44 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



In which we cannot and we dare not rest. — 



Festina lente. Note with care its place 



And take its bearings. I will send a scout 



With optic glass to view it from the side 



Hence inaccessible. Since last I saw 



And mark'd this twilight spectre of the hills, 



'T hath overleapt a valley ; or, perhaps, 



This solid world that seemeth now to rest 



Upon eternity hath had a shake, 



Touch'd by a monster such as men believ'd 



Lay under Etna when with wave on wave 



Sicilia trembled. But here comes our scout. 



He hath an eye so vast, this mountain spur, 



Loos'd by a needle, floated on my breath, 



Might all be lost under his smarting lids — 



A piece of grit to draw a flood of tears 



And tax a surgeon's skill. Distraught with pain, 



Then would he know how huge a thing it was 



That rack'd his eyeball. Nor can he be spared 



Such bitter ways to truth, though he hath learn'd, 



With pleasure and with wonder in his soul, 



The way into the heart of little things 



Is infinite as that which leadeth forth 



Beyond the faintest star. His monstrous eye, 



Arm'd with a lens, invisible to all 



Who may be living in this fairy world, 



At distant range hath swept the ridge of Seul 



On every side accessible to learn 



What yonder portent means. " Barren and cold, 



A silent waste the Seulian ridge appears 



Seen from Estelle," (so runneth his report) 



"And from the further side, from Corin's heights 



Which from the West command it, nought 1 saw 



That can this mystery solve, unless, perchance, 



A twisted spire uprising from the depths 



Of Cwm y Llan means more than what appears. 



I cross'd a gorge upon a shaft of light 



Which carried me a millimetre o'er 



Its dark abyss ; and on the ledge beyond, 



Creeping along a precipice until 



That spiral monument lay sheer below 



