=Source.=—_The Life of the Prince Consort_, by Sir Theodore
Martin, vol. ii., p. 247. (London: 1876.)
_Extract from a Speech by the Prince Consort._
I conceive it to be the duty of every educated person closely to
watch and study the time in which he lives, and, as far as in him
lies, to add his humble mite of individual exertion to further the
accomplishment of what he believes Providence to have ordained.
Nobody, however, who has paid any attention to the peculiar features of
our present era, will doubt for a moment that we are living at a period
of most wonderful transition, which tends rapidly to accomplish that
great end, to which, indeed, all history points—the realisation of the
unity of mankind. Not a unity which breaks down the limits and levels
the peculiar characteristics of the different nations of the earth, but
rather a unity, the result and product of those very national varieties
and antagonistic qualities.
The distances which separated the different nations and parts of
the globe are rapidly vanishing before the achievements of modern
invention, and we can traverse them with incredible ease; the languages
of all nations are known, and their acquirement placed within the reach
of everybody; thought is communicated with the rapidity, and even
by the power, of lightning. On the other hand, the great principle
of the division of labour, which may be called the moving power of
civilisation, is being extended to all branches of science, industry,
and art.
Whilst formerly the greatest mental energies strove at universal
knowledge, and that knowledge was confined to the few, now they are
directed on specialities, and in these, again, even to the minutest
points; but the knowledge acquired becomes at once the property of
the community at large; for, whilst formerly discovery was wrapt in
secrecy, the publicity of the present day causes that no sooner is
a discovery or invention made than it is already improved upon and
surpassed by competing efforts. The products of all quarters of the
globe are placed at our disposal, and we have only to choose which
is the best and the cheapest for our purposes, and the powers of
production are intrusted to the stimulus of competition and capital.
So man is approaching a more complete fulfilment of that great and
sacred mission which he has to perform in this world. His reason being
created after the image of God, he has to use it to discover the laws
by which the Almighty governs his creation, and, by making these laws
his standard of action, to conquer nature to his use; himself a divine
instrument.
Gentlemen, the Exhibition of 1851 is to give us a true test and a
living picture of the point of development at which the whole of
mankind has arrived in this great task, and a new starting-point from
which all nations will be able to direct their further exertions.
I confidently hope that the first impression which the view of this
vast collection will produce upon the spectator will be that of deep
thankfulness to the Almighty for the blessings which he has bestowed
upon us already here below; and the second, the conviction that they
can only be realised in proportion to the help which we are prepared
to render each other; therefore, only by peace, love, and ready
assistance, not only between individuals, but between the nations of
the earth.