SCIENCE AND POETRY. 371 



joices in the rising sun, and in the glorious effulgence which 

 soon floods hill and vale, and who exhibits thus a feeling 

 containing " the first stirrings of that which, when the poet 

 fashions it into fitting words, becomes an immortal song." 

 Then comes the scientific contrast. Imagine, argues Prin- 

 cipal Shairp, that the shepherd youth described by Words- 

 worth had been "college-bred, and crammed with all the 

 'ologies which Physical Science now teaches, would he still 

 have had the same elevated joy in presence of that spec- 

 tacle ? " There is just the slightest soupcon of contempt, 

 if I may so put it, in the question. It is as if our author 

 had said, "Surely you cannot imagine for a moment that 

 a knowledge of the ' ologies ' would increase the poetic 

 aspiration or the feeling of joy that rises within the breast 

 of the watcher of the rising sun ! " Suppose him to have 

 been a geologist, argues Dr. Shairp, and to have known 

 something about the structure of his native hills and valleys, 

 "in the presence of such scientific thoughts as these," 

 asks our author, " what would become of the boy's imagina- 

 tive and devout ecstacy ? " True, there is a qualification 

 in the succeeding page of Dr. Shairp's volume, where he 

 admits that a physicist "of large soul " may "rejoice at the 

 great things of Nature which he sees, as genuinely as the 

 unreflecting child, the thoughtful peasant, or the most 

 spontaneous poet." But withal, Principal Shairp is no 

 believer in the advantages of scientific knowledge as an aid 

 to poetic sentiment. It is, on the contrary, if not an abso- 

 lute hindrance to poetic thought, at least a disqualification, 

 in Dr. Shairp's eyes. For your scientist may wonder, may 

 reverence, may admire, but his analytical habits, his induc- 

 tive tendencies, and his deductive speculations are liable 

 to " scare away poetry " from his world " for ever." Even 

 with the admission that to the "sovereign minds of science " 

 poetry may be a living reality, Dr. Shairp clearly contends 

 for the antithetical nature of science as regards the poetic 

 instinct. The early " poetic glow of wonder and emotion," 

 which according to Principal Shairp exists " before Science 



