On Saturday last, Mr. Gladstone made a lively speech at
the Agricultural Hall, Islington, after distributing the prizes to the winners at the National Workmen's Exhibition. We have commented on a part of his speech elsewhere, but may add here that he particularly praised a first-class glass coffin, which he said he had, from his time of life, inspected with special interest. We should be sorry to think that glass coffins are likely to increase in number. What is rather wanted is wicker or more or less easily decomposed coffins, which do not preserve the body from the antiseptic influence of the earth. Nor is it desirable to have transparent coffins, considering the ghastly changes which even the most stately forms must speedily undergo. In recommending the study of ancient Greek art as giving the highest possible conception of the mixture of beauty and utility attained in the old Greek States, Mr. Gladstone was, of course, on ground most familiar to him ; and this part of his address was very fascinating. We may question, however, whether his preliminary attack on the idle man did take sufficient account of the leisurely ele- ment in all high art. The acute strain of English labour could never have produced those singularly graceful studies of the human frame under a foot in height, which Mr. Gladstone described as disinterred from the tombs of the Boeotian Tanagra.
Previous page
