686 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



corresponding part of ours. For it is the attribute of the true poet to 

 penetrate the secret of those mysterious influences 'which we all un- 

 knowingly experience ; and, having discovered this to himself, to bring 

 others, by the power he thus wields, into the like sympathetic relation 

 with Nature, evoking with skilful touch the varied response of the 

 Soul's finest chords, heightening its joys, assuaging its griefs, and 

 elevating its aspirations. While, then, the artist aims to picture 

 what he sees in Nature, it is the object of the poet to represent what 

 he feels in Nature ; and to each true poet Nature is what he individ- 

 ually finds in her. 



The philosopher's interpretation of Nature seems less individual 

 than that of the artist or the poet, because it is based on facts which 

 any one may verify, and is elaborated by reasoning processes of which 

 all admit the validity. He looks at the universe as a vast book lying 

 open before him, of which he has in the first place to learn the charac- 

 ters, then to master the language, and finally to apprehend the ideas 

 which that language conveys. In that book there are many chapters, 

 treating of different subjects ; and, as life is too short for any one man 

 to grasp the whole, the scientific interpretation of this book comes to 

 be the work of many intellects, differing not merely in the range but 

 also in the character of their powers. But while there are " diversi- 

 ties of gifts," there is " the same spirit." While each takes his special 

 direction, the general method of study is the same for all. And it is 

 a testimony alike to the truth of that method and to the unity of Na- 

 ture that there is an ever-increasing tendency toward agreement among 

 those who use it aright temporary differences of interpretation being 

 removed, sometimes by a more complete mastery of her language, 

 sometimes by a better apprehension of her ideas and lines of pursuit 

 which had seemed entirely distinct or even widely divergent being 

 found to lead at last to one common goal. And it is this agreement 

 which gives rise to the general belief in many, to the confident assur- 

 ance that the scientific interpretation of Nature represents her not 

 merely as she seems but as she really is. 



When, however, we carefully examine the foundation of that assur- 

 ance, we find reason to distrust its security ; for it can be shown to 

 be no less true of the scientific conception of Nature than it is of the 

 artistic or the poetic, that it is a representation framed by the mind 

 itself out of the materials supplied by the impressions which external 

 objects make upon the senses, so that, to each man of science, Nature 

 is what he individually believes her to be. And that belief will rest 

 on very different bases, and will have very unequal values, in different 

 departments of science. Thus in what are commonly known as the 

 " exact " sciences, of which astronomy may be taken as the type, the 

 data afforded by precise methods of observation can be made the 

 basis of reasoning, in every step of which the mathematician feels the 

 fullest assurance of certainty ; and the final deduction is justified 



