The poetry of science, or studies of the physical phenomena of nature / By Robert Hunt.

  • Robert Hunt
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The poetry of science, or studies of the physical phenomena of nature / By Robert Hunt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the circle of sovereignty and the robe of purple, after a period may be sought for in the herbage of the fields, and in the humble flowers of the valley. We have, then, this certain truth,—all thmgs visible around us are aggregations of atoms. From particles of dust, which under the microscope could scarcely be distinguished one from the other, are all the varied forms of nature created. ‘This grain of dust, this particle of sand, has strange properties and powers. Science has discovered some, but still more truths are hidden within this irregular mole- cule of matter which we now survey, than even philosophy dares dream of. How strangely it obeys the impulses of heat—mysterious are the influences of light upon it—electricity wonderfully excites it ~—and still more curious is the manner in which it obeys the magic of chemical force. ‘These are phe- nomena which we have seen; we know them, and we can reproduce them at our pleasure. We have advanced a little way into the secrets of nature, and from the spot we have gained, we look forward with a vision somewhat brightened by our task; but we discover so much to be yet unknown, that we learn another truth,—our vast ignorance of many things relating to this grain of dust. : It gathers around it other particles; they cling together, and each acting upon every other one, and all of them arranging themselves around the little centre, according to some law, a beautiful B 2
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