The Sun.
London, England, 1851-05-12 00:00:00

Qtrentn.)3llll'•

LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 12, 1851.

Conspicuous among other advantages conferred
upon society by the Great Exhibition, is one which
we believe has hitherto been too generally overlooked.
It must, we feel assured, tend almost inevitably to the
advancement of the cause of national education.
However eclectic may be the knowledge acquired
beforehand by the visitor to the Crystal Palace, that
knowledge must necessarily be enhanced by the ex-
traordinary spectacle there submitted to his examina-
tion. Whatever, on the contrary, may be the igno-
rance of others, that ignorance upon a great variety
of subjects cannot fail to be in like manner
dissipated. Better than all the elementary works
ever printed upon any one of the arts or of the
sciences, are the stores of information accumulated
together from all parts of the world, and symmetrically
arranged in their appropriate compartments. From
the survey of these marvels may very readily be ob-
tained a mass of most valuable and interesting mate-
rials, capable of being digested by any mind gifted
with superior intelligence.
Nevertheless, it must not be imagined that we
regard these beneficial results as at all within reach of
attainment, simply by two or even by half-a-dozen
visits to the Industrial Exhibition. Supposing any
one to have ever cherished this notion as practicable,
we would recommend him at once to proceed to
the southern entrance of the Great Transept, and
after passing in to the centre of the edifice,
to look to the east and to the west along those
mighty naves of crystal, along those galleries illu-
minated by the rainbow-tints of stained glass and
tapestry, along that ground-perspective crowded as
far as the eye can see with organs, and fountains,
and colossal statues of bronze and of marble. A
glance will be sufficient, we conjecture, to remove
the idea that this Crystal Palace of the art and the
industry of all nations can be scrutinized so very
readily. Upon his first entrance into the structure the
visitor finds all his anticipations dwarfed by the
reality. Panegyrics that may have seemed previously
to savour overmuch of hyperbole and fantastic exag-
geration, appear to him there in their true light as
inadequate expressions of admiration. He perceives
that the external view of the Crystal Palace conveys
no corresponding conception as to the appearance of
the interior, whether in regard to the variety of its
contents or its own intrinsic magnitude. His emotions
directly afterwards are those of mingled delight and
astonishment—delight at the exquisite harmony of the
colouring and of the proportions—astonishment at the
fairy-like novelty, splendour, vastness, and diversity of
the whole spectacle. Outside he had recognized the
banners of all races of mankind floating from the
gag-staves on the pinnacles of the edifice. Inside he
beholds, grouped together in their respective posi-
tions, the treasures of those numerous inhabitants of
both hemispheres, as strangely contrasted in their cha-
racter as specimens of ingenuity, as the peoples of the
earth themselves are in their physiognomies and
their temperaments. Before descending, however, to
a detailed examination of these curiosities the visi-
tor finds himself sufficiently occupied in sur-
veying the effect produced upon his mind
by the entire spectacle, directing his observation, in
the first instance, to the beautiful palace itself, and
afterwards to its more conspicuously revealed eon-
tributions—contributions made by the artist, the
musician, the lapidary, and the hydrostatist. He
gazes with sensations altogether new of their kind, and
exhilarating in their tendency, at that arched transept
of magical transparency, under which are those noble
elms already thickly covered, as with their summer
foliage, at the exotic plants scattered i❑ profusion
among the jets of waters sparkling up into the sun-
shine, at the Asiatic palms and Oriental aloes clustered
greenly near the crystal fountain, at the statues
of statesmen like HAMPDEN, of warriors like
WELLINGTON, of monarchs beloved like our own
SOVEREIGN, and not the least interesting among those
effigies of the illustrious, at the equestrian figure of
the young Prince, who has distinguished himself by
originating the whole enterprise of the Exhibition.
Turning the attention immediately either to the right
or left, the visitor allows his gaze to wander down
those long and luminous vistas of blue and yellow, so
lovely in the ordering of their perspective, so
animated by the moving forms of their fre

quenters, and so lit up by the rich hangings
of crimson by which the different compartments are

covered, as well as by the motley hues of the corn.
modifies set out upon those miles upon miles 01

counter. His pleasurable feelings are produced, he
very soon discovers, by the arrangements being sym-

metrical without degenerating to formality, while the

colouring of the entire scene is gorgeous without
proving exaggerated into an effect of tawdry ostenta-
tion. Here and there he is attracted to some of the
most interesting portions of the exhibition by the
circumstance of their drawing together a more than
usual concourse of spectators. He peeps over
the shoulders of one group and sees in an
.
session
Iron
throughobilsearrecessi
cage richly gilded the great Koh-i-
-; noor diamond or "mountain of light," for the pos-
of which the princes of the East have struggled
an
another and heon of generations—over another
and he
the famous jewels of Lahore—over
finds that some pianist is collecting
round him
neous trial of the audiencein to listen to an externpora-
thastrum.ent. He pauses before a
crystallized pillar
metamorphosis,
be mistaken for
wife after her LoT's
oanwditiht the intention of
proves to be a
block of alum. He hurries
examining the contents of the Palace of Industry in
something like sequence as to the particulars, and finds
nim3elf, in spite of every such determination,sexe cueing
a sort of intricate zigzag upon the floor—now stand-
ing before an illuminated clock, with every second
throbbing into light, now before a spinning jet My in
full operation with the factory girls dressed fb mord-
ing to their wont, and tending the reels of fibre with
the most obervant looks, and the adroitest fingers.

One remarkable piece of mechanism proves on in-
quiry to be a steam-engine of 700 horse-pow*T ; and
another, scarcely less a matter of wonder and ;admira-
tion, turns out to be an envelope-folder constrt ti3ted by
DE " Rus, an apparently unwieldy mass ofcrh a lks and
hinges, that
performs its appointed office in the twink-
-
here in
ng of all eye, and with unerring regularity. very-
': sfiort, these amazing curiosities a, bound
throughout the
length and breadth of the C; nstal