SCIENCE AND POETRY. 369 



namely, that poetry is thoroughly relative to its expounder 

 and votary ; and that the inconsistencies fade away in the 

 charm of variety, and in the still greater utility of suiting 

 the varying moods of the men and women who find in poetic 

 literature, amusement, instruction, and interest, or perhaps 

 comfort and consolation in many a dark hour and weary 

 day of life's pilgrimage. 



I have purposely devoted a considerable portion of my 

 remarks to the examination of the nature of poetry and of 

 the results and moods of poetic interpretation, in order that 

 I might the more clearly set before you the relations which 

 exist between poetry and that exact method of interpreting 

 the world and its phenomena we denominate Science. We 

 have seen that poetry cannot pretend to be an expounder of 

 causation. It can at the most serve only as a medium for the 

 conveyance of the thoughts which science suggests. We 

 have also noted that the poetry-sense is emphatically a 

 beauty-sense, whatever else may be included within the 

 limits of the poetic sentiments and practice ; and we have 

 lastly insisted on the due recognition of the fact that poetic 

 interpretation, as dependent on the moods of the poet, must 

 be a matter relative to his particular disposition and mental 

 character. There still remains for consideration the ques- 

 tions : How is poetry related to science ? Does science 

 necessarily destroy poetry ? And of what character are the 

 relations which may be shown to exist between science and 

 poetry ? provided it can be demonstrated that any relation- 

 ship whatever exists. 



That poetry must possess some relationship or other 

 with science, is an inference which rests on the plain fact 

 that, both claiming to interpret or construe nature, they must 

 possess some features in common. Science is one way of 

 looking at nature, poetry is another. Science, however, 

 looks at nature for the purpose of discovering the true 

 meaning of nature's phenomena, and of accounting for these 

 phenomena by the discovery of the laws which regulate 

 them. Poetry, as we have seen, rests content with the dis- 



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