His Puck, Titania, and other great
works, are extensively known, and their genius universally admired. But
it may be mentioned that his noble statue of Milo was not cast in bronze
until 1862, when it was exhibited at the International Exhibition of
that year.
The Earl of Derby, in recently distributing the prizes to the successful
pupils of the Liverpool College[1], made the following observations:--
"The vast majority of men, in all ages and countries, must work before
they can eat. Even those who are not under the necessity, are, in
England, generally impelled by example, by custom, perhaps by a sense of
what is fitted for them, to adopt what is called an active pursuit of
some sort.... If there is one thing more certain than another, it is
this--that every member of a community is bound to do something for that
community, in return for what he gets from it; and neither intellectual
cultivation, nor the possession of material wealth, nor any other plea
whatever, except that of physical or mental incapacity, can excuse any
of us from that plain and personal duty.... And though it may be, in a
community like this, considered by some to be a heterodox view, I will
say that it often appears to me, in the present day, that we are a
little too apt in all classes to look upon ourselves as mere machines
for what is called 'getting on,' and to forget that there are in every
human being many faculties which cannot be employed, and many wants
which cannot be satisfied, by that occupation.
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