LECTURE ON THUNDERSTORMS 255 



Whose unreflected rainbow far surpassed 



All our inventions, 

 Whose very energy appears at last 



Scant of dimensions : 

 Are these the gods in whom ye put your trust, 



Lordlings and ladies ? 

 The " secret potency of cosmic dust " 



Drives them to Hades. 



While you, brave Tait ! who know so well the way 



Forces to scatter, 

 Calmly await the slow but sure decay 



Even of matter. 



On January 29, 1880, in the City Hall, Glasgow, under the auspices of 

 the Glasgow Science Lecture Association, Tait gave a lecture on Thunder- 

 storms, for which he collected a vast amount of curious information. At one time 

 he intended to include this lecture in the first volume of the Scientific Papers ; 

 but gave up the idea on the ground no doubt that the lecture did not contain 

 any distinct addition of his own to our scientific knowledge. Nevertheless 

 it touches in an interesting way on many of the features of thunderstorms. 

 It was reported in full in the columns of Nature and it has been thought well 

 to reprint it in this volume as an admirable specimen of the popular scientific 

 lecture. 



Had Tait devoted himself to popular lecturing, there is no doubt he 

 would have impressed himself strongly on the community. He had a full 

 command of terse vigorous language, a pleasant resonant voice, the power 

 of speaking deliberately and emphatically, a clear utterance, and a strong 

 personality behind it all. His humour could always be counted upon as adding 

 a sparkle to the physical arguments and descriptions. Finally, his honesty 

 of mind would never lead him to gloss over difficulties, or give a doubtful lead 

 on the applications of some broad principle. 



Tait acted as Reviewer and Critic of many scientific works chiefly in 

 the columns of Nature and occasionally in the Philosophical Magazine. 



It may be said emphatically that Tait never wrote for the mere sake of 

 writing. His desire always was to bring out what he believed to be the 

 truth, and this he did in many cases by exposing the errors. He had no 

 patience with rhetorical writing in a book claiming to be scientific ; and it 

 went hard with an author who indulged in such verbiage. Tait had also 



