"Marvellous orchestra! concert of heaven, Mingling more notes than the musical seven, Harmonious discords of treble and base In strange combinations of guilt and of grace-- O whose is the ear that can hear you aright, And note the dark providence mixt with the light? Where, where is the eye that is swift to discern This lesson in music the dull ear should learn,-- That all, from the seraphim harping on high Down, down to the lowest, fit chords can supply To the pæan of praises in every tone, With thunders and melodies circling the Throne!
"We are each a brief note in that wonderful hymn, And to us its Oneness is hazy and dim; We hear the few sounds from the viol we play, But all the full chorus floats far and away: Our poor little pipe of an instant is drown'd In the glorious rush of that ocean of sound; The player hears nothing beyond his own bars, Whilst all that grand symphony reaches the stars: Yet, though our piping seems but little worth It adds to the Anthem Creation pours forth, And, whether we know it or not, we can give Not a note more or less in the life that we live.
"Ah me! we are nothing--or little at best-- But duty with greatness the least can invest: One note on the flute or the trumpet may seem A poor petty work for ambition's fond dream,-- But what if that note be a need-be to blend And quicken the score from beginning to end? To show forth the mind of the Master, who guides With baton unerring Time's mixture of tides, The good with the evil, the blessing and bane, The Amazon rushing far into the main, Until, from this skill'd combination of notes, Bound earth to the heavens His overture floats!"
A page or two about my connection with the Royal Society may have some small interest. When my father (who had long been a Fellow) died in 1844, I wished to give to the Society his marble bust by Behnes as a memorial of honour to him; but my mother preferred to keep it, as was natural. Meanwhile, however, some of my father's friends, and in particular his old patron, Lord Melbourne, then recently elected, put me up as a candidate, and as I find recorded in my Archive-book, vol. ii., my certificate "was signed by Argyll, Bristol, Henry Hallam, Thomas Brande, Dr. Paris, P.B.C.S., Sir C.M. Clarke, and Sir Benjamin Brodie: in due time I was elected, and on the 8th of May 1845 was admitted by Lord Northampton." At my election occurred this very strange and characteristic incident. There was only one ball against me among twenty-seven for me in the ballot-box; the meetings were then held at Somerset House, the Society on a less numerous scale than at present, and the elections easier and more frequent. When the President announced the result, up jumped Lord Melbourne, begging pardon for his mistake in having dropped his ball into the wrong hole!--an amusing instance of the _laissez-faire_ carelessness habitual to that good-humoured Minister.