SCIENCE AND POETRY. 367 



the stimulus of outward beauty. We pass to but another 

 phase of beauty when we enter the domain of poetry. The 

 "beauty" of the poet possesses, however, a range so wide 

 and diverse, that the phrase is incompatible to express the 

 mere subjects of his treatment, although the manner and 

 mode of his treatment present us with a perennial feast of 

 fair, true, and chaste thoughts. 



But the idea I have just mooted of the relative nature 

 of our sense of beauty in nature, and of the fact that the 

 scene which evokes the warmest response of joy and 

 admiration in one may fail even to arrest the eye of 

 another, carries with it, as a corollary, a further and special 

 interpretation of the poetic instinct. That is to say, it is 

 difficult to see or discover any special standard of beauty, 

 or for the correct and poetic interpretation of nature. 

 Nature appears to each man and woman simply as the mind 

 and senses allow. The higher the culture of the beauty-spirit 

 and nature-sense, the more feelingly will nature appeal to us. 

 And the varying moods of the poet-observer, like those of 

 other persons, can in any case stand only for a special and 

 single interpretation of the phenomena he sees and delights 

 in. Is it surprising, then, to find that the term "poetic 

 interpretation of nature" is simply synonymous with the 

 particular reading of nature which each poet's senses, dis- 

 position, and culture have permitted him to construct ? We 

 may safely maintain that a colour-blind poet might write a 

 charming poem on outward nature, though to him the grass 

 appeared red, and the luxuriant foliage of spring appeared 

 any colour but green. His imagery might be subtle, his 

 metaphor keen, and his rhythm exquisite, his poetry, in a 

 word, might be of its particular phase the finest, and yet his 

 interpretation of nature would be in any case singular, and as 

 to colour, at any rate, absolutely incorrect. The exaggerated 

 case of colour-blindness is but a parody on the real state 

 and manner of our poetic interpretation of nature. Each 

 individual poet interprets nature as nature appears to him ; 

 and according as the poet thinks of himself and others, so 



