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17
CANTO II.
Igneus est illis vigor, et cœlestis origo
Seminibus.
VIRG.
Seminibus.
VIRG.
------ Quærenda pecunia primum,
Virtus post nummos.
HOR.
Virtus post nummos.
HOR.
------ Alterius sic
Altera poscit opem res, et conjurat amice.
HOR.
Altera poscit opem res, et conjurat amice.
HOR.
18
ARGUMENT.
Ardour and unanimity of this Philosophic Conclave.—Address to the Critics.—Preparatory Lectures:—---— Statistics:—---—Philology:—---—History: —---—Civil Law:—---—Astronomy, &c. &c.—The want of Philosophical Apparatus grievously obstructs their schemes of Glory and Utility:—--- rises and unfolds the plan of an Institute, whereby the Sages shall be enabled to emerge from Obscurity, and the People, by “Contributions,” assist in their own Illumination:—He is gratefully applauded by his Brethren, and anointed by order of the Genius.—A moral reflection.
19
Now, let me wake again the Epic song,
And paint the progress of th'illumin'd throng:—
How each in his peculiar path of thought,
With burning breast for proud distinction sought:
All—like a hive of bees, or pismire croud,
Who under moss their secret stores enshroud,
Whilst each is moved by some instinctive zeal,
Restless to labour for the common weal.
And paint the progress of th'illumin'd throng:—
How each in his peculiar path of thought,
With burning breast for proud distinction sought:
All—like a hive of bees, or pismire croud,
Who under moss their secret stores enshroud,
20
Restless to labour for the common weal.
Ye candid Sages at the Critic Helm,
Shall dark Oblivion's wave such Names o'erwhelm?
Shall I not boldly tell, without a blush,
Who to the fields of Science first did rush,
To cull the flowers, to cut the branches down,
That fruits of Knowledge might become their own?
Who wielded Wisdom's axe, with happiest skill,
Strong as Norwegian woodman on his hill?—
Ye Sages, do not blame my burning zeal,
I dare not truth through modesty conceal;
He were a guilty Bard, who would not sing
Those Men, who Science from high Heaven bring.
Shall dark Oblivion's wave such Names o'erwhelm?
Shall I not boldly tell, without a blush,
Who to the fields of Science first did rush,
To cull the flowers, to cut the branches down,
That fruits of Knowledge might become their own?
Who wielded Wisdom's axe, with happiest skill,
Strong as Norwegian woodman on his hill?—
Ye Sages, do not blame my burning zeal,
I dare not truth through modesty conceal;
He were a guilty Bard, who would not sing
Those Men, who Science from high Heaven bring.
First comes, with visage palpably obscure,
A man of solemn gait, and look demure;
Who, with shrewd argument, acute and wise,
Statistic studies keenly doth advise:—
A second Sinclair—more profoundly great,
Than even that weighty Genius of our State:—
'Tis Great *‘---!—elsewhere, who shall find
A head like his, enlighten'd, clear'd, refin'd?—
Who can like him, with observation deep,
Through Village Modes, and Local Manners peep?
Teach the true plan of rearing Ducks and Geese,
Or count the profits of the Golden Fleece?
A man of solemn gait, and look demure;
21
Statistic studies keenly doth advise:—
A second Sinclair—more profoundly great,
Than even that weighty Genius of our State:—
'Tis Great *‘---!—elsewhere, who shall find
A head like his, enlighten'd, clear'd, refin'd?—
Who can like him, with observation deep,
Through Village Modes, and Local Manners peep?
Teach the true plan of rearing Ducks and Geese,
Or count the profits of the Golden Fleece?
Near the old Cross, where weekly markets meet,
And hungry shops stand gaping to the street,
Sits an illumin'd clerk, of thoughtful face,
Another Benefactor of our race,
With brazen firmness, on his shoulders stands
A head—the beacon of benighted lands!—
Already round his ears the laurel bloom'd,
And, perch'd “upon his crest, sat Science plum'd.”
And hungry shops stand gaping to the street,
Sits an illumin'd clerk, of thoughtful face,
Another Benefactor of our race,
With brazen firmness, on his shoulders stands
A head—the beacon of benighted lands!—
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And, perch'd “upon his crest, sat Science plum'd.”
This learned Man, with scientific stare,
Bends his keen glance to subjects deep and rare;
He burns to wrestle in the Purley game,
And win from Tooke a Philologic fame:—
See, how he puffs like Gilpin on his horse,
And rampant rides his Metaphysic course!
If ye have heard the bagpipe's dying tones,
Snuffling and squeaking thro' its broken drones,
You've heard *‘---, while he proudly strove
To earn the fame of Metaphysic Jove.
Bends his keen glance to subjects deep and rare;
He burns to wrestle in the Purley game,
And win from Tooke a Philologic fame:—
See, how he puffs like Gilpin on his horse,
And rampant rides his Metaphysic course!
If ye have heard the bagpipe's dying tones,
Snuffling and squeaking thro' its broken drones,
You've heard *‘---, while he proudly strove
To earn the fame of Metaphysic Jove.
Next comes a little, tiny elfin form,
Like Ariel skipping in the Wizard Storm,
Or Indian humming-bird, whose viewless wing
Can waft it wanton through a lady's ring:—
But as a diamond spark from Hindostan,
For mighty rocks may yield a valued pawn;
Or, as a herring from the Northern deep,
Out runs the Behemoth by nimbler sweep;
So may this little Man, with surer aim,
Arrive at posthumous, and present fame,
Than Sons of Anak, of majestic length,
Proud of their size, and glorying in their strength.
Like Ariel skipping in the Wizard Storm,
Or Indian humming-bird, whose viewless wing
Can waft it wanton through a lady's ring:—
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For mighty rocks may yield a valued pawn;
Or, as a herring from the Northern deep,
Out runs the Behemoth by nimbler sweep;
So may this little Man, with surer aim,
Arrive at posthumous, and present fame,
Than Sons of Anak, of majestic length,
Proud of their size, and glorying in their strength.
Oh, well he knew the human soul to steep
In stream of oratory, clear and deep;
Around the Chair his rapt companions hung,
While honied periods trickled from his tongue;
While he, in chaste didactic lecture, told
What facts the deep historian should unfold;
What uses universal story brought
To public action, and to private thought;
What secret motives might be brought to light;
What dark transactions usher'd from the night.
Not ev'n great Robertson can time beguile,
With sweeter strains of flowing Attic style;
When, o'er the scene where hapless Mary bled,
He mourns the ashes of the injur'd Dead;
When, stern, he paints the Monarch in his cave,
And bids him requiems to his conscience rave;
Or, when to St. Domingo's fairy shore,
He leads Columbus on his prosperous oar.
In stream of oratory, clear and deep;
Around the Chair his rapt companions hung,
While honied periods trickled from his tongue;
While he, in chaste didactic lecture, told
What facts the deep historian should unfold;
What uses universal story brought
To public action, and to private thought;
24
What dark transactions usher'd from the night.
Not ev'n great Robertson can time beguile,
With sweeter strains of flowing Attic style;
When, o'er the scene where hapless Mary bled,
He mourns the ashes of the injur'd Dead;
When, stern, he paints the Monarch in his cave,
And bids him requiems to his conscience rave;
Or, when to St. Domingo's fairy shore,
He leads Columbus on his prosperous oar.
Then sapient --- reads:—A general hush
Stills every whisper, while he strives to push
With scientific horn—like wary snail,
Who feels his path before he drags his tail;
With slow and slimy march, he glides along,
And lists the plaudits of the admiring throng;
Wise as a serpent—wily as a fox—
He ne'er was held by Reason's bars nor locks;
Alike he scorn'd his theories to fence,
With solid Argument, or common Sense,
But lov'd through mazy Labyrinths to wind,
And leave his hearers' wilder'd wits behind.
Stills every whisper, while he strives to push
With scientific horn—like wary snail,
Who feels his path before he drags his tail;
With slow and slimy march, he glides along,
And lists the plaudits of the admiring throng;
25
He ne'er was held by Reason's bars nor locks;
Alike he scorn'd his theories to fence,
With solid Argument, or common Sense,
But lov'd through mazy Labyrinths to wind,
And leave his hearers' wilder'd wits behind.
As legends tell, upon a certain day,
An Ass was heard most wistfully to bray,
When a fierce War-horse proudly ambled by,
And caught the keen ambition of his eye;
He sigh'd for strength, for beauty, and renown,
While in a pool he saw himself a clown:—
Not so sigh'd ---—conscious of his might,
He burn'd to mingle in Forensic fight ,
And make the Dialectic squadrons reel,
With thunder of his throat, with fury of his heel!
An Ass was heard most wistfully to bray,
When a fierce War-horse proudly ambled by,
And caught the keen ambition of his eye;
He sigh'd for strength, for beauty, and renown,
While in a pool he saw himself a clown:—
Not so sigh'd ---—conscious of his might,
He burn'd to mingle in Forensic fight ,
26
With thunder of his throat, with fury of his heel!
Though “last not least,” illustrious --- comes,
Some Fluxion calculation (hark!) he hums;
A deep and learned Sage—of thought abstruse—
Sharp as the horns of the Hypotenuse:—
His eyes like planets in a frosty night,
Blaze o'er the Vault with pure Phosphoric light;
His locks in easy ringlets o'er his brow,
Like tails of comets, wavingly do flow.
Of Starry Physics he does ably treat,
And oft, in moon-born phrenzy, from his seat
He wildly starts—and grasps at Spheric lore,
In rapturous vision never seen before.
And see, eclipsed by him, great Newton's name
Receding gradual from the sphere of fame;—
Like Cynthia sinking o'er a distant hill,
The reverend form grows faint and fainter still—
'Tis lost!—and Future Times shall ne'er behold
Our fathers' idol in the Days of Old;
But --- they shall see, whose purer ray
Shall chace the Fiends of darkness far away;
Yea, when his ashes fill the “storied urn,”
Bright as a polar star his fame shall ever burn!—
Some Fluxion calculation (hark!) he hums;
A deep and learned Sage—of thought abstruse—
Sharp as the horns of the Hypotenuse:—
His eyes like planets in a frosty night,
Blaze o'er the Vault with pure Phosphoric light;
His locks in easy ringlets o'er his brow,
Like tails of comets, wavingly do flow.
Of Starry Physics he does ably treat,
And oft, in moon-born phrenzy, from his seat
He wildly starts—and grasps at Spheric lore,
In rapturous vision never seen before.
And see, eclipsed by him, great Newton's name
Receding gradual from the sphere of fame;—
27
The reverend form grows faint and fainter still—
'Tis lost!—and Future Times shall ne'er behold
Our fathers' idol in the Days of Old;
But --- they shall see, whose purer ray
Shall chace the Fiends of darkness far away;
Yea, when his ashes fill the “storied urn,”
Bright as a polar star his fame shall ever burn!—
So these Illuminators of Mankind,
With other Sages in firm league combin'd,
(Whose lucubrations, sweet as honied mead,
I may not now detail for sake of speed)—
Their philosophic Forum having pitched,
By intellectual barter were enriched.—
With other Sages in firm league combin'd,
(Whose lucubrations, sweet as honied mead,
I may not now detail for sake of speed)—
Their philosophic Forum having pitched,
By intellectual barter were enriched.—
But shall they traffic only 'mong themselves,
And secret lurk like lonely wizard Elves?
Shall Lights like these in hidden caverns shine,
And waste in murkey holes their flame divine?—
Ah me! though bent on philosophic note,
In vain for Public Lectureships they vote;
Though stor'd with Learning, Science, Talents, Sense,
Alas! Alas! they were not stor'd with Pence!
“Woe worth the day!” for during life's sojourn,
From scientific depths they may return,
But come like maniacs from a phrenzied dream,
Unable to pourtray each mystic scheme:—
No Apparatus to embody Truth,
And sensify Philosophy to youth;
No Crucible, no Furnace, no Retort
Was theirs—nor Air-gun for a gas report:
The Still, th'Alembic, the Pneumatic Trough,
Where new-born Gases drop their earthly slough;
The Electric Tube, the light-dissecting Prism,
The Piles and Batteries of Galvanism,
The Concave Mirrors, Calorific Ball,
Scales, Globes, and Orrery—were wanting all!
And how, without an image to the eye,
Shall pure Abstraction, gliding from on high,
Be seen by intellects of vulgar mould,
To Imitation's servile habits sold?—
And secret lurk like lonely wizard Elves?
28
And waste in murkey holes their flame divine?—
Ah me! though bent on philosophic note,
In vain for Public Lectureships they vote;
Though stor'd with Learning, Science, Talents, Sense,
Alas! Alas! they were not stor'd with Pence!
“Woe worth the day!” for during life's sojourn,
From scientific depths they may return,
But come like maniacs from a phrenzied dream,
Unable to pourtray each mystic scheme:—
No Apparatus to embody Truth,
And sensify Philosophy to youth;
No Crucible, no Furnace, no Retort
Was theirs—nor Air-gun for a gas report:
The Still, th'Alembic, the Pneumatic Trough,
Where new-born Gases drop their earthly slough;
29
The Piles and Batteries of Galvanism,
The Concave Mirrors, Calorific Ball,
Scales, Globes, and Orrery—were wanting all!
And how, without an image to the eye,
Shall pure Abstraction, gliding from on high,
Be seen by intellects of vulgar mould,
To Imitation's servile habits sold?—
But lo! as hope expires, and spirits droop,
Immortal --- rises mid the group,
And opens to their view a mighty scheme
Of philosophic phantasies the Cream:—
“Ye sages, list to me—Approve my plan—
“And reign the lords of Nature, and of Man—
“Know your own grandeur—See around you roll'd
“Unceasing stores of Praise, and precious Gold!—
“Lend all your energies, and wits acute,
“And to Edina give an Institute!—
“Even now, I see each Draper in his shop,
“His ears for Science, and his jaws wide ope!
“The Artisan shall stop his jarring noise,
“To hark our sweet and overwhelming voice;
“The blundering Scribe, as o'er his parchment pale,
“He sees the shadow of his taper sail,
“Will think of Truth's and Wisdom's holy light,
“And scan the causes of the starless night:—
“—Our voice shall reach all these—lay down the rules,
“And rear up sages from a host of fools;
“While Contributions, free as April shower,
“Shall place the Universe within our power!”
Immortal --- rises mid the group,
And opens to their view a mighty scheme
Of philosophic phantasies the Cream:—
“Ye sages, list to me—Approve my plan—
“And reign the lords of Nature, and of Man—
“Know your own grandeur—See around you roll'd
“Unceasing stores of Praise, and precious Gold!—
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“And to Edina give an Institute!—
“Even now, I see each Draper in his shop,
“His ears for Science, and his jaws wide ope!
“The Artisan shall stop his jarring noise,
“To hark our sweet and overwhelming voice;
“The blundering Scribe, as o'er his parchment pale,
“He sees the shadow of his taper sail,
“Will think of Truth's and Wisdom's holy light,
“And scan the causes of the starless night:—
“—Our voice shall reach all these—lay down the rules,
“And rear up sages from a host of fools;
“While Contributions, free as April shower,
“Shall place the Universe within our power!”
He said:—And straight arose a marvellous noise—
Wonder and gratulation's mingled voice:—
Such was the sound, as when from long sojourn,
A figured flock of Soland-geese return,
Among their natal cliffs rejoiced to find
A Breeding-place so fitted to their mind;
When every ocean cavern wildly rings
With cackling Concert, and wide-flapping wings .—
Wonder and gratulation's mingled voice:—
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A figured flock of Soland-geese return,
Among their natal cliffs rejoiced to find
A Breeding-place so fitted to their mind;
When every ocean cavern wildly rings
With cackling Concert, and wide-flapping wings .—
Anon outburst from the exulting throng,
A lofty anthem pealing loud and long;
Of --- still their song triumphant spoke,
And reach'd the Genius on his Cloud of Smoke;
Well-pleas'd he heard, and bade his Minions pour
On ---'s head, a full and fragrant shower
Of genial ointment—strong as that which greets,
With early odour, high Dunedin's streets.—
A lofty anthem pealing loud and long;
Of --- still their song triumphant spoke,
And reach'd the Genius on his Cloud of Smoke;
Well-pleas'd he heard, and bade his Minions pour
On ---'s head, a full and fragrant shower
Of genial ointment—strong as that which greets,
With early odour, high Dunedin's streets.—
32
O had some dark Philosopher, whose views
To human souls a social power refuse;
Who sees, with blasted eye, each bosom fraught
With low deceit, or fierce licentious thought,
And in each various character and face,
A varied villany can only trace;
(Like to those monstrous forms, grotesque and vain,
Seen thro' the medium of a fractur'd pane)—
O had he view'd this Group of learned Men,
When ---'s Scheme first open'd to their ken;
What unity of feeling was pourtray'd,
Which no unholy bosom can pervade;
His savage System, like a nightly owl,
That ends at cock-crow its accursed howl,
Had left to peace and joy his gladden'd soul!
To human souls a social power refuse;
Who sees, with blasted eye, each bosom fraught
With low deceit, or fierce licentious thought,
And in each various character and face,
A varied villany can only trace;
(Like to those monstrous forms, grotesque and vain,
Seen thro' the medium of a fractur'd pane)—
O had he view'd this Group of learned Men,
When ---'s Scheme first open'd to their ken;
What unity of feeling was pourtray'd,
Which no unholy bosom can pervade;
His savage System, like a nightly owl,
That ends at cock-crow its accursed howl,
Had left to peace and joy his gladden'd soul!
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