- 38 — 
THE WORLD’S FAIRS 
imposing their own idcas of taste and 
beauty. It is the greatest advantage of 
exhibitions, to give new inipulse to the in- 
ventive ingenuity of the individual, and it 
is by the arrangement, quite as much as 
by the manufacture of the goods, that this 
is done. 
No one will deny that it is a great deal 
easier for a Commission to impose their 
own plan in detail, than to find an harmoni- 
ous and attractive arrangement for the 
varied results of individual taste. The 
result is, however, not the same; the latter 
renders the exhibition iuteresting, as every 
detail is an original and complete concep- 
tion in itself, while the former inakes 
wliat should only be the means, the chief 
end. 
To arrange their department satisfact- 
orily, seems unfortunately always to have 
been the great diffieulty of the German 
Commission at Universal Exhibitions. Tims 
in the “Letters on England,” by Louis 
Blanc [English translation, 1860, Vol. II., 
page 61], we find the following criticism 
of the German department at the London 
International Exhibition of 1862 : 
“ We are assured that the Zollverein has 
treasures to show, but, unfortunately, it 
has not yet shown anything, through de- 
fective arrangement. What is seen, is