SERIO-COMIC VERSE. 645 



Yet have I still a thousand things to say. 



But work of other kinds is pressing 

 So your petitioner will ever pray 



That your defence be triple messing. 1 



ANSWER TO TAIT. 



THE mounted disk of ebonite 



Has whirled before, nor whirled in vain ; 

 Eowland of Troy, that doughty knight, 



Convection currents did obtain 2 

 In such a disk, of power to wheedle, 

 From its loved North the subtle 3 needle. 



'Twas when Sir Rowland, as a stage 



From Troy to Baltimore, took rest 

 In Berlin, there old Archimage, 4 



Armed him to follow up this quest ; 

 Eight glad to find himself possessor 

 Of the irrepressible Professor. 5 



But wouldst thou twirl 6 that disk once more, 

 Then follow in Childe Rowland's train, 



To where in busy Baltimore 



He brews * the bantlings of his brain ; 



As he may do who still prefers 



One Rowland to two Olivers. 8 



But Rowland, no, nor Oliver, 



Could get electromotive force, 

 Which fact and reason both aver, 



Has change of some kind as its source, 

 Out of a disk in swift rotation 

 Without the least acceleration. 



i Illi robur et aes triplex ! (Horace.) 2 Berlin Monats-berichte. 



3 v.r. pensile. 4 i.e. Helmholtz the chief magician ! 



See Prof. Sylvester's Address to the Johns Hopkins University. 

 6 v.r. whirl. 7 v.r. rears. 8 Heaviside and Lodge, see p. 374. 



