Lines Suggested by the Third Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science Held at Cambridge, in June, 1833. By the late William Sotheby ... With a Short Memoir of his Life |
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 | Lines Suggested by the Third Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science |  |
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LINES SUGGESTED BY THE THIRD MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, HELD AT CAMBRIDGE, IN JUNE, 1833.
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Britain now rests in peace; War's thunder roar
Has past away. The flag which Victory bore
From sea to sea, forgetful of the wave,
Now idly hangs o'er Nelson's honoured grave;
And that memorial mound, on Belgium's plain,
Which proudly raised, o'er British heroes slain,
Proclaimed immortal Wellington's career,
Drops into dust, on harvest's golden ear.
Has past away. The flag which Victory bore
From sea to sea, forgetful of the wave,
Now idly hangs o'er Nelson's honoured grave;
And that memorial mound, on Belgium's plain,
Which proudly raised, o'er British heroes slain,
Proclaimed immortal Wellington's career,
Drops into dust, on harvest's golden ear.
So rest perturbed world! no longer yield
A laurel from thy blood embathed field;
Where mad Ambition, with a Demon's hand,
Spreads desolation o'er the unpeopled land;
But thou, celestial Peace, thy olive rear
That knows no taint of blood, no orphan's tear,
And wreathe thy sons who league to bless mankind,
To spread the conquests of the enlightened mind,
The inert mass of matter to controul,
And stamp on all the sov'reignty of soul.
A laurel from thy blood embathed field;
Where mad Ambition, with a Demon's hand,
Spreads desolation o'er the unpeopled land;
But thou, celestial Peace, thy olive rear
That knows no taint of blood, no orphan's tear,
And wreathe thy sons who league to bless mankind,
To spread the conquests of the enlightened mind,
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And stamp on all the sov'reignty of soul.
Go keen Observer! go, maturely taught,
Thou dweller in a world with wonders fraught;
Go, with a Herschel's glass heaven's concave sweep,
Search in the sea the marvels of the deep,
Pierce the dark womb, and bid the unclosing earth
Reveal the day spring of her ancient birth,
How nature fills with life her mighty frame,
And rests her pillars based on central flame;
Then mid the haunts of man thy search pursue,
And to thy power the elements subdue;
Chain, or let loose at will, the force of fire,
Th'omnipotent slave, whose strength no labours tire,
While his fierce spirit with dense steam combined
Slow rolls in darkness on the loaded wind;
Brings down its giant arm, or poised on high
With fairy hands ten thousand looms supply;
Shapes the obdurate metal, cleaves the stone—
Gives to each art new forms, and powers unknown;
At one swift whirl, with momentary stroke,
Cuts the steel bar, and saws the gnarled oak;
Swift as the mind conceives, or sound is heard,
Imprints the image of each winged word:
Frees the tall mast, forgetful of the sail,
And navigates the deep without a gale;
Or extricates hid treasures, and refines,
Rude ores more precious than Golconda's mines;
Drains subterranean floods, and pours their tide
Subservient, down the mountain's channel'd side
To fertilize the earth.
Thou dweller in a world with wonders fraught;
Go, with a Herschel's glass heaven's concave sweep,
Search in the sea the marvels of the deep,
Pierce the dark womb, and bid the unclosing earth
Reveal the day spring of her ancient birth,
How nature fills with life her mighty frame,
And rests her pillars based on central flame;
Then mid the haunts of man thy search pursue,
And to thy power the elements subdue;
Chain, or let loose at will, the force of fire,
Th'omnipotent slave, whose strength no labours tire,
While his fierce spirit with dense steam combined
Slow rolls in darkness on the loaded wind;
Brings down its giant arm, or poised on high
With fairy hands ten thousand looms supply;
Shapes the obdurate metal, cleaves the stone—
Gives to each art new forms, and powers unknown;
At one swift whirl, with momentary stroke,
Cuts the steel bar, and saws the gnarled oak;
Swift as the mind conceives, or sound is heard,
Imprints the image of each winged word:
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And navigates the deep without a gale;
Or extricates hid treasures, and refines,
Rude ores more precious than Golconda's mines;
Drains subterranean floods, and pours their tide
Subservient, down the mountain's channel'd side
To fertilize the earth.
Thus train'd thy mind
A willing minister to serve mankind:
Thou—not regardless of the voice of fame,
Thou, then, shalt raise to high renown thy name,
Like those who first convened by science led,
Where Ooze slow lingers on his silver bed,
Beheld in renovated splendour rise
York's ancient Fane, bright towering to the skies;
Ere Buckland, from thy venerable seat
Guided her followers to his learn'd retreat:
To where Castalian Isis flows along,
Through haunts whose echoes swell the Aonian song.
Fair-structured Oxford! graceful beauty bends
The gliding curve that down thy street descends,
Where, either side from groves and ancient bowers
Temples arise, and towers irradiate towers.
How boldly soars thy vast Bodleian dome,
The mental mine, the Muse's hallowed home;
While brightly streaming through the gothic gloom
Glow the warm hues that Reynold's forms illume;
Yet would I fain, with pilgrim zeal explore
Some sacred spot where Alfred mused of yore,
There on the patriot King devoutly pause,
The King who framed a nation's equal laws:
On Freedom's base, firm fix'd the British throne
And made the Sovereign and the subject one—
Then let me rest amid those peaceful bowers
Where Locke deep reasoning past his studious hours;
And attic Addison, thy groves among,
Smooth'd his pure prose more musical than song;
A nation's morals with their taste refined
And train'd to truths divine the public mind.
But—I no more, may dwell on Isis praise.—
A willing minister to serve mankind:
Thou—not regardless of the voice of fame,
Thou, then, shalt raise to high renown thy name,
Like those who first convened by science led,
Where Ooze slow lingers on his silver bed,
Beheld in renovated splendour rise
York's ancient Fane, bright towering to the skies;
Ere Buckland, from thy venerable seat
Guided her followers to his learn'd retreat:
To where Castalian Isis flows along,
Through haunts whose echoes swell the Aonian song.
Fair-structured Oxford! graceful beauty bends
The gliding curve that down thy street descends,
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Temples arise, and towers irradiate towers.
How boldly soars thy vast Bodleian dome,
The mental mine, the Muse's hallowed home;
While brightly streaming through the gothic gloom
Glow the warm hues that Reynold's forms illume;
Yet would I fain, with pilgrim zeal explore
Some sacred spot where Alfred mused of yore,
There on the patriot King devoutly pause,
The King who framed a nation's equal laws:
On Freedom's base, firm fix'd the British throne
And made the Sovereign and the subject one—
Then let me rest amid those peaceful bowers
Where Locke deep reasoning past his studious hours;
And attic Addison, thy groves among,
Smooth'd his pure prose more musical than song;
A nation's morals with their taste refined
And train'd to truths divine the public mind.
But—I no more, may dwell on Isis praise.—
High cultured Sedgwick, claims these votive lays;
He leads where Science of celestial birth
Came down to commune with a son of earth,
With Bacon dwelt, and bade th' enlighten'd sage,
Burst through the darkness of a barbarous age,
Cast off the yoke that had enslaved mankind,
Scatter the schoolman's cobwebs to the wind,
Prepare the soil, uproot each noxious weed,
And step by step, sow wisdom's fruitful seed.
High priest of truth! When call'd to purer day
Thy soaring spirit past from earth away,
Prophet of knowledge, in the lonely cell
Where youthful Newton mused, thy mantle fell.
He leads where Science of celestial birth
Came down to commune with a son of earth,
With Bacon dwelt, and bade th' enlighten'd sage,
Burst through the darkness of a barbarous age,
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Scatter the schoolman's cobwebs to the wind,
Prepare the soil, uproot each noxious weed,
And step by step, sow wisdom's fruitful seed.
High priest of truth! When call'd to purer day
Thy soaring spirit past from earth away,
Prophet of knowledge, in the lonely cell
Where youthful Newton mused, thy mantle fell.
Hail honour'd Cambridge! Thou, from age to age
Seat of the Bard, the Scholar, and the Sage!
Hail stately domes! that scepter'd Queens endow,—
Ye, that record the Monarch's death bed vow,
Where o'er the porch the royal Founder stands,
Or mitred Abbots cross their crosier'd hands;
Resplendent piles! where Learning rears her throne,
Not for the high born heir of wealth alone,
But for some peasant youth, without a name,
Who there builds up the column of his fame,
And summon'd thence in fullness of his power
Shall guide the council at the trying hour,
Mature the laws, that British realms obey,
And in his scale the fate of empires weigh.
Thee too, where hospitality imprest
The seal of kindness on the stranger guest,
How pass unsung! E'en here, while far away
Amid my woodland wilds, I thoughtful stray;
Before me yet, thy vast quadrangles spread,
Thy pillar'd cloisters yet invite my tread,
The long-drawn aisle of thy cathedral grove
Where never noon-beam pierced the dark alcove,
And Cam, that gliding on with slow delay
Winds through the close mown lawn its waveless way.
Nor can I e'er forget that peaceful hour
When as the summer sun went down in power,
And fringed with beams the veil whose splendor shrouds
His setting in the pomp of purple clouds,
I, passing on, the far famed chapel sought
Where master skill th'unrivall'd wonder wrought,
And freely o'er the gothic grandeur cast,
A grace that all of human art surpast,
Stamping light woven on the matchless roof
The sportive fancies of a fairy's woof,
As if an Ariel through the vault had flown
And left his pinions imaged on the stone.
While there I stood, and with unsated gaze
Pursued the tracery's labyrinthine maze,
All imperceptibly a seraph song
Flow'd, and its echo wound the aisle along:
It breathed the anthem that at daylight close
Soothes the world-wearied spirit to repose,
When the heart answers to the full voiced choir
And hallow'd sounds celestial thoughts inspire.
Seat of the Bard, the Scholar, and the Sage!
Hail stately domes! that scepter'd Queens endow,—
Ye, that record the Monarch's death bed vow,
Where o'er the porch the royal Founder stands,
Or mitred Abbots cross their crosier'd hands;
Resplendent piles! where Learning rears her throne,
Not for the high born heir of wealth alone,
But for some peasant youth, without a name,
Who there builds up the column of his fame,
And summon'd thence in fullness of his power
Shall guide the council at the trying hour,
Mature the laws, that British realms obey,
And in his scale the fate of empires weigh.
Thee too, where hospitality imprest
The seal of kindness on the stranger guest,
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Amid my woodland wilds, I thoughtful stray;
Before me yet, thy vast quadrangles spread,
Thy pillar'd cloisters yet invite my tread,
The long-drawn aisle of thy cathedral grove
Where never noon-beam pierced the dark alcove,
And Cam, that gliding on with slow delay
Winds through the close mown lawn its waveless way.
Nor can I e'er forget that peaceful hour
When as the summer sun went down in power,
And fringed with beams the veil whose splendor shrouds
His setting in the pomp of purple clouds,
I, passing on, the far famed chapel sought
Where master skill th'unrivall'd wonder wrought,
And freely o'er the gothic grandeur cast,
A grace that all of human art surpast,
Stamping light woven on the matchless roof
The sportive fancies of a fairy's woof,
As if an Ariel through the vault had flown
And left his pinions imaged on the stone.
While there I stood, and with unsated gaze
Pursued the tracery's labyrinthine maze,
All imperceptibly a seraph song
Flow'd, and its echo wound the aisle along:
It breathed the anthem that at daylight close
Soothes the world-wearied spirit to repose,
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And hallow'd sounds celestial thoughts inspire.
Onward I went, and in that solemn mood
Hail'd the still spot where Newton's image stood,
And robed in mental grandeur, beam'd around
An added lustre on that classic ground.
Interpreter of Nature! o'er thy head
The day's last light, a saint-like glory shed,
And rested on thy brow intensely fraught
With keen intelligence and patient thought;
Erect thy front, as one empower'd from high
To look on nature with a master's eye:
The obedient prism, resting in thy hand,
Seem'd as awaiting thy supreme command,
To draw the secret from the orb of day,
And bringing down the beam dissect the ray.
Thus the famed sculptor, with the rock at strife,
Tamed the rude mass, and softening into life,
Graved on the breathing stone a Newton's mind,
While wisdom hail'd him wisest of mankind.
Hail'd the still spot where Newton's image stood,
And robed in mental grandeur, beam'd around
An added lustre on that classic ground.
Interpreter of Nature! o'er thy head
The day's last light, a saint-like glory shed,
And rested on thy brow intensely fraught
With keen intelligence and patient thought;
Erect thy front, as one empower'd from high
To look on nature with a master's eye:
The obedient prism, resting in thy hand,
Seem'd as awaiting thy supreme command,
To draw the secret from the orb of day,
And bringing down the beam dissect the ray.
Thus the famed sculptor, with the rock at strife,
Tamed the rude mass, and softening into life,
Graved on the breathing stone a Newton's mind,
While wisdom hail'd him wisest of mankind.
Then in deep reverence, as the twilight closed
And gradual darkness on thy form reposed,
On thee, prophetic Sage! I awe struck gazed,
Thee, whose pure hand the veil of nature raised
When, heaven illumed, thy genius first displayed
In the bright orb of dew that gems the blade,
In ocean heaving to the moon its might,
In each fix'd star, and planet's wandering light,
In the terrestrial globe's unfelt career,
And swift mutations of the Lunar sphere,
How in all nature the same virtue reign'd,
Alike sustaining, and alike sustain'd,
And the vast sun, while worlds around him roll'd,
Held by his central power, the whole control'd.
And gradual darkness on thy form reposed,
On thee, prophetic Sage! I awe struck gazed,
Thee, whose pure hand the veil of nature raised
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In the bright orb of dew that gems the blade,
In ocean heaving to the moon its might,
In each fix'd star, and planet's wandering light,
In the terrestrial globe's unfelt career,
And swift mutations of the Lunar sphere,
How in all nature the same virtue reign'd,
Alike sustaining, and alike sustain'd,
And the vast sun, while worlds around him roll'd,
Held by his central power, the whole control'd.
Bright were the hours; 'twas summer's beauteous prime,
When science call'd her sons from every clime,
And mid the sacred haunts, where Newton taught
Divinest truths, her distant votaries brought
With Britain's chosen band. Yet, how renew
The scene that o'er that day enchantment threw,
When friend, met friend, and they who ne'er had known
Each other's being, save by fame alone,
At their first greeting proffer'd hand to hand,
By science leagued in her fraternal band.
When science call'd her sons from every clime,
And mid the sacred haunts, where Newton taught
Divinest truths, her distant votaries brought
With Britain's chosen band. Yet, how renew
The scene that o'er that day enchantment threw,
When friend, met friend, and they who ne'er had known
Each other's being, save by fame alone,
At their first greeting proffer'd hand to hand,
By science leagued in her fraternal band.
In vain my numbers would at large rehearse
All whose renown might dignify the verse,
In vain re-echo Buckland's wide spread fame,
And give new glory to a Sedgwick's name,
Explore each path where Greenough's power presides,
Where Babbage meditates, or Fitton guides,
Or search the stores of Gilbert's cultured mind,
Adorn'd by learning and by taste refined.
All whose renown might dignify the verse,
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And give new glory to a Sedgwick's name,
Explore each path where Greenough's power presides,
Where Babbage meditates, or Fitton guides,
Or search the stores of Gilbert's cultured mind,
Adorn'd by learning and by taste refined.
How, here record what varied talents grace
With added lustre Compton's ancient race?
Yet—would I now,—were such the power of song
Accomplish'd Roget's just renown prolong,
Whose lucid lore man's heaven-built frame display'd,
How “fearfully, how wonderfully made.”
Fain would I dwell on Peacock's depth of thought
Illustrating the truths that Leibnitz taught;
And mark where Brewster's penetrating sight
Measured each angle of refracted light,
And through the undulating ether view'd
How the bent beam its mazy course pursued.
With added lustre Compton's ancient race?
Yet—would I now,—were such the power of song
Accomplish'd Roget's just renown prolong,
Whose lucid lore man's heaven-built frame display'd,
How “fearfully, how wonderfully made.”
Fain would I dwell on Peacock's depth of thought
Illustrating the truths that Leibnitz taught;
And mark where Brewster's penetrating sight
Measured each angle of refracted light,
And through the undulating ether view'd
How the bent beam its mazy course pursued.
Admiring, we the lucid order own
Of Nature's germs in Lindley's herbal shewn;
Heaths which the Cape's luxuriant soil supplies,
Bright flowers that bask beneath the Indian skies,
O'er Persia bloom, or breathing on the gale
In fragrance float down Yemen's spicy vale.
Nor less his search unwearied brings to light
Forms long entomb'd in subterraneous night,
When, as o'er ages, ages slowly roll'd
No vivifying sun had pierced the mould,
Nor dew, nor vernal shower, nor later rain
E'er dropt prolific on the pregnant vein;
Where fossil ferns their giant fibres spread,
And clung firm rooted in their native bed,
When waved o'er northern soils, in years unknown,
The tropic pine, now sculptured in the stone,
And palms o'er Indian Oceans seen to soar.
Spread their broad leaves, and swept the British shore.
Of Nature's germs in Lindley's herbal shewn;
Heaths which the Cape's luxuriant soil supplies,
Bright flowers that bask beneath the Indian skies,
O'er Persia bloom, or breathing on the gale
In fragrance float down Yemen's spicy vale.
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Forms long entomb'd in subterraneous night,
When, as o'er ages, ages slowly roll'd
No vivifying sun had pierced the mould,
Nor dew, nor vernal shower, nor later rain
E'er dropt prolific on the pregnant vein;
Where fossil ferns their giant fibres spread,
And clung firm rooted in their native bed,
When waved o'er northern soils, in years unknown,
The tropic pine, now sculptured in the stone,
And palms o'er Indian Oceans seen to soar.
Spread their broad leaves, and swept the British shore.
In what harmonious numbers, how impart,
Whewell thy skill, and subtlety of art?
That tracing to its source the central mould,
Th'imprison'd crystal's genuine form unfold,
And cleaving with sure hand the scales away,
Bring out the beauteous gem in bright array;
So Wollaston its covering cast aside,
And gave to science an unerring guide.
Inventive Wollaston! thy touch refined
Sprung from the keeness of th'unsated mind.
Nature from thee her mysteries scarce concealed;
And hadst thou longer lived had more revealed.
Whewell thy skill, and subtlety of art?
That tracing to its source the central mould,
Th'imprison'd crystal's genuine form unfold,
And cleaving with sure hand the scales away,
Bring out the beauteous gem in bright array;
So Wollaston its covering cast aside,
And gave to science an unerring guide.
Inventive Wollaston! thy touch refined
Sprung from the keeness of th'unsated mind.
Nature from thee her mysteries scarce concealed;
And hadst thou longer lived had more revealed.
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Fain would I mention, where the billows sweep
Wave after wave successive o'er the deep,
How Lubbock views along th'Atlantic, glide
The measured motion of the crested tide,
From sea to sea the rolling mass explores,
Ere the surge foam on Britain's rock-built shores—
And Conybeare extoll? whose boundless range
Traces from realm to realm, earth's mineral change.
Wave after wave successive o'er the deep,
How Lubbock views along th'Atlantic, glide
The measured motion of the crested tide,
From sea to sea the rolling mass explores,
Ere the surge foam on Britain's rock-built shores—
And Conybeare extoll? whose boundless range
Traces from realm to realm, earth's mineral change.
Him too the muse would honour, round whose brow
Time's soft slow hand has wreathed a fleece of snow,
Yet—who in age, as one new born to truth,
With the bold step and buoyancy of youth
Pursues his course—so Dalton met my view
And science, him, her legislator knew,
When to his mental eye, she first display'd
The separate atoms in her balance weigh'd.
Time's soft slow hand has wreathed a fleece of snow,
Yet—who in age, as one new born to truth,
With the bold step and buoyancy of youth
Pursues his course—so Dalton met my view
And science, him, her legislator knew,
When to his mental eye, she first display'd
The separate atoms in her balance weigh'd.
Know we not Herschel, whose far echoed name
Rests not its glory on a Father's fame?
Beyond hereditary greatness, great—
On him may now propitious gales await!
On him who to a far and foreign strand,
A willing exile from his native land,
Steers boldly on and seeks that southern clime
Where he by science led, with skill sublime,
Shall tell each star whose individual light
Beams through the darkness of the Afric night,
And weigh the worlds that traversing the sky
Reserve their secrets for his searching eye,
While the bright Cross illumining the whole
With peerless splendour decks th'antarctic pole.
Rests not its glory on a Father's fame?
Beyond hereditary greatness, great—
On him may now propitious gales await!
On him who to a far and foreign strand,
A willing exile from his native land,
Steers boldly on and seeks that southern clime
Where he by science led, with skill sublime,
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Beams through the darkness of the Afric night,
And weigh the worlds that traversing the sky
Reserve their secrets for his searching eye,
While the bright Cross illumining the whole
With peerless splendour decks th'antarctic pole.
Is Faraday unknown to fame? around
Whose brow Lutetia's sons their chaplet wound;
Such, as erewhile on Britain's honoured shore
In his triumphant spring, famed Davy wore,
When his bold hand drew forth to brilliant birth,
The unknown metal from reluctant earth;
And raised the lamp, that bright with vital breath,
Drove back the fiend, who fill'd the mine with death.
Thou! from whose lip, the word that freely flow'd,
With all a poet's inspiration glow'd,
Lamented Friend! farewell! thou liest at rest!
A world of wonders buried in thy breast!
High aims were thine! All nature to explore,
Make each new truth developed, gender more,
And upward traced, through universal laws
Ascend in spirit to the eternal cause.
Such was thy ardent hope, thy views sublime,
But ah! cut off in manhood's daring prime,
Thou liest where genius leans upon thy tomb,
And half eclipsed mourns thy untimely doom!
Whose brow Lutetia's sons their chaplet wound;
Such, as erewhile on Britain's honoured shore
In his triumphant spring, famed Davy wore,
When his bold hand drew forth to brilliant birth,
The unknown metal from reluctant earth;
And raised the lamp, that bright with vital breath,
Drove back the fiend, who fill'd the mine with death.
Thou! from whose lip, the word that freely flow'd,
With all a poet's inspiration glow'd,
Lamented Friend! farewell! thou liest at rest!
A world of wonders buried in thy breast!
High aims were thine! All nature to explore,
Make each new truth developed, gender more,
And upward traced, through universal laws
Ascend in spirit to the eternal cause.
Such was thy ardent hope, thy views sublime,
But ah! cut off in manhood's daring prime,
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And half eclipsed mourns thy untimely doom!
Thus, Faraday, so crown'd in early hour,
Another Davy, reascends in power.—
Tis He, who nature's varying form discern'd,
Condensed the gas and to a liquid turn'd:
He, from the magnet's subterraneous force
Th'electric currents traced, and mark'd their course;
And while the slave of superstitious fear
Sees in the Northern lights spear flash on spear,
And blood-stain'd hosts, that horsed upon the wind
With war's portentous horrours threat mankind,
He views th'o'erburden'd Pole discharge its rays,
Where the Equator drinks the solar blaze,
Thence back receive, and flash in wavy flow,
Innocuous lightenings o'er the world below.
Another Davy, reascends in power.—
Tis He, who nature's varying form discern'd,
Condensed the gas and to a liquid turn'd:
He, from the magnet's subterraneous force
Th'electric currents traced, and mark'd their course;
And while the slave of superstitious fear
Sees in the Northern lights spear flash on spear,
And blood-stain'd hosts, that horsed upon the wind
With war's portentous horrours threat mankind,
He views th'o'erburden'd Pole discharge its rays,
Where the Equator drinks the solar blaze,
Thence back receive, and flash in wavy flow,
Innocuous lightenings o'er the world below.
Can I pass o'er, as one to science known
Thy willing toils enlighten'd Murchison;
Whether thou pierce beneath the billowy robe,
That by the Deluge cast, o'erspread the globe,
Ere yet Jehovah moving in his might
O'er chaos, spake—“Be light”—and there was light.
Or where time graved on his sepulchral page
The indelible impress of that early age,
When the scaled Saurians stretch'd their hideous length
And Mammoths labour'd with unwieldy strength.
Thy willing toils enlighten'd Murchison;
Whether thou pierce beneath the billowy robe,
That by the Deluge cast, o'erspread the globe,
Ere yet Jehovah moving in his might
O'er chaos, spake—“Be light”—and there was light.
Or where time graved on his sepulchral page
The indelible impress of that early age,
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And Mammoths labour'd with unwieldy strength.
The muse sagacious Lyell! would record
The course by thy advent'rous steps explored;
Whether thou climb the Alps, or view below
Through their ice-arch perpetual rivers flow;
Or trace the gradual progress of decay,
As time's soft footstep wears the rock away,
And wastes the globe whose relics onward spread
Pave the wide sea's unfathomable bed,
Thence from their ocean cradle upward hurl'd
Burst into light a renovated world;
Or where earth heard thee of her age enquire
When Auvergne answered from his realm of fire.
And where past lavas, on past lavas lay,
Volcanos, through volcanos, forced their way.
The course by thy advent'rous steps explored;
Whether thou climb the Alps, or view below
Through their ice-arch perpetual rivers flow;
Or trace the gradual progress of decay,
As time's soft footstep wears the rock away,
And wastes the globe whose relics onward spread
Pave the wide sea's unfathomable bed,
Thence from their ocean cradle upward hurl'd
Burst into light a renovated world;
Or where earth heard thee of her age enquire
When Auvergne answered from his realm of fire.
And where past lavas, on past lavas lay,
Volcanos, through volcanos, forced their way.
Lyell! like thee to search that realm of flame,
From Scotia's ice-capt heights her native came,
Another Lælius with mild wisdom fraught,
Simplicity of speech with depth of thought;—
Twas he whose lucid lore so clearly shown
To Hutton gave fresh glory not his own,
Thou, Playfair! whose rich converse, day by day,
Led me delighted round the Latian way;
While all that Italy enchanting made,
Sweet Arno's vale, or Tivoli's cascade,
The flint that 'neath a Cæsar's footstep rang,
Where Tully thunder'd or where Virgil sang:
The dome high-poised in air, the beauteous bay
Whose cliffs yet echo with the Syren's lay;
When last we parted, on Vesuvius' cone
I heard thee reas'ning mid its fiery zone:
When next I sought thee, thou within thy bier
Wert laid unconscious of a nation's tear.
Mild-tempered sage! oh may my life's decline
Mindful of thee! so pass serene as thine!
Farewell! Ascend mid spirits of the blest!
Thy last remains in peace on Calton rest.
From Scotia's ice-capt heights her native came,
Another Lælius with mild wisdom fraught,
Simplicity of speech with depth of thought;—
Twas he whose lucid lore so clearly shown
To Hutton gave fresh glory not his own,
Thou, Playfair! whose rich converse, day by day,
Led me delighted round the Latian way;
17
Sweet Arno's vale, or Tivoli's cascade,
The flint that 'neath a Cæsar's footstep rang,
Where Tully thunder'd or where Virgil sang:
The dome high-poised in air, the beauteous bay
Whose cliffs yet echo with the Syren's lay;
When last we parted, on Vesuvius' cone
I heard thee reas'ning mid its fiery zone:
When next I sought thee, thou within thy bier
Wert laid unconscious of a nation's tear.
Mild-tempered sage! oh may my life's decline
Mindful of thee! so pass serene as thine!
Farewell! Ascend mid spirits of the blest!
Thy last remains in peace on Calton rest.
Still there remain, those who unwearied trace
The countless host of heaven 'mid boundless space,
Describe their orbits, and with powerful sway,
Seem to direct the planets on their way,
Guide the far wandering comet, and presage
Its gradual progress to a distant age:
Beyond the Galaxy's faint glimmer view
Suns, Planets, Satellites their course pursue,
Each in its sphere, and through the vast profound
Wheel other worlds, and other Heavens around,
Where stars on stars swift pouring down their light
That never yet has beam'd on mortal sight,
Circle with brightness the eternal throne,
Where thou Jehovah! in thy glory, lone!
Reign'st unapproachable.—Thus Newton view'd
The Heavens, in measureless infinitude
All bathed in floods of light—no barren void—
All fill'd with life by blissful worlds enjoy'd;
Thus Herschel, Robinson, and Airey raise
From earth's low scene, man's heaven-illumin'd gaze,
And as they teach—where sphere encircling sphere
How myriad worlds in unconfused career,
Round myriad worlds revolve, their voice to earth
Proclaims the God, who gave creation birth.
The countless host of heaven 'mid boundless space,
Describe their orbits, and with powerful sway,
Seem to direct the planets on their way,
Guide the far wandering comet, and presage
Its gradual progress to a distant age:
Beyond the Galaxy's faint glimmer view
Suns, Planets, Satellites their course pursue,
Each in its sphere, and through the vast profound
Wheel other worlds, and other Heavens around,
18
That never yet has beam'd on mortal sight,
Circle with brightness the eternal throne,
Where thou Jehovah! in thy glory, lone!
Reign'st unapproachable.—Thus Newton view'd
The Heavens, in measureless infinitude
All bathed in floods of light—no barren void—
All fill'd with life by blissful worlds enjoy'd;
Thus Herschel, Robinson, and Airey raise
From earth's low scene, man's heaven-illumin'd gaze,
And as they teach—where sphere encircling sphere
How myriad worlds in unconfused career,
Round myriad worlds revolve, their voice to earth
Proclaims the God, who gave creation birth.
But—thou, in whom we love alike to trace
The force of reason, and each female grace,
Why wert thou absent? Thou, whose cultured mind,
Smoothing the path of knowledge to mankind,
Adorn'st thy page deep stored with thought profound
With many a flowret cull'd from classic ground;
While Cambridge glorying in her Newton's fame,
Records with his, thy woman's honoured name,
High gifted Somerville?—
The force of reason, and each female grace,
Why wert thou absent? Thou, whose cultured mind,
Smoothing the path of knowledge to mankind,
Adorn'st thy page deep stored with thought profound
With many a flowret cull'd from classic ground;
While Cambridge glorying in her Newton's fame,
Records with his, thy woman's honoured name,
High gifted Somerville?—
19
Here close the lay,
Here gladly preluding that brilliant day,
When thou, famed Brisbane, to thy native shore
Where high Dunedin hears the ocean roar,
And where the Parthenon from Calton's brow
Looks o'er the northern Athens stretch'd below,
Shalt, from far realms the sons of science lead
From worldly views, and low ambition freed,—
And there as nature's wonders they explore
Bid them, her maker in his works adore;
Tell them, that knowledge, not alone design'd
To rouse, mature, invigorate the mind,
Sublimer views can perfect, and impart
Power to chastise, amend, exalt the heart,
Rude passion tame, the moral sense refine,
And lead from earthly wisdom to divine.
Here gladly preluding that brilliant day,
When thou, famed Brisbane, to thy native shore
Where high Dunedin hears the ocean roar,
And where the Parthenon from Calton's brow
Looks o'er the northern Athens stretch'd below,
Shalt, from far realms the sons of science lead
From worldly views, and low ambition freed,—
And there as nature's wonders they explore
Bid them, her maker in his works adore;
Tell them, that knowledge, not alone design'd
To rouse, mature, invigorate the mind,
Sublimer views can perfect, and impart
Power to chastise, amend, exalt the heart,
Rude passion tame, the moral sense refine,
And lead from earthly wisdom to divine.
8th of December, 1833.
| Lines Suggested by the Third Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science | |