Sœur Sainte-Croix Holmes a intitulé un des chapitres de son livre The class in natural philosophy at an examination, 1874265. Elle raconte avoir déniché un poème récité par les élèves lors d’une séance d’examen et invite les lecteurs à être témoin de la scène. Les prénoms inclus dans le poème sont bien ceux des élèves de la classe. Nous retranscrivons, ci-dessous, le poème dans son entièreté.
An Hour at an Examination
‘Twas one o’clock. We class-mates, ready stood Resolved to make the Examination good. Just in our midst, there was a grand display Of apparatus, - ‘twas no children’s play. Already our companions seated round Waited our tottering wisdom to confound. But, lo! Our Reverend Father now appears! And nuns! An audience to excite our fears. Still, nothing daunted, first rose Alphonsine, Explaining what the learned physicians mean By matter, body, atom ; and of course, Experimenting duly to enforce
These mighty truths. Now ‘tis Emélie’s turn;
And, from her brief discourse, we all may learn That matter is inert. Moving or still,
It cannot change its course, like us, at will. This we must note, nor from the flying car Sudden attempt to leap, lest borne afar
By motion we’ve acquired, prone on the ground Our lifeless, mangled limbs inert be found. But now Amelia, with examples clear, Tells how cohesion, bringing atoms near, Makes solid, liquid aëriform, to be
The states of bodies. – From this force set free, Repellent forces make the atoms spread; One grain of musk will floods of odor shed, One thread of gossamer, she dares maintain, Six thousand little fibers doth contain.
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Charlotte takes up the theme: “Now I pretend, That nothing God has made can ever end By human means. If heated by the flame Of lighted lamp, water will change its name; Gone from our sight, in vapor’s viewless form To night ‘till fall again, in dew or storm. No atom yet is lost, since first was spoke That word creative which the world awoke.” Who will dispute the point? Not Mary Jane, Nor Julia either, seeking to explain
Attraction’s laws, both when it binds the spheres, Or guides the drop that trickles down in tears; Or when, through tiny pores our lamp it feeds, Acting against itself to serve our needs;
Now birds, in measured strokes, the pendulum swing, To mark how minutes fly on rapid wing.
But hasten we, for Carrie waiting stands To show what force becomes, in skilful hands: The lever on its fulcrum softly moves,
And thus man’s power is multiplied, she proves. The wheel and axle, the obedient screw,
The six mechanic powers pass in review. Carrie has made us wise; and when next year, The wintry scenes around us bright and clear, We, speeding down the snow-hill, loud shall cry “It is the plane inclined that makes us fly.” Gracie and Mary pass to other themes, And purest water bright before us gleams. The bending siphon lifts the yielding tide – Don’t say who hastened then to Gracie’s side – While Mary, placid, gravely weighs with care The mimic crown, in water and in air;
“Archimedes himself , she says, thus sought To know whether the king was wronged in aught.” Again the theme is changed: of air they speak And all its wondrous properties they seek. “ ‘Tis heavy ‘tis elastic, ‘twill expand; Compressed beyond a limit ‘till withstand. It presses on us like a sea of lead,
Full fifteen pounds on every inch that’s spread.” All this experiments most clearly proved,
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‘Twas Marie, Josie, Rose and Emeline, With Cédulie and Emma, six, in fine, Who all these curious properties discussed, Drawing conclusions, all approved as just. Mamie one point forgotten called to mind And showed how falling bodies sometimes find Their speed retarded. First, with skill and care, From a long tube, she has expelled the air. A guinea and a feather downward tend,
With the same force, and side by side, descend, Proving, triumphant, that ‘tis air alone
Prevents a feather falling like a stone. Once more the subject changes. ‘Tis for Kate To tell how through the air waves undulate, Beating with nicest finger, every note That issues mellow, from a tuneful throat, Recounting, thro’ the ear-drum, to our mind, The thousands secrets which were else confined. Oh, sound! what power to soothe! what charms untold When stores of wisdom, else in thought concealed, As thy command, instantaneous, stand revealed! But nature’s brightest page is wanting still. ‘Tis yours, Valérie, to unfold with skill, The theory of light; to tell the laws
Given to the sunbeam, by the great First Cause. "Bright messenger! Like thought, it leaps o’er space. Lifting the gloom that veils fair Nature’s face. Its three-fold beam, now spreading into seven, Now blending all in one pure ray of heaven. Glassed on the bosom of the falling shower, It paints the rainbow, as it paints the flower.” But haste we to record what Hildah says Of the electric fluids’s wondrous ways.
“Since Franklin, fearless, called it from the cloud, We know ‘tis gathered when the thunder’s loud. Two Fluids – so ‘tis said – must be combined, Or restless are they, as the changing wind. A fiery spark betrays the eager leap; –
Join hands, and you shall know its rapid sweep. ‘Tis not more strange, says Claude, than what we tell Of the magnetic fluids. Mark me well.
This lifeless needle ever knows the North; The trusting mariner with it goes forth O’er unknown seas, all safe as on the shore. But wherefore should I now detain you more? Strange sympathies philosophers have found Among the fluids which this earth surround.”
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Eugénie, Susan and Augusta rise:
Attention, listeners, fix your wondering eyes. Electro-magnetism, that is the word,
With apparatus that will proof afford. Galvani’s name and Volta’s first appear; But science has advanced from year to year. The magnet and the electric fluid serve, As feeble man directs, nor dare to swerve. To bear the humblest message swift they fly, Or strike the alarm-bell, when flames run high. But not content with telegraphic skill,
Susan shows how physicians at their will Send the electric current thro’ our veins. Seeking to calm the worst rheumatic pains, Our young philosophers would prove their lore, And, if their auditors, willing before
To be amused, would only now be cured! No suffering ever more to be endured;
Oh, what a triumph! – “Reverend Father, try! And you, companions”” – “How our pulses fly!” The bravest, not reluctant, seize the wires,
And through the whole commotion no attention tires. All have enjoyed the hour throughout the hall; Thanks to the Reverend Father! Thanks to all!
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