1 85 5. INAUGURAL LECTURE. 285 



Behold ! a silver voice was heard, 

 " Hush ! I have heard thy prayer, 



The cushion of the Blackbird 

 Shall glorify thy Chair." 



And suddenly, as morning skies 



The clouds with glory gild, 

 The fairy-cushion smote the eyes, 



And the whole Chair was filled. 



It draped the Chair on every side, 



It left no angle bare, 

 It made the Chair a place of pride, 



And not a place of care. 



And now the once afflicted Avight, 



To queens makes no apology, 

 But sits by day, and dreams by night 



In his Chair of Technology. 



To this lady he writes in the end of that October, with 

 the characteristic mingling of pathos and humour : " My 

 sense of a hold upon life is so feeble (for illness after illness 

 cheats us out of vitality, and lessens one's hope and courage), 

 that I am thankful to remember I have some who think 

 better of me than I deserve, and count themselves my 

 friends. . . . Had Her Majesty consulted my doctors, she 

 would have given me a sofa rather than a chair ; but on 

 chair or sofa, I hope to spend my allotted days on earth, 

 so as to make none ashamed that they called themselves 

 my friends." The cushion was not uncalled for, as very 

 soon after entering on his appointment, he is compelled to 

 say, " The Chair of Technology is not stuffed with down ; 

 a thorn or two stick out of it, and it requires cautious en- 

 gineering to get into it with comfort to myself and others." 



The inaugural lecture was devoted in great part to the 

 definition of the limits he assigned to his Professorship. 

 Its title, "What is Technology?" was welcome to the public, 

 in doubt as to what it represented. 



