Tempo:
PREFACE. 21
century. This is no mere deciphering of the palimpsest of the past. It is a revelation, not merely of the possibility of walking right out of the century into another, but of interesting the old-time people in the trivial business of a century which did not begin until their own bodies had been dead and buried for a hundred years. Marie Antoinette not merely wore the veritable gown, the milliner’s bill for which is still extant, but she saw, and her attendants addressed, two English ladies who were wander- ing through the park seeking their way to the Petit Trianon,
At the Pageant of London in the Crystal Palace the audience witnesses the gradual evolution of architecture, military and eccle- siastical. The Druids’ circle is replaced by the temple of Diana ; the temple of Diana be- comes a Christian church; the old cathedral of London gives place to the master-piece of Sir Christopher Wren. It is a triumph of the scene-shifter's art. The older buildings seem to disappear; but they are there, ready to reappear in due course at the next perform- ance. There is the same kind of scene-shifting possible in nature. Hampton Court and the palaces at Versailles are capable of undergoing this occasional transformation by resurrection.
century. This is no mere deciphering of the palimpsest of the past. It is a revelation, not merely of the possibility of walking right out of the century into another, but of interesting the old-time people in the trivial business of a century which did not begin until their own bodies had been dead and buried for a hundred years. Marie Antoinette not merely wore the veritable gown, the milliner’s bill for which is still extant, but she saw, and her attendants addressed, two English ladies who were wander- ing through the park seeking their way to the Petit Trianon,
At the Pageant of London in the Crystal Palace the audience witnesses the gradual evolution of architecture, military and eccle- siastical. The Druids’ circle is replaced by the temple of Diana ; the temple of Diana be- comes a Christian church; the old cathedral of London gives place to the master-piece of Sir Christopher Wren. It is a triumph of the scene-shifter's art. The older buildings seem to disappear; but they are there, ready to reappear in due course at the next perform- ance. There is the same kind of scene-shifting possible in nature. Hampton Court and the palaces at Versailles are capable of undergoing this occasional transformation by resurrection.
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