A Vision of a Wrangler, of a University, of Pedantry, and of Philosophy
A Vision of a Wrangler, of a University, of Pedantry, and of Philosophy
Original Text
Lewis Campbell, The Life of James Clerk
Maxwell, with a selection from his correspondence and occasional writings and a
sketch of his contributions to science (London: Macmillan, 1882): 612-17.
QC 16 M4C3 Gerstein Library
2And the twelve notes gently rounded
3Endless chimneys that surrounded
4 My abode in Trinity.
5(Letter G, Old Court, South Attics),
6I shut up my mathematics,
8 Sink it in the deepest sea!
9In the grate the flickering embers
10Served to show how dull November’s
11Fogs had stamped my torpid members,
12 Like a plucked and skinny goose.
13And as I prepared for bed, I
14Asked myself with voice unsteady,
15If of all the stuff I read, I
16 Ever made the slightest use.
17Late to bed and early rising,
18Ever luxury despising,
20 I have suffered with the rest.
21Yellow cheek and forehead ruddy,
22Memory confused and muddy,
23These are the effects of study
24 Of a subject so unblest.
27Court some spiritual angler,
28 Nibbling at his golden bait.
29Hear him silence restive Reason,
30Her advice is out of season,
31While her lord is plotting treason
32 Gainst himself, and Church or State.
33See him next with place and pension,
34And the very best intention
36 Under which his fortunes rose.
37Every scruple is rejected,
38With his cherished schemes connected,
39"Higher Powers may be neglected --
40 His result no further goes."
41Much he lauds the education
42Which has raised to lofty station,
43Men, whose powers of calculation
44 Calculation’s self defied.
45How the learned fool would wonder
46Were he now to see his blunder,
47When he put his reason under
48 The control of worldly Pride.
49Thus I muttered, very seedy,
50Husky was my throat, and reedy;
51And no wonder, for indeed I
52 Now had caught a dreadful cold.
53Thickest fog had settled slowly
54Round the candle, burning lowly,
55Round the fire, where melancholy
56 Traced retreating hills of gold.
57Still those papers lay before me --
58Problems made express to bore me,
59When a silent change came o’er me,
60 In my hard uneasy chair.
61Fire and fog, and candle faded,
62Spectral forms the room invaded,
63Little creatures, that paraded
64 On the problems lying there.
65Fathers there, of every college,
66Led the glorious ranks of knowledge,
67Men, whose virtues all acknowledge
70Set apart as arbitrators
71’Twixt contending calculators,
72 Scrutinised the trembling lines.
73All the costly apparatus,
74That is meant to elevate us
75To the intellectual status
76 Necessary for degrees --
77College tutors -- private coaches --
78Line the Senate-house approaches.
80 Taken care of well by these.
81Much I doubted if the vision
82Were the simple repetition
84 Strangely jumbled, oddly placed.
85When an awful form ascended,
86And with cruel words defended
87Those abuses that offended
88 My unsanctioned private taste.
89Angular in form and feature,
90Unlike any earthly creature,
91She had properties to meet your
92 Eye whatever you might view.
93Hair of pens and skin of paper;
94Breath, not breath but chemic vapour;
95Dress, -- such dress as College Draper
96 Fashions with precision due.
97Eyes of glass, with optic axes
98Twisting rays of light as flax is
100 Made to show the real size.
101Primary and secondary
102Focal lines in planes contrary,
103Sum up all that's known to vary
104 In those dull, unmeaning eyes.
105Such the eyes, through which all Nature
106Seems reduced to meaner stature.
107If you had them you would hate your
108 Symbolising sense of sight.
109Seeing planets in their courses
110Thick beset with arrowy "forces,"
111While the common eye no more sees
112 Than their mild and quiet light.
113"Son," she said (what could be queerer
114Than thus tête-à-tête to hear her
115Talk, in tones approaching nearer
116 To a saw's than aught beside?
117For the voice the spectre spoke in
118Might be known by many a token
119To proceed from metal, broken
120 When acoustic tricks were tried.
121Little pleased to hear the Siren
122"Own" me thus with voice of iron,
123I had thoughts of just retiring
124 From a mother such a fright).
125"No," she said, "the time is pressing,
126So before I give my blessing,
127I’ll excuse you from confessing
128 What you thought of me to-night.
129"Powers!" she cried, with hoarse devotion,
130"Give my son the clearest notion
131How to compass sure promotion,
133Let his college course be pleasant,
134Let him ever, as at present,
135Seem to have read what he hasn't,
136 And to do what can’t be done.
137Of the Philosophic Spirit
138Richly may my son inherit;
139As for Poetry, inter it
140 With the myths of other days.
141Cut the thing entirely, lest yon
142College Don should put the question,
143Why not stick to what you're best on?
144 Mathematics always pays."
145As the Hag was thus proceeding
146To prescribe my course of reading,
147And as I was faintly pleading,
148 Hardly knowing what to say,
149Suddenly, my head inclining
150I beheld a light form shining;
151And the withered beldam, whining,
152 Saw the same and slunk away.
153Then the vision, growing brighter,
154Seemed to make my garret lighter;
155As when noisome fogs of night are
156 Scattered by the rising sun.
157Nearer still it grew and nearer,
158Till my straining eyes caught clearer
159Glimpses of a being dearer,
160 Dearer still than Number One.
161In that well-remembered Vision
162I was led to the decision
163Still to hold in calm derision
164 Pedantry, however draped;
165Since that artificial spectre
167And had nothing to connect her
168 With the being whom she aped.
169I could never finish telling
170You of her that has her dwelling
171Where those springs of truth are welling,
172 Whence all streams of beauty run.
173She has taught me that creation
174Bears the test of calculation,
175But that Man forgets his station
176 If he stops when that is done.
177Is our algebra the measure
178Of that unexhausted treasure
179That affords the purest pleasure,
180 Ever found when it is sought?
181Let us rather, realising
182The conclusions thence arising
183Nature more than symbols prizing,
184 Learn to worship as we ought.
185Worship? Yes, what worship better
186Than when free'd from every fetter
187That the uninforming letter
188 Rivets on the tortured mind,
189Man, with silent admiration
190Sees the glories of Creation,
191And, in holy contemplation,
192 Leaves the learned crowd behind!
Notes
1] St. Mary's: St Mary the Great with St Michael, Cambridge, the University of Cambridge Church, whose belfry rang out from the late 16th century onward, though Maxwell has in mind here the so-called "new clock" from Thwaites of London, set in place in 1793 with chimes devised by the Reverend Dr. Joseph Jowett, Regius Professor of Civil Law. Back to Line
7] hydrostatics: the study of the pressure and equilibrium of liquids at rest. Back to Line
19] "sizing": getting suppers from the college kitchen. Back to Line
25] wrangler: the "name for each of the candidates who have been placed in the first class in the mathematical tripos at Cambridge University" (OED). Back to Line
26] dangler: ineffectual courter of women or positions. Back to Line
35] Convention: out-of-term session of the Cambridge University Senate. Back to Line
68] proctorial fines: proctors are, "at Oxford and Cambridge, each of two officers appointed annually to discharge various functions in connexion with the meetings of the University and its various Boards, the examinations and conferment of degrees, and the like; they are also charged with the discipline of all persons in statu pupillari, and the summary punishment of minor offences" (OED, "proctor" sb. 1, 3b). Back to Line
69] Moderators: "at Cambridge, one of two officers, appointed annually, who preside over and are responsible for the proper conduct of the examination for the Mathematical Tripos" (OED). Back to Line
79] Alma Mater: "bounteous mother," a phrase for the school, college, and university from which one has graduated. Back to Line
83] Commission: the official charge or instructions for one undertaking a public office. Back to Line
99] Parallax: "the angular amount of such displacement or difference of position, being the angle contained between the two straight lines drawn to the object from the two different points of view, and constituting a measure of the distance of the object" (OED). Back to Line
132] Number One: oneself, one's own interests. Back to Line
166] sub-collector: deputy or assistant. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1882
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2001
Rhyme