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    570 The Leader and Saturday Analyst. [Ju...

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    INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OV ISM. riU-IE ...

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    Ages Of Transition—And The Present In Pa...

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

    Nature settles the question in her own-manner , acknowledging the ivnstedfastness of things , but arguing that , nevertheless , they are not , being rightly weighed , truly changed from , their first condition , but only by such transitions " dilate their being , and work their own perfection , " and so , in fact , govern all the apparent mutations to which they are liable , by an xinchangeable purpose and with irresistible power . There would , therefore , at first . sight , appear to be no special peculiarity in describing " any age as an " age of transition . " In a general sense , the saying is true of every time and moment of time . Yet there may he ' sp . ecial forms of transition that distinguish one period from another , and mark it as extraordinary . Geology , for instance , refers us to transition-periods , and calls in " the testimony of the rocks" for ¦ corroboration of the fact . Human society may thus have its transition , basaltic and vulcanic systems , the signs of which

    may serve nominally to qualify different epochs of social formation . Human character , also , may undergo different developments , and the individual exhibit different phases at certain epochs of existence . If , in the pursuit of truth , an individual mind feels itself at first in a labyrinth of great perplexity , alternately in states of darkness and light , —if at one time it is ansrious for fame , arid at another careless about itr—ifnow it feels . itself . " . behind the age , and now before it ; if now Itisi solicitous forthe world's reception ofits discoveries , and nowwilling to await a better" opportunity—ifat one time it prides itself on its scientific wealth , and at another disregards its acquisitions in tills kind-asmere ~ dross incontrast with the higher philosophy to which it may have * attained , and abandon its former fields of endeavour altogether , —these points of transition niust be accepted as " cardinal and prerogative ^ specialties in the different eras of a man's life , and every good biographer-.-will dwell on , them as - . replete with instructive and entertaining suggestion .

    Nations have , their biographies as well as individuals , and m the life of the former are distinguishable epochs , in which the greater changes to which they are liable are prominently marked arid symbolically illustrated . Tliat . in which we live has indeed gained a Special appellation ; It is called an Intellectual Age , and its triumphs in the field of science attest the justice of tlie title . But its tendencies are to a more advanced stage . It is becoming , though it ; lias not yet beeonie , " JilnlTSsUplticicl" —Thtr ^ TrnsrenrdeTTtsTlism-of-tlje leading Writers ¦ of America , and of our own leading journalists , is not to be questioned . The-technicalities of the German systems are

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

    And if this be an intellectual age , such must be the signs thereof , for the intellect itself is but a state or bridge of transition . It is the way over from the senses to the reason . The mind is travelling along that bridge even to this goal , and no other . The JEYeneh had , as they called it , an age of Reason , but it was a crude anticipation and hasty caricature . It was an unconsidered and impatient embodiment , arbitrarily introduced , of an idea , hut imperfectly understood . The age of Reason is yet future . We i > erceivc tlie precursors of its advent i but ifc bus not yet come . Our renders may have gathered from our above remarks , and especially from those cited with the authority of Lord Bacon ' s name , that there arc two kinds of transition , tho natural and tho artificial . The " skilful minister of nature" may " apply force to matter , and by design torture and vex it . " . This snino skilful

    minister is tho Scientific Man , and his influence on the present ago has been marvellous . Look at his mastery of ste : un ! see how he has subjected tlie sunlight to his dominion ! mark how the electric ' fluid- 'b ' beyV lils ' oiddin' ^ causes that ( according to Mother Sijipton ' s prophecies ) tho carriages in which wo are conveyed shall go over tho tops of tho bouses . Then notice the reactions that take place from those material changes ; how they cull out moral enterprise , and new social adaptations , So that society soon rights itself notwithstanding ; and nil tho perils once dreaded from new experiments and new inventions fude and vanish like tho dreams and slmdowH of the night before the dawning and increasing glory of the day . Whore tho slow-minded feared the " annihilation" of the social structure , the " necessity" to which tho latter wus " brought under ' merely caused its transformation into

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

    The fear that so terribly alarms the political mind is that we may be going too fast . Tin ' s fear is unreasonable . A glance at history convinces us that the times and seasons are ordered . Providence brings about its ends , not only by mysterious means , but at leisure . Between each great epoch the intervals are measured b y large cycles . Some five centuries elapse before the leaven succeeds in permeating 1 the , whole lump , and producing the desired - " strike . " ; Men are indeed impatient of these long intervals , and explain Scripture prophecy by shorter periods , antedating the millennium by more than a thousand years , and always- announcing its advent -as near at hand . It was so even in Apostolic times , and is so in these . But Providence is not in such haste as man . The " saints under the altar " still cry , "How . long , how long : ? " Heaven , however , still proceeds slowly and surely ; laying- tlie bases carefully of an empire that , when established , is designed to last for ages and ages .

    But pain is - ' -always .. an accompaniment of periods of transition . This pain we are always suffering in some degree . We are always in a state of transit . But people take pleasure in travelling , ' though it does put them to trouble and expense . In fact , that word " pain " is a most equivocal vocable . One poet , who was always complaining of his sufferings and wrongs , tells " us that " pain and pleasure are two names for one feeling . " There-can be no doubt that they are merely corresponding opposites , and that we must accept either as an inevitable law , applicable to all conditions of the individual and all states of society . The pain , moreover , of a crisis isJess than-the perpetual toi-ment of the small changes that are associated with every minute of the day . An unexpected earthquake , though it ruins all , is less fatal to human peace than the daily expectation of bankruptcy to the merchant who cannot make headway against illluck . Away , then , with such repinings . If we justly denominate

    | the age Wherein we live as an " ageof transition / ' let us accept it with philosophical equanimity as a " great / act , " and endeavour to get abreast of it , and the society which it designates . But as all wholes are composed of parts , the best counsel we can give is perhaps to advise each individual to pay proper attention to the more minute transitions which necessarily occur in his own life and being . The - great transition from nothing into birth , which all have suffered , is beyond the control of the sufierer ; but the final transition into a life to come is one for which weshbuld all be prepared . It is a grand idea—a sublime truth—that we-must all pass from Time into - *~ EternrfcyT— -Let—each—be—pi'ofouiidly- ^ impresscu ^ -with—th ^ JjumoriiiL significance of his individual destiny . It is nothing less than this ; arid with it the whole world presents truly nothing that may be justly regarded as its parallel . Every man is niarching onward and upward with this aim , whether conscious or not ¦; ¦ butter , however , that he should cultivate a , consciousness of it than accomplish his final transition in the dark .

    570 The Leader And Saturday Analyst. [Ju...

    570 The Leader and Saturday Analyst . [ June 10 , 1860 .

    International Exhibition Ov Ism. Riu-Ie ...

    INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OV ISM . riU-IE Council of the Society of Arts , at the opening of tho present ^ session in November last , announced their intention to take such Steps as were deemed necessary to promoto the holding of a Univcrshl Exhibition of tho Industry of all Nations in London in 1802 . The Council , as the promoters of the first International Exhibition held in Hyde Park in 1851 , in proposing to hold a second in 1802 , arc merely fulfilling the intention which was received by the Royal Commissioners as tho conditions on which they were appointed trustees of tho surplus funds . The Society of Arts , in order that

    tho Exhibition of 1802 should become a reality , proposed a few weeks since to raise u guarantee , fund of £ 250 , 000 , and little has since been heard of it , beyond an occasional report that the hind was progresKing favourably . AVo are now , informed that a gunrantoo has been obtained in excess of that sum , and contributors continue to send in their names most freely , nud for sums which in tho aggrcguto amount to from five to ten thousand pounds daily . There is little if any doubt that tho iimil will shortly amount to not lens than half a million of money .

    Surely no stronger evidence con ho desired of tho dogrco oi support , which tho Exhibition of 18 ( 52 is destined to receive , if manufacturers nnd in on engaged in commerce thusreadily mid largely come forward to support it , in itu pruHminnry ulngo .. That such support is natural , looking at the extended basin upon which the commerco and industry of this country must in future be carried on , if it is t , o compete successfully upon , a free-trade basis with tlio industry of the world , few would venture to deny . England is no longer able to buy up exclusive intelligence of the requirements of foreign , in uric eta . In this age of railroads , steamboats , and telogrnphs , her seaboard no longer enables her to surpass her neighbours in rapidity of supply . England , if she is to maintain Ivor position « s a mnnu-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1860, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16061860/page/14/