The Electrician <br /> <br />Long hast thou borne the burden of the day, <br />Thy task is ended, venerable Grey! <br />No more shall art thy dexterous hand require, <br />To break the sleep of elemental fire: <br />To rouse the powers that actuate Nature's frame, <br />The momentaneous shock, th' electric flame; <br />The flame, which at first, weak pupil of thy lore, <br />I saw, condemn'd, alas! to see no more. <br />Now, hoary sage, pursue thy happy flight <br />With swifter motion, haste to purer light. <br />Where Bacon waits with Newton and with Boyle, <br />To hail thy genius and applaud thy toil, <br />Where intuition breathes through time and space, <br />And mocks experiment's successive race; <br />See tardy science toil at Nature's laws, <br />And wonders how th' effect obscures the cause. <br />Yet not to deep research or happy guess <br />Is view'd the life of hope, the death of peace; <br />Unbless'd the man, whom philosophic rage <br />Shall tempt to lose the Christian in the sage; <br />Not art but goodness pour'd the sacred ray <br />That cheer'd the parting hours of humble Grey.<br /><br />Samuel Johnson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-the-death-of-stephen-grey-f-r-s/
