THE METEORITE.

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1574, 5 August 1882, Page 6

THE METEORITE.

[The discovery, by Dr. Halm, an eminent German geologist, of organic remains in meteoric stones, is one of the most astonishing achievements in modern science. By examining a great number of meteorites, he claims to have determined about fifty species of coral, crinoids and sponges, bearing a clofe relation to similar classes of fossil forms on our earth. The inference from which seems conclusive, that these stones are really fragments of a dismembered globe.] Prom the ruins of what world, From what splintered planet hurled, Hast thou journeyed to our own, Thou* mysterious alien stone ? By what orb's conflicting course, By what mighty cosmic force Far transcendingfinite thought, Was the awful havoc wrought ? Of that ruin of that wreck, Indistinguishable speck, liOst in uhillumined space, Where light, passing, leaves iio trace — Where though darkness shines the. > sun Bearing' warmth, but yielding none,*< Where there is no day nor 'night, < • Up nor down, nor depth nor height — 'Ages tipon age's lost; ■ " • ' ' • ' » Till thy path our orbit crossed, •Inthy'wande'ringa thou hast knotfn - Solitude," thou.lpnelyfstone ? * < Smitten into sudden 'glare '>'- - * '■ By'our planet's shield of-'&ir, ~i; , n ;< The coldj'irayless 1 clod 'became 1 ' <? , "H' : A fierce meteor,. trailing flame.

Men' beheld theefrom afar Starting like a falling star, i Heard thy roar, and watohed thy flight, Rushing through the red-lit night. Such the fury of thy speed, They had barely time to heed, With wild eyes to gaze and hark, Thou hadst fallen, and all was dark. Half in fiery trains consumed, Through the vault which they illumed, Seared, encrusted, scarred and rent, Here at last thou liest spent. With all objects strange and rare, Brought from ocean, earth and air, Grouped in this historic hall, Thou the strangest of them all ! Art thou of that swarm of stars Which, beyond the ring of Mars, Throng the path of one destroyed — Thou a small strayed asteroid ? To this tranquil resting place, Prom borne ocean spilled in space, On some old dismantled world, Through what unknown cycles whirled ! Was the orb of which thou art But this rude, imperfect part, Furnished and arrayed as ours, Fanned by winds and swept by showers P Were there mountains there, and trees ? I&lands set in azure seas ? Curving waves, whose foamy crest Bruke in beauty on thy br6ast ? And did life, upon that sphere, Mount in myriad forms as here, By the same eternal laws, Pulsing from one Primal Cause ? Did the world-force, which began Low and Darkling, climb to man, Flower in thought, and crown the whole With the glory of a soul ? And was evil there, and wrong ? Wore there races weak and strong ? Many-peopled lands and climes ? Were there passions ? weie there crimes ? Tyianny, and caste, and Blares H Was there marriage ? wore there graves ? Art and song and science known ? Yield thy meanings, niy.stic stone ! Vain the yearning, all in vain Is the soul's ecstatic pain, Wrestling with Eternity For intelligence of thee ; Whero thy home and native skies Mind is powerless to i-urmiso : Still the thought will bum and beat, Still we ponder and repeat — From what shattered system hurled, From what planet, from what world, Jlast thou wandered to our own, Thou mysterious alien stone ? — /. T. Tiowbrtdgc, in Yonlh\ Companion.