Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Societies, Palaeontology, Geology, Botany, Astronomy, Instruments, Evolution, Botany, Animal Development, Engineering, Steam-power, Cosmology, Heroism

People mentioned:

George Busk , Galileo Galilei , René Du P Descartes

Publications cited:

Chambers 1844

    Dedicated 'By Permission of the President and Council, to the British Association', the poem describes the procession of diverse participants towards the 'House of Fame' (the association's annual meeting), including people from 'every nation, / From each calling, class, or station' and 'Poets jostling grave logicians; botanists by politicians'. Describes the activities of several natural philosophers including Richard Owen who carries a 'fossil tusk or femur', Roderick I Murchison and Robert Chambers who discuss 'striated rocks', the 'dying' Dominique F J Arago who sighs 'for his country's broken laws', and Alexander von Humboldt who divines the 'Common Cause' from his knowledge of nature. Notes John R Hind's skill at determining 'Every wandering planet's station', the 'cortège' of scientific instruments passing into the meeting, Karl L Reichenbach's work on marsh lights, and Chambers's search for 'the geese that spring from the barnacles that grow on trees'. (106) Goes on to note engineers' protests about 'the tractive power / Of steam'. Having reached the basement of the 'House of Fame', observes several broken relics including the 'Systems of Anaximander' and fossil 'Pterodactyles'. On proceeding to the 'higher rooms' (and evidently higher forms of knowledge), it notes how 'predecessors' make way for the precession newcomers—notably Georges Cuvier to Owen and Humphry Davy to Michael Faraday. (107)