634 JAMES CLERK MAXWELL. 



To THE CHIEF MUSICIAN UPON 

 A Tyndallic Ode. 

 I. 



I COME from fields of fractured ice, 



Whose wounds are cured by squeezing, 

 Melting 2 they cool, but in a trice, 



Get 3 warm again by freezing. 

 Here, in the frosty air, the sprays 



With fern-like hoar-frost bristle, 

 There, liquid stars their watery rays 



Shoot through the solid crystal. 



II. 



I come from empyrean fires 



From microscopic spaces, 

 Where molecules with fierce desires, 



Shiver in hot embraces. 

 The atoms clash, the spectra flash, 



Projected on the screen, 

 The double D, magnesian I, 



And Thallium's living green. 



in. 



We place our eye where these dark rays 



Unite in this dark focus* 

 Right on the source of power we gaze, 



Without a screen to cloak us. 

 Then where the eye was placed at first, 



We place a disc 4 of platinum, 

 It glows, it puckers ! will it 5 burst ? 



How ever shall we 6 flatten him ! 



1 Nabla was the name of an Assyrian harp of the shape y. y is 

 a quaternion operator ( i j- + ^J~ + ^T") invented by Sir W. R. 



Hamilton, whose use and properties were first fully discussed by 

 Professor Tait, who is therefore called the " Chief Musician upon Nabla." 



2 v.r. They melt. 8 v.r. Grow. 4 v.r. dish. 

 5 v.r. like to. 6 v , r By j ov6) ril have to _ 



