1784-1808.] 
EARLY LIFE . 
9 
“ Pictures of the Comforts of a Professor’s Rooms in 
C. C. C., Oxford. 
“ Procul, este Profani, 
Procul lucu.” 
“ Away, ye ignorant and vain ! 
Away, ye faithless and profane ! 
Jesters and dainty dandies, fly hence ! 
But enter thou, dear son of science ! 
And here in mild disorder hurled 
Behold an emblem of the world 
In that chaotic state of old 
When flints in Paramoudras rolled ! 
Here see the wrecks of beasts and fishes, 
With broken saucers, cups, and dishes ; 
The pras-Adamic system jumbled, 
With sub-lapsarian breccia tumbled, 
And post-Noachian bears and flounders 
With heads of crocodiles and founders ; 
Skins wanting bones, bones wanting skins, 
And various blocks to break your shins : 
No place is this for cutting capers 
’Midst jumbled stones and books and papers, 
Stuffed birds, portfolios, packing-cases, 
And founders fallen upon their faces. 
He’ll see upon the only chair 
The great Professor’s frugal fare, 
And over all behold illatum 
Of dust and superficial stratum. 
The sage amidst the chaos stands, 
Contemplative, with laden hands,— 
This grasping tight his bread-and-butter, 
And that a flint, whilst he doth utter 
Strange sentences that seem to say, 
* I see it all as clear as day.’ ” 1 
1 “ Fugitive Poems connected with Natural History and Physical 
Science,” collected by the late C. G. Daubeny, M.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
(Oxford: Parker & Son. 1861.) 
