HAMPDEN SOCIETY. 215 



for sewing machines ; and we may calculate, that with the 

 usual advance of labor-saving improvements of this kind, it 

 will not be many years before needles and thimbles will be as 

 scarce as shuttles and spindles. 



Astonishing as the advances of the mechanic art already ap- 

 pear to us, we are by no means to conclude that they have 

 reached their ultimatum. On the other hand, we have every 

 reason to believe that the morning light only — brilliant and 

 clear as it is — has spread its glow over the half-century which 

 has just closed upon us. The meridian splendor will lighten 

 other generations than the present, on their path-way of human 

 progress. Keen and active minds are pushing inquiry and ex- 

 periment to that limit and verge, from which the common sen- 

 timents of our being cause us to shrink with awe. 



On entering the hall of exhibition, the committee were in 

 doubt which most to admire, the plenary evidence of taste and 

 skill manifest in the variety of articles of manufacture and me- 

 chanic art, or the beauty and order of their arrangement. Of 

 the exhibition itself, we may say, that it so far exceeds all pre- 

 cedent, that it can with difficulty be recognized as belonging 

 to the same species. The ample dimensions of those spacious 

 rooms were hardly adequate to contain all that trade and inge- 

 nuity brought there to display. For the hour, the hall seemed 

 converted into an enchanted palace, to which art had sum- 

 moned her thousand servants to furnish and adorn it with all 



her munificent gifts, 



W. O. GORHAM, Chairman. 



Stock. 



The committee are happy to say, that on the whole, the 

 show was comparatively good : we say comparatively, because 

 we would by no means convey the impression, that it is good 

 enough, or that there is no room for improvement. It is al- 

 ways with feelings of sorrow that we look upon any vacant 

 pens, and our stock raisers ought not to be satisfied with them- 

 selves until they are filled to overflowing with young cattle, 

 besides having cows, bulls, working and fatting cattle in due 

 proportion. The exhibition of cattle in teams has not been 



