376 LEISURE-TIME STUDIES. 



wondrous harmony of its parts, of the association of organs 

 to special ends, and of the many contrivances whereby 

 nature works out her manifold intentions in the world of 

 life. Hear Dr. Henry Maudsley on this point, as a candid 

 apologist for scientific culture as related to the poetic 

 sense. " To a right-thinking and right-feeling mind," 

 says this author, " the beauty, the grandeur, the mystery of 

 Nature are augmented, not lessened, by each new glimpse 

 into the secret recesses of her operations. The sun going 

 forth from its chamber in the east to run its course, is not 

 less glorious in majesty because we have discovered the 

 law of gravitation, and are able by spectral analysis to 

 detect the metals which enter into its composition, because 

 it is no longer Helios driving his golden chariot through 

 the pathless spaces of the heavens. The mountains are 

 not less imposing in their grandeur because the Oreads 

 have deserted them, nor the groves less attractive, the 

 streams more desolate, because Science has banished the 

 Dryads and the Naiads. No, Science has not destroyed 

 Poetry, nor expelled the Divine from Nature, but has furnished 

 the materials and given the presages, of a higher poetry 

 and a mightier philosophy than the world has yet seen. 

 The grave of each superstition which it slays, is the womb of 

 a better birth. And if it comes to pass in its onward march, 

 as it may well be it will come to pass, that other super- 

 stitions shall be dethroned as the sun-god has been dethroned, 

 we may rest assured that this also will be a step in human 

 progress, and in the beneficent evolution of the Power which 

 ruleth alike the courses of the stars and the ways of men." 



I do not thus think well, or indeed anything, of the 

 doctrine that a poetry nursed in utter ignorance of the 

 scientific aspects of nature presents us with an essentially 

 typical development of the poetic faculty. No one can 

 deny that in the absence of all scientific knowledge, that 

 faculty may be developed to sing in loftiest strains and 

 fullest measure. But I enter a strong protest against the 

 misrepresentation that the scientific faculty destroys the 



