40 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



And now am I transported, and this stone 



Is now a stone no longer, but a world 



Of many millions whose extent the eye 



Fails to embrace, e'en as the teeming hordes 



Of living things that move upon the earth 



Shortsightedly, like mites upon its crust, 



See not its circling orb. That which had bounds 



Is boundless now to microscopic sight: 



That which the eye was powerless to discern 



Is now a landscape, such as might belong 



To fairyland itself. The fracturing blow 



Hath hewn a chasm here, and there hath left 



A precipice all sheer. I see below 



Valleys and hills, ravines and lofty peaks, 



And on the utmost verge a wilderness 



Outreaches sight. That limit is a spur 



Which pricks me to o'erleap it and neglect 



The kingdom that I have for one whose bound 



Must baffle e'en as this — an endless quest 



T' o'er-reach the infinite. What lies beyond 



For ever tempts our finite phantasy, 



Lures it unceasing onward till at last 



We struggle helpless 'gainst that awful bourn 



Which hides a nameless Power. So now my mind 



Pursues the hidden rather than enjoy 



What is reveal'd, still conscious of a way 



Into a region vast and unexplored 



Which may be trod — still conscious of its power, 



In kind the same as that wherewith proud man 



Hath weigh'd the moon, made camphor out of dust 



That ne'er knew life, and for his use hath tamed 



The spirit of the lightning. " Use thy power, 



Man, with mercy. Take this bit of rock, 



As thou wouldst have a greater power than thine 



Take up the earth, with thee and all upon it, 



To turn it o'er and view its nether pole. 



In power thou art a god ; in wit, a fool. 



There is thy kingdom, there thy world ; but thou, 



Thou know'st not what thou rulest ! " So might I 



Justly have been rebuked ; but, still untaught, 



1 take a needle, clumsily o'erturn 



