12 Dr Whe well's Inaugxiral Lecture. 



dwellers in palaces, are even now such as we cannot excel. 

 0>7g/?^«/ magnificence is still a proverbial mode of describing 

 a degree of splendour and artistical richness which is not 

 found among ourselves. 



What, then, shall we say of ourselves % Wherein is our 

 superiority \ In what do we see the effect, the realization, of 

 that more advanced stage of art which we conceive ourselves 

 to have attained ? What advantage do we derive from the 

 immense accumulated resources of skill and capital — of me- 

 chanical ingenuity and mechanical power — which we possess? 

 Surely our imagined superiority is not all imaginary ; surely 

 we really are more advanced than they, and this term '* ad- 

 vanced" has a meaning; surely that mighty thought of a 

 PROGRESS in the life of nations is not an empty dream ; and 

 surely our progress has carried us beyond them. Where, 

 then, is the import of the idea in this case \ What is the 

 leading and characteristic difference between them and us, 

 as to this matter % What is the broad and predominant dis- 

 tinction between the arts of nations rich, but in a condition 

 of nearly stationary civilization, like Oriental nations, and 

 nations which have felt the full influence of progress like 

 ourselves \ 



If I am not mistaken, the difference may be briefly ex- 

 pressed thus : — That in those countries the arts are mainly 

 exercised to gratify the tastes of the few ; with us, to supply 

 the wants of the many. There, the wealth of a province is 

 absorbed in the dress of a mighty warrior ; here, the gigantic 

 weapons of the peaceful potentate are used to provide cloth- 

 ing for the world. For that which makes it suitable that 

 machinery, constructed on a vast scale, and embodying enor- 

 mous capital, should be used in manufacture, is that the 

 wares produced should be very great in quantity, so that the 

 smallest advantage in the power of working, being multiplied 

 a million fold, shall turn the scale of profit. And thus such 

 machinery is applied when wares are manufactured for a 

 vast population ; — when millions upon millions have to be 

 clothed, or fed, or ornamented, or pleased, with the things so 

 produced. I have heard one say, who had extensively and 

 carefully studied the manufacturing establishments of this 



