84 JAMES CLEUK MAXWELL 



So treading a path all untrod, tho poet-philosopher sings 

 Of tho seeds of tho mighty worldthe first-beginnings of tilings; 

 How freely he scatters hi* atoms before tho beginning of years ; 

 llow he clothes them with force as a garment, those small incom- 

 pressible spheres ! 

 Nor yet does he leave them hard-hearted ho dowers them with love 



and with hate, 



Like spherical small British Asses in infinitesimal state; 

 Till just as that living Plato, whom foreigners nickname Plateau,* 

 Drops oil in his whisky-and- water (for foreigners sweeten it so) ; 

 Each drop keeps apart from the other, enclosed in a flexible skin, 

 Till touched by the gentle emotion evolved by tho prick of a pin : 

 Thus in atoms a simple collision excites a sensational thrill, 

 Kvolved through all sorts of emotion, as sense, understanding, and wiJl 

 (For by hying their heads all together, the atoms, as councillors do, 

 May combine to express an opinion to every one of them new). 

 There is nobody here, I should say, has felt truo indignation at all, 

 Till an indignation meeting is In -Id in tho Ulster Hall ; 

 Then gathers tho wave of emotion, thru noble, feelings arise, 

 Till you all pass a resolution which tikes every man by surprise. 

 Thus the pure elementary atom, tho unit of mass and of thought, 

 By force of mere juxtaposition to life and sensition is brought ; 

 So, down through untold generations, transmission of structureless germs 

 Enables our race to inherit the thoughts of boast*, fishes, and worms. 

 We honour our fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmother! 



too; 



But how shall we honour the vista of ancestors now in our view ? 

 First, then, let us honour the atom, so lively, KO wise, and so small; 

 The atomists next let us praise, Kpinmis, Lueretius, and all. 

 Let us damn with faint praise. Bishop Butler, in whom many atoms 



combined 



To form that rennrk;tble structure it pleased him to cull hi* mind. 

 I*ast, praise wo tho noble body to which, f>r the time, we belong, 

 Ere yet tho swift whirl of tho atoms h;is hurried us, ruthless, along, 

 Tho British Association like Leviathan worshipped by Hobbes, 

 The incarnation of wi*dom f built up of our witless noba, 

 AVhich will carry on endless discussions when I, and probably you, 

 Have melted in infinite azure in English, till all is blue. 



* " Statistic KXJM linii-titak- et The'riiue <U** Li-itii-l.-s Hoiiniiit aux sciile* 

 Forces Mulvculairctf." Tar J. riaU-au, I'rufv-sscur A rUiiivurite Ue GauJ, 



