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 LXXIV.

Along the desert pathway of my years

The untarnished green of an oasis lies,
Full many a bliss, watered by love’s since tears,
Full many a note, that in the distance dies;
And I will pause, and gather fresh those sweets,
And bind their buds in chaplets on my brows;
I’ll hail what youth soe’er my wandering meets,
“See here the guerdon of my childhood’s vows.”
So, joy’s unripened blossoms shall forth peep
From dewy sluices of long-buried grief;
And love, though dead, shall through my pulses leap,
And pinnacle the Past on rapture’s reef.
Memory shall gild with fancy what is gone,
And dim indulgence dreamingly live on.
 LXXV.

There is one name on which remembrance lingers,

Not soon shall Time tear it from my quick breast;
There comes a music, touched by fairy fingers,
To draw thy features, floats thy spirit’s unrest;
Thy voice shall be a passport through life’s harms;
I will believe thy fondness mends my slips;
When Death shall clasp me in his haggard arms,
I think that name shall arm my quivering lips:
Young years, that made thee wild, had made thee loving;
Nature had crown’d with Beauty what Wit gave;
Perchance this verse shall prove not quite unmoving,
Calling unto thee, as from out the grave:
Yes, well I know, thou’lt sometimes give one sigh,
To years that come no more, when once gone by.
 LXXVI.

There was one more, but, ’tis no matter now,

One who’s forgot, I too will learn that lore;
Nor others rest, but wistfully, I plough
Memory’s hard furrows, pregnant now no more;
For now Love’s turned from my too sullen soul,
He will no longer fling the rainbow veil,
Nor glance his mirror o’er defects, to enroll
Me, midst the captives of his courted jail:
I’ll draw fresh sustenance from the past for joy,
And scorn love’s gyves, his fears, his jealous frowns;
Take up the sweets, and mock the archer boy,
Who fools each votary with delusive crowns:
Yet could I buy his pleasures with his woes,
I’d choose them both, the archer God well knows.
 LXXVII.

What pride the season takes in his gay flowers!

How the dead year mourns for his withered leaves!
The lover sadly looks on desolate bowers,
No song re-echoes to the verse he weaves:
These all are sad, but promise gilds their death;
Their notes of woe but swell the spring’s new joy;
But, ’tis more pitiful, when the very breath,
Which was our life, seems but the summer’s toy:
With lifted hands, vain man implores the skies;
Curses the sometime joy, the nurse of woe,
The bliss whose unfelt want erst caused no sighs;
His pilgrimage had, once, less grief, less show:
But no; lost love exalts, in saddening, man,
While heartless plodding but degrades his span.
 LXXVIII.

’Tis bitter for the spirit that’s lived in Heaven,

Quickly to be reft of what composed its bliss;
’Tis bitter, that our bliss should wing the levin,
And add a torture to the incisor knife;
And, after earth was shaped to Paradise,
Catching the colour of most loveable eyes,
’Tis sad, that all should darken in a trice,
And but remind us of the joy that flies;
Wants but a motion, and all sights that woo
The bewitched eyesight of the doting world,
Shall catch some stain, and shade to black their hue,
Their pride exposed to gaze, their void unfurled:
Yet who’d exist, and bind nought to his heart?
Strong be that soul that dares to live apart.
 LXXIX.

But what have I to do with prating griefs,

That mar the sanctity on Beauty’s brow?
I have in thee a thousand full reliefs;
Why wound the seeds of joy with torture’s plough?
Even now, thy youthful years, in wisdom fledg’d,
Wave thousand-coloured plumes o’er elder minds;
Whiles thou, to only Love and Beauty pledged,
Unsought, uncared for, feel’st the applausive winds:
Envy thou dost take captive, and transform
To the good angel of magnanimous praise;
And men are only jealous, and grow warm,
Matching those wordy altars which they raise:
That men adore the wonder of thy worth,
But shames my love, whose utmost praise is dearth.
 LXXX.

In seeking pleasure, I have tasted woe;

And drunk of every cup, to test its worth:
Ill sediments must, in such seeking, flow
And mingle with the thoughts that gave them birth:
Who drinks experience, drinks, at once, disdain;
From weariness, Excitement gathers force,
Then swerves not for slight barriers, nor draws rein,
Till all his passion’s wreak’d upon the course:
The course is finished; hollow is the cup;
Nor may regret point at the looked for dregs:
Who sits the banquet out, at last, must sup
From off satiety’s unfurnished pegs.
’Tis something known, that there is nought to gain;
Each different science prints his proper strain.
 LXXXI.

How void of meaning seems the barren earth!

How dwindles all its pride, to infants’ toys!
For me, all life is quickened into birth,
Only by the love, that turns my grief to joys:
Sullen, I look out upon the bleak dim morn,
And curse the cold, the climate, and the cloud:
I match those frowns with thy imagined scorn;
Sudden, the sun illumes the misty shroud;
The thought, that’s full of thee, discerns no grief,
But builds a summer palace in the air;
It sifts compounded woes, torturing their sheaf,
That bitter thoughts may hide, ’mid thoughts more fair;
The mind returns from thee, winged with delight;
Unsated, it soon meditates new flight.
 LXXXII.

There are, who count the day by Phœbus’ course,

And ask the dial, where the sun should be;
Who teach the clock, to give the hours force,
To speak the change of their monotony;
Who span the earth with measures, and with rules,
And prate of chart, of compass, and of mile;
Others, more learned, beckon to the schools,
Whence time and space flee with mysterious smile:
But we, who count by love, care not to point
Our sweet decisions by such knotty laws;
Whether one be right, or, all be partners joint
In folly’s mandates, or in wisdom’s saws,
Love cares not, knows not, reckons not; its ways
Seem shorter to its joy, than winter days.
 LXXXIII.

’Twas here, we met, we spoke; ’twas but a moment,

So short the hours seemed; we loved, we parted;
Ah! that harsh word of parting, with such woe shent,
Dulls all the joy that e’er our meeting darted;
Those leagues we linger’d o’er, what steps they seem’d!
How could we give to distance his full dues?
How short those days, when tricksome fancy’s dream’d,
And dress’d the present in rich memory’s hues!
This is Eternity, shorn of the dress
That sedate Time winds round his glowing limbs:
Soon shall the Eternal rise, and find redress
From slanderous Time, who sickens what he dims.
Time rules but mortals, wavers even for men;
Should Truth inhabit such a meteor’s den?
 LXXXIV.

Unsatisfied desires have sway’d my breast;

Hope’s Syren voice has lured me to despair;
Only Excitement’s charm’d me, with its zest,
And strangled thought, e’er it could change to care;
But, now, such deep repose hath breathed content,
Filling the measure of all hopes with thee;
That, all my longings and my fears are spent,
Or only live, that thou may’st bid them flee:
If, now, Ambition points to ceaseless toil;
Gleam through the years, altars of sacrifice;
When all is done, I but remain the foil,
Marking what measure thou may’st well despise.
All that I have, or gain, or love, is thine,
And all is little, since thy heart is mine.
 LXXXV.

O think not I would purchase, measuring out,

The priceless merit of the love I’ve sued!
Thy love’s the larger, that it will not doubt
To rest its hope on buds whose beauty’s crude:
Yet suffer, that my shafts attempt the mark
Which thy heart shows to be true virtue’s goal;
Suffer, that, by thy conduct, my poor bark
May proudly sail, and scorn the obtrusive shoal:
My service slights all guerdons, and all gains,
Than but one smile, one word, one thought of thine;
Happy, whoe’er approves not, if my pains
Be crown’d by thee, and through thy merit shine.
What others’ emulous worth labours to gain,
O glorious prize! ’tis mine, perchance, to attain.
 LXXXVI.

Love is the larger when it seeks return,

Only in the fulness of its treasur’d self;
When it can linger by the shattered urn,
Its idol gone, it knows not where, nor whence;
When what we worship, may not mark the woes
Which wear the frame, but fortify the mind;
When all is dark, nor earth, nor Heaven shows
Acceptance gleaming, through the midnight, kind:
This love’s of purer strain than men can know,
Most jar the chords, but toying with the harp,
They’d lower to life, and filter through fresh woe
The essence that should illustrate their dark.
Grief’s scale shows heights, to which whoe’er attain,
Shall haply find the joy outweigh the pain.
acquaintance with modern biologists would ha ve led Lord Kelvin to
per ceive that those whom he cites ar e but a trifling per centage of
the whole. I do not myself know of an y one of admi tted leadership
among modern biologists who is showing signs of coming to a belief
in the existence of a vi tal principle. ’
“Biologists wer e, not man y years ago , so terribly hamper ed by
these hypothe tical enti ties—vi tality,’ vi tal spirits,’ anima animans, ’
ar chet ypes, ’ vis medicatrix, ’ pr ovidential arti fice,’ and others which I
cannot now enumer ate—tha t they ar e very sh y of set ting an y of
them up again . Physicists, on the other hand, seem to ha ve got on
very well with their problematic enti ties, their atoms’ and ether ,’ and
the sor ting demon of Maxwell.’ Hence, perhaps, Lord Kelvin offers to
us, with a light heart, the hypothesis of a a vital principle’ to smooth
over some of our admi tted difficulties. On the other hand, we
biologists, knowing the par alysing influence of such hypotheses in
the past, ar e as un willing to ha ve an ything to do with a vital
principle,’ even though Lord Kelvin err oneously thinks we ar e coming
to it, as we ar e to accept oth er str ange enti ties’ pressed upon us by
other ph ysicists of a modern and singularly adv entur ous type.
Modern biologists (I am glad to be able to affirm) do not accept the
hypothesis of telepath y’ adv ocated by Sir Oliver Lodge, nor that of
the intrusions of disembodied spirits pressed upon them by others of
the same school.
“We biologists tak e no stock in these mysterious enti ties. We think
it a mor e helpf ul method to be patient and to seek by obse rvation of,
and experiment with, the phenomena of growth and dev elopment to
trace th e evolution of life and of living things without the facile and
steri le hypothesis of a vital principle.’ Similarly, we seek by the study
of cer ebr al disease to trace th e genesis of the phenomena which ar e
supposed by some ph ysicists who ha ve str ayed into biological fields
to justi fy them in announcing the disco very ’ of telepath y’ and a
belief in ghosts. ”
 CHAPTER I I
THE ADVANCE OF S CI ENCE, 1 8 8 1 1 0 6

I propo se to give in the following pages an outl ine of the adv ance of
science in the past twent y-five years. It is necessary to distinguish
two main kinds of adv ance ment, both of which ar e important.
Francis Bacon ga ve the title Advancement of Learning’ to that book
in which he explained not mer ely the methods by which the increase
of knowledge was possible, but adv ocated the promotion of
knowledge to a new and influential posi tion in the organization of
human societ y. His purpose, sa ys Dean Church, was to mak e
knowledge real ly and intel ligently the inter est, not of the school or
the study or th e labor atory only, but of societ y at large.’ So that in
surv eying the adv ancement of science in the past quarter of a
century we should ask not only what ar e the new facts disco ver ed,
the new ideas and conceptions which ha ve come into activity, but
what progr ess has science made in becoming real ly and intel ligently
the inte rest of societ y at large. Is ther e evidence that ther e is an
increase in the influence of science on the lives of our fellow-citizens
and in the great affairs of the State? Is ther e an increased provision
for securing the progr ess of scienti fic investigation in proportion to
the urgency of its need or an increased disposi tion to secur e the
emplo yment of real ly competent men trained in scienti fic
investigation f or the publ ic service?

1. The I ncrease of Knowledge in the Several Branches of Science.

The boundaries of my own understanding and the practical
consider ation of what is appr opriate to a brief essa y must limit my
at tempt to give to the gener al reader some presentation of what has
been going on in the worksh ops of science in this last quarter of a
century . My point of view is essential ly that of the natur alist, and in
my end ea vour to speak of some of the new things and new
properties of things disco ver ed in recent years I find it is impossible
to give an y sys tematic or detai led account of what has been done in
each division of science. All that I shal l at tempt is to mention some
of the disco veries which ha ve ar oused my own inter est and
admir ation. I feel, indeed, th at it is necessary to ask forbear ance for
my presumption in daring to treat of so man y subjects in which I
cannot claim to speak as an authori ty, but only as a young er brother
full of fraternal pride and sym path y in the glorious achiev ements of
the gr eat experimental ists and disco ver ers of our da y.
As one might expect, the progr ess of the Knowledge of Natur e
(for it is to that rather than to the historical, mor al and mental
sciences that English-speakin g people refer when they us e the word
science’) has consisted, in the last twent y-five yea rs, in the
ampl ification and fuller verification of principles and theories already
accepted, and in the disco very of hitherto unknown things which
either have fallen into place in the existing scheme of each science
or ha ve necessi tated new views, some not very disturbing to existing
gener al conceptions, others of a mor e startl ing and, at first sight,
disconcerting char acter . Nevertheless I think I am justi fied in sa ying
that, exciting and of entr ancing inter est as ha ve been some of the
disco veries of the past few years, ther e has been nothing to lead us
to conclude that we ha ve been on the wrong path—nothing which is
real ly revolutionary; that is to sa y, nothing which cannot be accepted
by an intel ligible modi fication of previous conceptions. Ther e is, in
fact, continui ty and heal th y evolution in the realm of science. Whilst
some onlookers ha ve declar ed to the publ ic that science is at an
end, its possibi lities exhauste d, and but little of the hopes it raised
real ised, othe rs ha ve asserted on the contr ary, that the new
disco veries—such as those relating to the X-rays and to radium—ar e
so inconsistent with previous knowledge as to shak e the foundations
of science, and to justi fy a belief in an y and every absur dity of an
unr estr ained fancy. These two recipr ocally destructiv e accusations
ar e due to a class of persons who must be described as th e enemies
of science. Whether their at titude is due to ignor ance or traditions of
self-inter est, such persons exist. It is one of the objects of our
scienti fic associations and societies to combat those assertions and
to demo nstr ate, by the disco veries announced at their meetings and
the consequent orderly building up of the great fabric of natur al
knowledge, ’ tha t Science has not come to the end of her work—has,
indeed, only as yet given mankind a foretaste of what she has in
stor e for it—that her methods and her accompl ished resul ts ar e
sound and trustworth y, serving with perf ect adaptabi lity for the
increase of true disco very and the expansion and dev elopment of
those gener al conceptions of the processes of natur e at which she
aims.
New Chemical Elements. —Ther e can be no doubt th at the past
quarter of a century will stand out for ever in human history as that
in which new chemical ele ments, not of an ordinary type, but
possessed of truly astounding properties, wer e made known with
extr aor dinary rapidity and sur eness of demonstr ation. Int er esting as
the othe rs ar e, it is the disco very of radio- activity and of the element
radium which so far exceeds all others in importance th at we ma y
well account it a supr eme privilege that it has fallen to ou r lot to live
in the da ys of this disco very. No single disco very ever made by the
sear chers of natur e even app roaches that of radio- activity in respect
of th e novelty of the properties of mat ter suddenly reveal ed by it. A
new conceptio n of the stru ctur e of mat ter is necessi tated and
demonstr ated by it, and yet, so far from being destructiv e and
disconcerting, the new conc eption fits in with, grows out of, and
justi fies the older schemes which our previous knowledge has
formulated.
Before sa ying mor e of radio- activity, which is apt to eclipse in
inter est every other topic of discourse, I must recal l to you the
disco very of the five inert gaseous elements by Rayleigh and
Ramsa y, which belongs to th e period on which we ar e looking back.
It was found that nitrogen obtained from the atmospher e invariably
differ ed in weight from nitrogen obtained from one of its chemical
combinations; and thus the conclusion was arrived at by Rayleigh
that a distinct gas is present in the atmospher e, to the extent of 1
per cent. , which had hither to passed for nitrogen. This gas was
separ ated, and to it the name ar gon (the lazy one) was given, on
account of its incapaci ty to combine with an y other element.
Subsequently this ar gon was found by Ramsa y to be its elf impur e,
and from it he obtained thr ee other gaseous elements equal ly inert:
namely neon, krypton, and xenon. These wer e all distinguished from
one another by the spectrum , the sign-manual of an elem ent given
by the light emitted in each case by the gas when in an
incandescent condi tion. A fifth inert gaseous element was disco ver ed
by Ram sa y as a consti tuent of certain miner als which was proved by
its spec trum to be identical with an element disco ver ed twent y-five
years ago by Sir Norman Lockyer in the atmospher e of the sun,
wher e it exists in enormous quanti ties. Lockyer had given the name
hel ium’ to this new solar element, and Ramsa y thus foun d it locked
up in certain r ar e miner als in the crust of the earth.
But by helium we ar e led ba ck to radium, for it has been found
only two years ago by Ram sa y and Soddy that helium is actual ly
formed by a gaseous emanation from radium. Astound ing as the
statement seem s, yet that is one of the man y unpr ecede nted facts
which recent study has brought to light. The alchemist ’s dream is, if
not rea lised, at an y rate justi fied. One element is actual ly under our
eyes con verted into another; the element radium deca ys into a gas
which changes into another element, namely hel ium.
Radium, this wonder of wonders, was disco ver ed owing to the
study of the remarkable phosphor escence, as it is called—the
glowing without heat —of glass vacuum-tubes thr ough which electric
curr ents ar e made to pass. Crookes, Lenar d, and R ntgen each
played an important part in this study , showing that pecul iar rays or
linear st reams of at least thr ee distinct kinds ar e set up in such tubes
—rays which ar e themselv es invisible, but ha ve the propert y of
making glass or other bodies which they strike glow with
phosphor escent light. The celebr ated R ntgen rays mak e ordinary
glass give out a bright gree n light; but they pass thr ou gh it, and
cause phosphor escence outside in various substances, such as
barium platino -cyanide, calcium tungstate, and man y other such
salts; they also act on a photogr aphic plate and dischar ge an
electri fied bod y such as an electr oscope. But the most remarkable
featur e about them is their power of penetr ating substances opaque
to ordinary light. They will pass thr ough thin metal plates or black
paper or wood, but ar e sto pped by mor e or less dense material.
Hence it has been possible to obtain shadow pictur es’ or skiagr aphs
by allowing the invisible R nt gen rays to pass thr ough a limb or even
a whole animal, the denser bone stopping the rays, whilst the skin,
flesh, and blood let them through. They ar e allowed to fall (sti ll
invisible) on to a photogr aph ic plate, when a pictur e like an ordinary
permanent pho togr aph is obtained by their chemical action, or they
ma y be made to exert their phosphor escence-pr oducing power on a
glass plate cover ed with a thin coating of a phosphor escen t salt such
as barium platino-cy anide, when a tempor ary pictur e in light and
shade is seen.
The rays disco ver ed by R ntgen wer e known as the X-rays,
because their exact natur e was unknown. Other rays studied in the
electri fied vacuum-tubes ar e known as cathode rays or radiant
corpuscles, and others, again, as the Lenar d r ays.
It occurr ed to M. Henri Becquer el, as he himsel f tells us, to inquire
whether other phosphor escent bodies besides the glowing vacuum-
tubes of the electricians’ labor atory can emit penetr atin g rays like
the X-rays. I say other phosphor escent bodies, ’ for this power of
glowing without heat —of giving out, so to speak, cold light—is
known to be possessed by man y miner al substances. It has become
familiar to the publ ic in the form of phosphor escent paint, ’ which
contains sulph ide of calcium, a sub stance which shines in the dark
after exposur e to sunl ight—that is to sa y, is phosphor escent. Other
sulphides and the miner als fluor-spar , apati te, some gem s, and, in
fact, a whole list of substan ces ha ve, under differ ent condi tions of
treatment, this power of phosphor escence or shining in the dark
without combustion or chemical change. All, howev er, requir e some
special treatme nt, such as exposur e to sunl ight or heat or pressur e,
to elicit the phosphor escence , which is of short dur ation only. Many
of the compounds of a somewhat uncommon metal lic element,
called uranium , used for giving a fine green colour to glass, ar e
phosphor escent substances, and it was, fortunately , one of them
which Henri Becquer el chose for experiment. Henri Becquer el is
professor in the Jar din des Plantes of Paris; his labor atory is a
delightful old-fashioned building, which had for me a special inter est
and sancti ty when, a few years ago , I visited him ther e, for, a
hundr ed years bef ore, it was the dwel ling-house of the great Cuvier.
Here Henri Becquer el’s father and grandf ather —men renowned
thr oughout the world for their disco veries in miner alogy, electrici ty,
and light—had worked, and her e he had himsel f gone almost daily
from his earl iest childhood. Many an experiment bringing new
knowledge on the relation s of light and electrici ty had Henri
Becquer el carri ed out in that quiet old-world place bef ore the da y on
which, about twelv e years ago, he made the experimental inquiry,
Does uranium give off penetr ating rays like R ntgen rays?’ He
wrapped a photogr aphic plat e in black paper , and on it placed and
left lying ther e for twent y-four hours some uranium salt. He had
placed a cross, cut out in th in metal lic copper , under the uranium
powder , so as to give some shape to the photogr aphic print should
one be produced. It was produced. Penetr ating rays we re given off
by the uranium : the black paper was penetr ated, and the form of
the cop per cross was printed on a dark ground (fig. ). The copper
was also penetr ated to some extent by the rays from the uranium,
so that its image was not left actual ly white. Only one step mor e
remained bef ore Becquer el made his great disco very. It was known,
as I stated just now, that sulphide of calcium and similar substances
become phosphor escent when exposed to sunl ight, and lose this
phosphor escence after a few hours. Becquer el thought at first that
perhaps the uranium salt acquir ed its power similarly by exposur e to
light; but very soon, by experimenting with uranium salt long kept in
the dark, he found that the emission of penetr ating rays, giving
photogr aphic effects, was produced spontaneously . The emission of
rays by this par ticular sample of uranium salt has shown no sign of
diminution since this disco very. The emission of penetr ating rays by
uranium was soon found to be independent of its phosph orescence.
Phosphor escent bodies, as such, do not emit penetr ating rays.
Uranium comp ounds, wheth er phosphor escent or not, emit and
continue to emit, these pene trating rays, capable of passing thr ough
black paper and in a less degr ee thr ough metal lic copper . They do
not der ive this propert y from the action of light or an y other
treatment. The emission of these rays disco ver ed by Becquer el is a
new propert y of mat ter. It is called r adio- activity,’ and the rays ar e
called Becquer el r ays.
 Fig. 9.—Henri Becquerel’s Discovery of Radio Activity.

Photographic print or skiagraph of a copper Maltese Cross produced

by uranium salt placed as a heap of powder on the surface of black
paper wrapped round a sensitive plate. Between the paper and the
uranium powder the flat copper cross was interposed. The rays from the
uranium salt have penetrated the black paper, but have been
intercepted to a large extent by the copper cross—so that the sensitive
silver plate is darkened all about the cross—over an area corresponding
to that of the heap of uranium salt, but is left pale where the copper
figure blocked the path of the active rays given off by the uranium,
partially but not wholly. It was thus proved that the rays from the
uranium salt can pass through blackened paper and also though to a
less extent through a plate of copper.

From this discovery by Becquerel to the detection and separation

of the new element radium is an easy step in thought, though one of
enormous labour and difficulty in practice. Professor Pierre Curie
(whose name I cannot mention without expressing the grief caused
to all men of science by the sad accident by which his life was taken)
and his wife, Madame Sklodowski Curie, incited by Becquerel’s
discovery, examined the ore called pitch-blende which is worked in
mines in Bohemia and is found also in Cornwall. It is the ore from