1S79.] NOTES FROM THE PAPERS. 445 



BATHYBIUS : A LAMENT. 

 "Huxley (loq.) : 



' "Whether you are in yourself the essence — 



Potential essence of life to be — 

 Or merely express the amorphous presence 



Of calcic sulphate, is dark to me. 

 I know not whether you are or are not ; 



I only know that you seem to be. 

 I must puzzle, though others care not, 



Yet puzzle is vain — I am all at sea.' 



"Disciple (susp.) : 



1 Broken my rest ; and torn with strange emotion 



I melt in rhyme, 

 For a non-proven, questionable notion 



Is " deep-sea slime." 

 Time was I worshipped, almost a fanatic, 



Before his shrine ; 

 Invoked his aid in language truly Attic — 



" Bathybius, mine ! " 

 But now I find this vaunted protoplasm 



Excites a smile, 

 A doubtful kind of passing facial spasm — 



And I revile ! ' 



Exit ' reviling.' " 



More uncomplimentary things have been said about the savans of the British 

 Association this year than has been dared before. One paper says, "the as- 

 sumption of wisdom " on the part of some of the members is rather too trans- 

 parent ; and even the ' Standard,' one of the soberest and fairest of critics., is 

 mildly sarcastic on the Association. The Biologists at last, it thinks, have got 

 to the end of their tether; and it goes on to say, "But it may be questioned 

 whether, as regards the origin of life, Professor Tyndall, or Professor Huxley, can 

 carry us much beyond what Lord Beaconsfield once called the 'atom of Epi- 

 curus and the monad of Thales. ' It is for these reasons that the British Associa- 

 tion has probably passed the zenith of its prosperity, even if it cannot be said 

 to have outlived its original purposes. Of course, it will continue to exist, and 

 go on holding pleasant meetings year after year. Savants are mortal, and 

 have the gregarious tastes of humanity. They like conversaziones and luncheon 

 parties, and pleasant picnics to picturesque places. They are fond of reading 

 elaborate essays, and discussing their merits. All these good things have been 

 had at the meeting of the British Association this year, and are not likely to 

 be lost in the future. Still the fact remains that the work of the Association 

 as an organisation for scientific discovery and education seems to be just now 

 at a standstill, and that it exists mainly as an organisation for the delivery of 

 first-class lectures, and the pursuit of refined pleasure." 



The ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' has managed to extract from one of the papers 

 read before the Association a passage which it hopes "will sink deeply into 

 the minds of the so-called practical man who professes to be guided by the 

 teachings of experience only," and upon whom, it might be added, your con- 

 temporary depends so much for its existence. Take away the practical portion 

 of its columns — the records of experience, crude and undigested as some of 



