1920] on Science and Poetry 227 



ancient Greece ! Is the world so much better since then — much 

 wiser, much greater ? I am not so very sure : but if so the advance 

 has been due to them, and perhaps still more to the teaching of Him 

 of Nazareth. In our Philosophy we shall obey them all ; not this nor 

 that, but all. The ideal may be distant, though haply not so distant 

 as some may fear, and I cannot describe it here in detail. But the 

 only ideal worth having is one which we can always approach, but 

 never reach. 



To sum up, then, Science and Poetry dwell together. We shall 

 reach Truth by seeking Beauty, and Beauty by seeking Truth. 

 Nor shall we attain one without the other, for they live hand- 

 in-hand on those far-fired pinnacles. For me, at least, Poetry is 

 not a mere matter of words, a temporary beat of the heart, a 

 wandering strain, the altar-fume of a cult of cloistered criticism. 

 It is a record and a monument for humanity, meant to endure until, 

 as Shelley said, the future dares forget the past. It is the inscription 

 of all experience, the record of all things seen, the tablet of the heart, 

 the epitaph of suffering, the song of the thing done, the paean of 

 victory. Poetry is the breath of Action climbed to the summit ; 

 Thought on the peak ; Philosophy in music more divine ; the 

 perfected utterance of the Human Spirit. On the peak, I say ; for 

 it is onlv there that Poetrv is heard. 



[E. E.] 



Q 2 



