride, the doctrine of equality;—to philosophers, puffed up by conceit and false notions of supe¬ riority, the great truths of fraternity;—to slaveholders in support of freedom;—to tyrants in vindication of liberty; —to the oppressed and uneasy classes in favour of law and order;—with the assurance of earning the sneers of one class, the hatred of another, the contempt often of 838 THE CRYSTAL PALACE. tlie weak, and almost invariably tbe persecntion of tlie strong;—and in fulfilling this hard mission they gave the surest evidence of their faith in its truth. They were, like the prophets, inspired to borrow many illustrations from natural objects, and to make strong statements regarding natural theology. With them “the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.” Two classes of argument are employed on this subject, but the more effective, impressive, and popular manner of treating it, is founded on common and known facts—on things which men feel, and require, and look upon; and the description of articles with which a man is best acquainted forms to his mind the best text-book. Art works with Nature’s materials; and while adding to the number of lectures written in them, it cannot alter their general character and tendency. Industrial theology is therefore only an extension of the ordinary manner of teaching natural theology to the daily transactions of industrious men in one of its parts. The neglect of com¬ mon things is a grand error, for their extent and variety afford reason to expect from them valuable teaching. If men were accustomed to consider the history and the na¬ ture of the material on which they labour, or to which they stand indebted for comforts in existence, their gra¬ titude might rise higher than formal acknowledgments. A general belief in the statement—“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, ” is perfectly Scriptural, but this brief summary is not the entire testimony of Scripture on the subject. The heavens and the earth, ac¬ cording to contracted notions of creation, might have been made carelessly and without regard to the comfort or hap¬ piness of their destined and future inhabitants; or they THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 339 miglit have been made with excellent intentions, hut defi¬ cient knowledge, and might not thus he precisely suitable for the required objects. These accidents occur when man makes, and until he gathers experience and know¬ ledge. Men who have inured themselves to think deeply, would argue that a similar accident could not occur in creation, for the Creator being obviously infinite in one re¬ spect, could not be less than infinite in all others; but the majority find the best evidence by examining the facts. A large number of our countrymen, accustomed to be¬ lieve firmly without thinking laboriously, even when their creed goes no farther than a cold admission, take their opinion from a difi’erent som’ce, without stooping to gather evidence from the ground on which they tread—the iron on their forges, the yarn in their looms, the wood beneath their chissels, or the air which they breathe. This latter class of evidence, written indelibly on all things, would teach them that “ God left not himself without a witness” —^for “ the things made” declared His being and His eternal power. This is one stage where many pause, when they might and should go farther, for the examinations of Art and Nature show almost a perfect reflection of the written revelation. It is erroneous to suppose that the revelation of Nature contains unmingled good. Certainly in that case, it neither would confirm nor reflect the reve¬ lation of Providence or of Scripture. It discloses clear and convincing evidence of beneficence and kindness, but to be in accordance and harmony with the written revela¬ tion it must also exhibit proof that our condition is fallen and suffering. Keeping in view this relation of Nature to Scripture, the doctrines of the latter at which men have stumbled in their pride and self-sufficiency, are mirrored on the world. One class will not accept the Scriptures 340 THE CRYSTAL PALACE. because they denounce a large portion of mankind as fruit¬ less and unprofitable; but tbe earth has its deserts and its wildernesses, which bring forth no crop useful, ap¬ parently, to animated existence. Another class, or the same class, cannot believe the doctrine that mankind are naturally prone to evil; for, on the whole, they think well of themselves and their neighbours, and everybody, ex¬ cept a few marked felons and notorious vagabonds. They close their eyes to the great truth that here again Nature and Art reflect revelation. The earth itself is rather prone to evil, for when it is left alone without labour and tillage, the surface gets choked with weeds, and tares surmount the wheat; while even those natural fruits of the earth that may be improved by care and made service¬ able to the world—which are indeed serviceable even in their wild state—are made the subjects of cultivation be¬ fore they can be pronounced “very good.’^ Once the earth and its products were “ very good.” The Bible tells us why they are so no longer; and experience, with¬ out expressly saying why, shows distinctly that now they have no claim to this extreme praise; but Nature is thus the mirror of Scripture. Another class believe many statements of revelation, and after the manner of Agrippa, are persuaded almost to be Christians ; but they think that they can improve themselves, are conscious that they have good hearts, upright intentions, mean well by their neighbours and the world, and so think it neither natural nor rational that their safety is not absolutely self-con¬ tained, and should not be entirely self-effected. They find no analogy in Nature or in Art to their opinions. They find no self-improvement in the entire circle of industry. The Exhibition brought together specimens of industry in every department, but none of them were self-formed. THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 341 Kature has no product of that description, and yet this class term themselves naturalists and rationalists. A similar class of objectors cannot understand the existence either of evil or of suffering. “Evil” and “suffering” are disjoined here because they are not always connected in experience. “ Suffering” is not always an evil; and, in ordinary experience, “evil” is not always, is not often, is very rarely, followed by immediate “suffering.” Evil sows the seed of suffering, and the fruit is very certain; but seedtime and harvest are no more contemporaneous in the moral than in the physical world. The origin of “evil” and of “ suffering” need not be discussed here. Their existence is conceded; and the Bible contains pro¬ mises of tribulation as a matter of great advantage to believers, yet not one which they must court, but which they must endeavour to avert, thus at once cutting down the pretence for self-imposed fasts, hardships, penances, and tortures; for the Hindoo section of the Exhibition con¬ tained models of devotees under voluntary torture, writh¬ ing their way through nails and spikes, as they fancied, to perfection, exactly as some of the more reputable among man-named saints, are said, in their lives, to have whipped themselves onwards to heaven. Men quarrel with this doctrine. It is neither natural nor rational they say; but a mature consideration of art and industry would show them that it is natural, and so far rational that they can¬ not proceed a step in industry without proving that all nature, according to this view, literally reflects revelation. Industry, they might indeed add, labours on inanimate materials, which do not feel pain; and if this were not correct, these processes would not reflect moral disci¬ pline employed for kind purposes, but would be examples of the discipline itself, and not its shadows. Still we have 842 THE CRYSTAL PALACE. watched with regret a gardener cutting off the green boughs and branches in spring-time from hush and tree, and expressing his sorrow that he had not commenced earlier—while we mourned over his occupation, in igno¬ rance then of its necessity for autumn’s crop; and many events may he lamented which are requisite to ripen a man into hearing much fruit. These parties consider the infliction of suffering alien from beneficence. Children have similar views of chastisement inflicted by a parent or a teacher. Even active chastisement is unnecessary to form this opinion in young minds. A refusal to allow them to run into dangers which they see not, has a simi¬ lar result; and if men reflected that they occupy towards eternity and infinity no higher position than children to¬ wards time, they might trust more fully, and argue less zealously. Events which they feel to he, and which, therefore, are, in the nature of suffering and tribulation to them as they occur, maybe essentially benevolent. Vari¬ ous circumstances occur to all men in the form and with the view of partial punishment and warning; but circum¬ stances in life are often mistaken at their date—for ex¬ perience and time colour them with hues differing from those which they seemed originally to possess, and greater experience acquired in more time may alter the form and shade of incidents which now appear calamitous entirely. Those persons who object to the infliction of suffering as alien from benevolence and kindness—the characteris¬ tics, as they allege, of Nature and of God who makes and upholds Nature—^have not any reason for their opi¬ nion in the realities of Nature or the works of industry. It has arisen from an erroneous impression of the con¬ clusions fairly deduced from natural theology. Those generally promulgated describe evidence of benignity, THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 343 goodness, and love, combined with great power, but they often omit the equally evident proofs of displeasure, and men feel in this displeasure one result of their sins. The storm which cleanses and purifies the atmosphere, shakes the ripened corn, or wrecks the richly freighted ship. One gas that, generally mingling with the atmosphere, supports existence, rising in an over-abundant quantity, from decaying vegetation, destroys life, and is the poison of warm countries. The fire that warms the family hearth, melts metals, originates steam-power, and works usefully in every branch of Art, becomes, in other circum¬ stances, an active and powerful agent of destruction and of death. The water, for which the thirsty traveller in the parched wilderness would give weight for weight in emeralds or gold, for it is his life—which bears the mes¬ sages of nations, irrigates their fields, moves their ma¬ chinery, and is the spring of vegetation—once swept over the habitable earth, and left it in ruins. The sun that measures day and night, and passing seasons, and ripens the corn and fruits of temperate climes, scatters also de¬ solating rays over the deserts; his beams have parched the soil into sand, and death is in their potent stroke. The written revelation and that of creation harmonise, because the latter is not exclusively one of love, although that element mingles in ah its dispensations, and good is wrought out of evil. The earth in its materials—art in its processes—and men in their history, bear vestiges of the fall and its results in every circumstance and scene; and the existence of suffering, so far from being unnatural, consists closely and completely with all facts open to our investigation in nature. The objections to the religion of the Bible are diversi¬ fied and numerous. Why was it not written with the 344 THE CRYSTAL PALACE. sunbeam, clear to the comprehension of all men ? Why were we made to dispute and doubt, and not to believe ? Various and wild are the questions asked on this subject, and these are of them; yet in every case Nature and Scripture correspond. The way of Art was not written out for men. Directions for industrial works were not traced on the sky. No sign was placed above California or over the emerald quarry on the Peruvian stream. Steam-power was not invented from any extraordinary and unusual recipe. Christianity is fortified with plain and rational evidences of its truth, corresponding to those afforded of any great process in Nature or in Art; but it is not provided with proofs for the convenience of captious objectors, who, because they cannot satisfactorily explain why a peculiar class of seed will produce wheat, might sow a different description, in the hope of obtaining equal nourishment from the crop, and would perish from their un¬ belief. Christianity is supported by great historical facts, and by evident results, and no other system on which the existence of mankind depends has any surer basis. Men may reject the proof, and they will suffer loss, exactly as they would be ruined by neglecting any necessary opera¬ tion in Nature which they could not fully comprehend, for they do not plainly understand the more common pro¬ ceedings essential to the continuance of daily life. It cannot recover some classes of society, other men al¬ lege, and thus assail its power. It cannot, and will not, without application. The chemical and medical depart¬ ments of the Exhibition contained no balsam for human diseases that could cure on other terms. The South Afri¬ can farmers have a remedy for the poison of snakes, under the title of “the Tincture of Life;” but unless they keep it always in their possession for immediate use after the THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 345 snake’s bite, tliis valuable antidote is powerless. Christi¬ anity occupies a similar position. It is the great “ tincture of life;” but if people will go without a stock of the me¬ dicine they cannot expect it to expel the poison which they may imbibe. . Society in this country is poisoned in numerous parts, because Christianity has not been ap¬ plied to its preservation. One half of the money spent in killing Caffres in the Cape Colony, would, long ere now, have converted them into honest men and good citizens. One half of the money expended in the punish¬ ment of crime in our own country, would have gone far, ere now, to extirpate crime. Let the South African farmer only stand with the tincture in his hand at the door of his house and shout there, ever so loudly, in favour of its virtues, he will not cure his bitten shepherd or the shepherd’s horse; and Christianity will never cure the ills that afiiict the world unless men carry it always with them, and apply it on all occasions, and to all purposes. A noble vessel left our southern shores for distant colonies, on a first voyage, with a rich freight and numerous pas¬ sengers. The journey was little more than commenced when the fire-bell broke the stillness of night, and awakened the passengers to die—for the vessel was de¬ stroyed, and few of them were saved. One of the re¬ markable discoveries of recent times is afire exterminator, which, by some chemical agency, capable of employment on ships, destroys fire; but the loss of this vessel will not injure the reputation of this new invention, which was not applied; and the same measure of justice might be allowed to Faith which is properly claimed for Art. Some men allege, further, that the instrumentality is too defective, limited, and small, for the civilisation and regeneration of the world. They do not actively object 346 THE CRYSTAL PALACE. to its utility for eternity, but it is not adequate to their notions of the necessities of time. They have many other schemes to offer which are larger in their eyes, and more likely to accomplish the work; and many of these plans are useful in themselves, although their extent and im¬ portance have been entirely miscalculated, for they form parts, and only small parts, of genuine Christianity. Sa¬ natory measures are desirable for large towns; but the Romans built extensive water-works when three-fourths of their subjects were slaves. The plain injunctions of Christianity would leave no probable means of elevating the condition of men untried. It includes and incorporates all possible plans of improvement within its pale; and if they are neglected, the responsibility rests not on the sys¬ tem which commands to do good to all men, but on those professors who promise and perform not. The philosophic Athenians on Mars Hill might have doubted the statements of Paul that the doctrine, the life, and death of a teacher in Galilee could affect their state and revolutionise the world; for they were familiar with claims to divinity in those traditions, degenerated from oral teaching, which they rejected; and while they believed the immortality of the soul, yet they regarded the re¬ surrection of the body with disdain. The elements in the history of the Atonement, although in themselves surpassingly grand, were apparently so simple that to these Greeks they seemed foolishness. Men of the pre¬ sent day possess no similar extenuation of their unbelief. Many false religions have been successfully propagated in the world by their indulgence of human passions, or their subserviency to the tyranny of the few and the wrongs of many. This Christianity, in its pure and Scriptural state alone, has been ever struggling with THE CRYSTAL PALACE; 347 corruption or persecution, and yet ever rising. It found Britain—under the necessary differences arising from climate—in the identical position of Africa at the present day. Britain has probably been the greatest field of its operations. It abolished the home slave-trade—it eman¬ cipated our serfs—it broke the authority of the feudal chiefs—it restrained the power of monarchs—it formed our highest patriotism—it furnished the faith that tri¬ umphed among the faggots at the stake—it set up cen¬ tres of civilisation in every district, in its churches, and schools; and the Reformation, only partially accomplished here, will yet he fully completed, because its Author is Divine. The work done in our land will he far more rapidly effected in others; because the fulcrum is built on which the lever may rest. There is a lump of gold. It excites great curiosity, for it is of great value, and weighs 25 lbs., although it occupies only a little space; but few of its admirers have calculated all its qualities: take one of them—its tenacity. The chemist or the gold¬ beater would tell them that on silver it could be spread into such thin leaves, that more than three hundred thou¬ sand of them might he compressed into the thickness of one inch, and on silver wire, this block of 25 lbs., would cover five hundred thousand miles. Christianity is the gold of the moral world, which, girt round the silver thread of intellect, will cover the earth. Many persons admit the prevalence of evil who dislike the statement that they were by any means involved in the first transgression, before their existence; hut this state¬ ment is consistent with Nature. Nothing is more evident than the chain which connects the present with the past, and with future'generations. The dissipation of one man entails often mental and physical evils on his posterity. 348 THE CRYSTAL PALACE. Even in tlie walks of industry the same truth appears. If one generation cut down, hut forget to plant, they in¬ cur a serious loss, not to themselves, hut to their remote descendants. It certainly is not clear that this connec¬ tion of all mankind with their progenitors is a cause of unmingled complaint. Sin is the root of sorrow, un¬ doubtedly; hut in the discussion of difficult questions it is quite usual to forget the half, and that the more important half, of their elements. The genius and the talent display¬ ed in the multitude of works within the Crystal Palace could not fail to elicit the admiration of all, and the esteem of many. They were founded on the discoveries, the inventions, the patient exertions, and the repeated failures of past generations. Their success is fairly re¬ ferable to the labours of the two first workers, and watchers, and contrivers, on the earth. The thread of Art falls back to them. On them centres the honour of opening the roads through the jungle of ignorance by which their race was surrounded. The best, because the earliest, trophies of science, by a fair and rational proba¬ bility, and by more than probability—by the evidence from the necessity of the case, the strongest of all proof—are due to them. Their intellect was greater, their morals purer, their “ selfishness” less than the similar endow¬ ments or faults of their descendants. Where they fell would we have stood—and could we have fallen further? Sin has been committed in the universe for which no atonement has been, within our knowledge, made, and it was not theirs. All sin is simply destructive in its nature when left to its consequences; yet, a difi’erence may exist between the ingenuous confession—the shame and sorrow of Adam and Eve—and the- hardihood and impenitence first, and terror next, of Cain. A wide cl is- THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 349 tinction is drawn between the betrayal by Judas and the denial by Peter; although both sins were in them¬ selves sufficient to sink the two apostles, yet they were not precisely of the same character, and, although not therefore, they had absolutely different consequences. Few members of the human family directly consulted on the subject would have selected a different arrangement. They would have felt themselves safer in dependence on the high intellect, and pure morals, and strong affections of the progenitors of mankind, than on their own more Umited strength. Those who seek to discharge them¬ selves from this general partnership, which hinds the world together, and forms one of the higher securities for the preservation and well-being of society, in the love and the claims which every working generation must con¬ cede to their successors, exile themselves from the in¬ fluence of the Atonement—the grand ceiitre of the writ¬ ten revelation, so great in its results and profound in its character, that it stands out in unequalled magnificence, the amazing work for which no analogy can be found in Art, and no resemblance in Nature. This is the great solitary transaction which, in all this universe of thought and work, of deeds and ideas, as the coronet of Christian faith, has itself no shadow on the wide surface of indus¬ trial or natural theology; but, forming the single point at which the tracings of Art and Faith part for ever, is prefigured and typified in that universal creed, evinced by the sacrificial practices among all nations at all periods, although always corrupted during the historic era; yet, in its dim torchlight, maintaining evidence that by the . fathers of our race more was known than it was necessary to record in a revelation which was to carry to multitudes of men not the promises only, but also their realisation. 350 THE CRYSTAL PALACE. Tlie otlier great doctrines taiiglit and events related in Scripture have a common and grand centre in tlie sacri¬ fice on Calvary. All other Scriptural doctrines are re¬ flected in tlie constitution of Nature, and tlie nieans wlierehy its materials are rendered conducive to the com¬ fortable existence of manlvind, 'without overstretching analogies; hut this doctrine alone has no corresponding figure ill the annals of Art or Nature. The connection of mankind with the first transgression consists literally and closely with all those natural laws in which experience obliges the most incredulous person to believe. It is a strictly natural doctrine, and facts of precisely the same character are thickly strewn on the paths of life. These facts are absolute laws of existence, and men may as readily quarrel with life as with its conditions, which in the history of mankind exert a powerful influence in pre¬ serving societybecause the responsibility of generations of men, and individual men, for the welfare of their suc¬ cessors has been obviously the instrument employed to prevent the world from becoming a mass of physical ruins, and to secure mankind from extinction; yet it forms part of the system with which proud speculators on the origin of evil quarrel when they overrate their own strength of mind and purpose, deem themselves greater and purer than the progenitors of their race, and claim independence of “that manner of love” whereby “the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” Infidelity assumes many garbs. It appears often in a theoretical exaggeration of the difficulties attending Christianity. Many classes of mankind are said to be incapable of comprehending its precepts. The supposi¬ tion forms an excuse for their destruction, and has been used to extenuate the conduct of the European races to- THE CKYSTAL PALACE. 351 wards the aborigines of Africa and America. Under the hand of Art-the hard flints are changed into a plastic state and moulded into forms of abiding beauty; the grainfi of sand are fused into plates so clear and close that, with¬ out obstructing heat or light, they arrest the currents ot air in their progress. The industry of mankind protests against the theory which would place sections of our race without the pale of humanity. The potter’s clay, and the beauty and utility of his wares, present a contrast equal to that between the more degraded stages of savage existence, and the higher walks of a civilised life. Sci¬ ence teaches the utility of all materials. The melancholy regions of bogs in many parts of our islands, once re¬ garded as acres of calamity and poverty, were represented in the Exhibition as sources of wealth. The coal-dust, once thrown aside as entirely unimprovable, was shown in solid blocks capable of being carved, cut, and polished. And what Art has done for the rejected materials of earth, the Spirit of God will do for the nation or the tribe who have wandered farthest from the truth, and exhibit in the strongest colour the natural results of man’s de¬ generacy; for although the objects proposed are of un¬ equal importance, they are to be attained by nearly cor¬ responding means. Men did not endow the materials of earth with those qualities elicited by art, but which would not be exhibited without industry; and while other men cannot change the African’s heart, yet they can em¬ ploy the means prescribed for its enlightenment. The history of African churches in other times, or of Mada¬ gascar in our own days, gives reason to expect from the employment of these means a return equal to that from any other missionary effort—and this mercantile word “return” is in a proper place here; for while religious 85 ^ THE CRYSTAL PALACE. laboui’S are undertaken for a reward of their own cha¬ racter, if they deserve success, yet that success involves many minor affairs; it promotes peace, intelligence, and industry so much that a mercantile nation could not sink capital in missions. They could not lose a pound by the faithful expenditure of a million on these departments. The gold employed in them will come back again, so long as a wilderness has yet to he made glad, or a desert has yet to blossom like the rose. The Crystal Palace promoted international goodwill and friendship during the year of its existence. It formed a new and singular means of union among various na¬ tions; and although their peace may he again broken, and their amicable rivalry be once more interrupted by an out¬ burst of ambition, or the last throes of political and spi¬ ritual despotism, yet it has been useful in softening the asperities of national feeling, and advancing the promise of universal peace. It was remarkable on its own account, and from the beauty of many and the character of all the articles which it contained. The universality of the Exhibition formed its great attraction and peculiarity. It comprised speci¬ mens of all the valuable products of Nature, through the various stages of industry to the highest excellence ac¬ quired in Art. It was the best register of national at¬ tainments ever yet formed. Within the same space an equal number of evidences to the goodness and the power of God had never been arranged before. The plants which He makes to grow from their mysterious seed lay by the side of the fibre dressed by the hecklei , the yarn spun on the spindle, the web formed in the loom, bleached to perfect whiteness, or dyed and printed in various colours; hut for every process in the march of Art, from the flax THE CKYSTAL PALACE. 353 to the fine linen, the commissariat was complete, means ample and equal to the work required were provided, or are being- daily and yearly provided, hy laws which never wax obsolete, hy mechanism which never wears out, be¬ cause the eye of the Lawgiver never slumbers, and His arm is never wearied. The same adaptation of means to ends, and minute superintendence were^apparent in the provision of materials for every branch of human in¬ dustry. The progress of machinery in the nineteenth century was foreseen when “ He appointed the founda¬ tions of the earth,” and stored past the magazines of fuel and of ore which render machinery practicable. That progress has hitherto been far from an unmixed good. Evil mingles with all our work; and the application of ma"- chinery to difi’erent professions has exposed many trades¬ men to severe, although temporary privations. But its progress has partially equalised the condition of various classes. The industrious and intelligent workman of the present day lives in more comfort, although less splendour, than the Barons of Ruunymede, He is in many respects, and those more important than the mere show and “ tin- selry” of wealth, a richer man than the crusading knights who broke a way through the fine Eastern steel with their maces, to the centre of Palestine. Day by day this equality, which enriches all and robs none, makes per¬ ceptible progress in the world. Faith—the Christian faith—will, as it grows among mankind, increase industry and science, and thus convert machinery from the work¬ man’s rival into his assistant; lightening the doom which overcast the world when sin entered it —“ In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread;” and by its great power narrowing the sentence—“ Cursed is the ground for thy sake”—exactly in proportion as sin and unbelief arc do- 354 THE CRYSTAL stroyed and uprooted from among living men. If it were advisable to imitate tlie pyramids of Egypt, tbe work could now be done by, probably, one-foiirtb of tbe manual la¬ bour required in tbe days of tbe Pbaroabs. Tbe Crystal Palace was neitber more important in its purpose nor for its contents, than as a pillar marking the gradual progress of time. It was not tbe fulfilment, but tbe record to mankind of tbe approaching fulfilment, of prophecy, for tbe design would have been impracticable at any former period, since only now are men enabled, and yet but partially, to run to and fro upon the earth and in¬ crease knowledge. Tbe means of conquering space will overcome ignorance, subdue slavery, wrench spiritual and temporal despotisms out of high places, establish gradu¬ ally tbe influence of knowledge, emancipate tbe servants of superstition, and enlighten with the beams of righteous¬ ness those places of tbe earth, that, here or elsewhere— because they are dark^—ever are “full of the habitations of cruelty.” Art will become the ally, the servant, and the support of faith, accelerating by its facilities the pro¬ gress of Christianity; and whenever a large proportion of ^ professedly Christian artisans join, intelligibly and sin¬ cerely, in the praise—Glory to God in the highest” for “all His works of wonder,” the world will vibrate with the response once sung over the flowery fields of Bethlehem, to the sweetest melody that watching shep¬ herds ever heard—“ Peace on earth and goodwill to men.” THE END. ■" 7 ., ■ iy ■ ' ■.. I i / %'■ 5? •' f- ■i^ ' \