SCIENCE AND MYSTICISM 317 



of Waves by Wind" was in my mind; but this time 

 another book was more appropriate, and I read — 



There are waters blown by changing winds to laughter 

 And lit by the rich skies, all day. And after, 



Frost, with a gesture, stays the waves that dance 

 And wandering loveliness. He leaves a white 



Unbroken glory, a gathered radiance, 

 A width, a shining peace, under the night. 



The magic words bring back the scene. Again we 

 feel Nature drawing close to us, uniting with us, till 

 we are filled with the gladness of the waves dancing in 

 the sunshine, with the awe of the moonlight on the 

 frozen lake. These were not moments when we fell 

 below ourselves. We do not look back on them and say, 

 "It was disgraceful for a man with six sober senses and 

 a scientific understanding to let himself be deluded in 

 that way. I will take Lamb's Hydrodynamics with me 

 next time". It is good that there should be such 

 moments for us. Life would be stunted and narrow if 

 we could feel no significance in the world around us 

 beyond that which can be weighed and measured with 

 the tools of the physicist or described by the metrical 

 symbols of the mathematician. 



Of course it was an illusion. We can easily expose 

 the rather clumsy trick that was played on us. Aethereal 

 vibrations of various wave-lengths, reflected at different 

 angles from the disturbed interface between air and 

 water, reached our eyes, and by photoelectric action 

 caused appropriate stimuli to travel along the optic 

 nerves to a brain-centre. Here the mind set to work to 

 weave an impression out of the stimuli. The incoming 

 material was somewhat meagre; but the mind is a great 

 storehouse of associations that could be used to clothe 



