IV.

"Brilliant that Evolution-theory!" cried

The youth's hard-headed, sceptical old Guide;
"Famous that Atom-creed (from India brought)-
But yet to solve the Eternal Mystery-nought!

"For whence came 'Motion' first? what is the Force
Which Motion gives to Matter in its course,
Or what when lying hid in Mattér stayed?
And how is 'Heat' by mere vibrations made?
What sudden mystic transformation serves
To make them in that way affect our nerves
We label' Heat'? or can they tell aright
How undulating Ether gives us 'Light'?—
The cause-nay, mode of all is lost in Night!

"Then whence came 'Atoms'? whence their power to

change

As Elements both form and essence ?-Strange!

Here are accomplished Beings, skilled to tell
Both friends and foes when rushing on pell-mell;
Myriads that most in puzzling drill excel,

In cunning multiples attract—repel,
And practise pure Arithmetic so well!

A petty Pantheon of fine Godlets, see!

Making a miniature Mythology,

With furious loves, hates, powers, a set apiece,

And transformations weird that never cease,
Out-metamorphosing the Gods of Rome or Greece !—

Could Matter or Mechanic Force, in fact

Such chemic, mental feats originate-enact?

V.

66

Next, whence came 'Life'? and Life's ascending scale?— For this, could Atoms and their Sphere avail ?—

Well, that amazing Plastidule admit

Could start Life-forms-the Sphere around to fit,
(Though how Life sprung from Matter, Science gives
No hint from lifeless things gets nought that lives ;)
Grant, for such Forms to rise from grade to grade
That working wise Environment must aid,
Could modulate on such harmonious plan
The golden course the mighty Music ran
Till 'closed the diapason full in Man;'
Still-if Life-germs and that wise Sphere indeed
Could to this grand array of Being lead,
Two things perforce their action must precede :
First-an unbounded impulse and desire
In living things to rise still higher and higher
In orderly ascent; on every hand
To spread on system-normally expand;
A self-constructing power to seize and hold
All from which aptest organs it could mould,
And let the germs of ampler life unfold:
And next, a World-forefashioned to refuse
All that erroneous tendencies might use-
Disorder need; forefraught with all supplies
For wants that made its tenants fitly rise-

For ordered Progress pre-arranged,-Earth, Seas and Skies!

"Was there not here an End-that guided-swayed— Means from the first so suitably arrayed

To reach results so complex-well-defined ?—

And what is this but Forethought-Purpose-Mind?”

VI.

Notes from lectures or from reading;
Talk between those two succeeding—
Student led and Tutor leading,
May we offer-not unheeding
Task of pruning-lopping-weeding?

Free Nature! how careless, confiding!
Half playfully, furtively hiding
Truths ever momentous, abiding,

In her least or her lowliest works!
There assurance of Power presiding-
Foreseeing-forethinking-foreguiding-
In silence and secrecy lurks!

*

Think of the foresight proved in that small fact—
Next century's oak within an acorn packed!

But Mummy-corn'! O greater wonder hid

Than from the summit of its Pyramid

Those famous 'Forty Ages' saw or did!

Rome rose-toiled through long glories--slow decay; Still, seeming dead, that grain's-germ ready lay

To shoot, a blade—a beautiful green birth

Soon as it touched ev'n England's warm moist earth!
Truly this Life-in-death with new life fired,
Some knowledge of affinities' required-
Some lasting holdfast to an end desired!

What sense in sense-less tissue there can be!
Mark-in a tiny mote you scarce can see
'The movement to achieve an end precedes
And makes the organ for the end it needs.'
A floating jelly-speck in filmy skin-
Protean globule changing form at will-
Borne on by currents that revolve within,
Wraps itself round the mite of food it meets
And turns into a stomach ! Feat of feats!
How do such prescient impulses begin?-
Mark other jellied sea-motes simpler still,
Where neither limb nor organ you espy,
Nor any structure Science can detect,
Expanding into spider-webs, erect
Shell-marvels of minutest masonry

That for ingenious geometric skill

With mightiest Angelo's or Wren's may vie ;-
How do such impulses such ends fulfil?

(Says one consummate Master of Thought severe) 'In secret framed-of microscopic size—

That grand Piano of three thousand strings,

Each to distinct vibrations fitly tuned

Of the outer air with which it ne'er communed,

Anticipates all Music's melodies.'

What! had the Cause from which this marvel springs

No mental power to regulate-review

All the relations of these complex things-
Purposely make them each to each so true?

The Amaba: from Dr. Carpenter. Dr. Martineau.

But say, through Eons film by film 'twas spun,

With power to breed it passed from Sire to Son ;By greater prescience then the end was won.

O wise dorr-beetle! you make fit supply
For eggs you lay the moment ere you die;
Look forward to results with foresight keen—
From want beforehand will an offspring screen
You and your ancestors have never seen;
With means most apt unconsciously achieve
Ends you know nothing of, nor could conceive!
Is there no Power to which your wants were known?
No guidance here—or sense beyond your own?

See working Bees, from whom their Queen has flown,
A sexless grub with 'royal jelly' feed,

And make it 'grow a Queen' new swarms to breed!
Could all the Reason, Science, Skill of Man,
Working their utmost since the World began,
Work towards an End upon a subtler plan
Or surer, than these brainless Insects can?

VII.

"Dear Matter-mongers! what, another God
Το cap the crew created by your nod;
His work all this ;--nor better work nor worse
Than when he tumbled out the Universe-

That rich result of Atoms in their dance,

That Chaos tossed to Cosmos by mere-Chance!