156 Sir Robert Kane on the 
larity under other points of view, and with the crowd, to 
whom purely instructional or useful objects are not congenial 
or attractive. Necessarily, also, in the classification and ar- 
rangement of such a gigantic aggregate of dissimilar things, 
hurriedly got together, and to be as hurriedly dispersed, the 
great condition of artistic grouping in effective masses pre- 
dominated over the conditions of scientific arrangement ; 
and the latter could only be observed as far as some general 
principles of distribution could be followed. This defect, 
inherent to the nature of so extensive and so temporary an 
undertaking (and even more evident in the London Exhibi- 
tion of 1851), is capable of being avoided only where an 
Exhibition is organized for purely instructional purposes ; 
where the objects exhibited are admitted only as they serve 
that view, and where the permanence of the collections 
admits of such methodical and progressive arrangements as 
shall enable, not merely the actual condition, but the advance, 
of every important branch of industry to be shewn. But 
precisely as in this manner the practical utility, as a means 
of instruction, of such an Exhibition would be enhanced, it 
might be feared that so would its popularity be diminished 
with the mass of the uninstructed general public. The 
gigantic proportions—the architectural paradoxes—the gor- 
geous effect—the suddenness of creation,—and the ephemeral 
existence, which rendered the visits to the Exhibition the 
social necessity and excitement of its day, being removed, it 
might be supposed, and with too much foundation, that the 
more solid but unpretending utilities that had formed the 
groundwork of so much splendour, would, when left to them- 
selves, be unable to awaken curiosity or command attention. 
It is, however, precisely in that point of view that we 
believe the results of the Great Exhibition to be likely to 
prove most useful. For the greatest difficulty previously had 
been to induce the general public to credit the necessity for 
instruction in industrial pursuits, to appreciate the vastness 
of industrial results, and to recognise the position due to the 
men who had placed themselves at the head of the industrial 
movement of the time. This difficulty will not, in future, be 
so insuperable. Even in England, so proud, and so justly 
>. 
, — 4 = . 
a 
