ABSTRACT
The authors must now consider what it is that they have admired, and why; must try to analyse the works which they have thus gazed upon, and to discover the principles of their excellence. The dawn of the sixteenth century presented, as it were, a Great Exhibition of the works which men had been producing from time of the downfall of Roman civilization and skill. Stimulated by such influences, the scientific tendencies of modern Europe took their starting impulse from the Great Exhibition of productions of / the middle ages which had accumulated in the sixteenth century; and have ever since been working onwards, with ever-increasing vigour, and in an ever-expanding sphere. He might go on to make other reflections upon the / peculiar characters of the various classes of the Great Exhibition, but the time does not allow me, nor is it needful, since all that he aspired to do was to offer to you specimens of such reflections.
