SCIENCE AND POETRY. 379 



special tendency in the morals of poetry to prefer a pleasant 

 delusion to the truth, you will accept the light and correction 

 of science, even if you may still admire the poetry, mythical 

 as it may be. The poetry is modified as to its exactitude, 

 but I would fain believe the imagery and grace remain un- 

 touched. You may think of the poet's descriptions as those 

 of ethereal fancy, and as the delicate imaginings of what the 

 argonaut might be not what it really is. The poetry may 

 not be true to nature, still you can value and appreciate it 

 for itself. Beyond the scientific modification there remains 

 the essence of the poesy, and it is this latter which pleases 

 our aesthetic sense, and forms the charm and the sweetness 

 of the poet's song. 



If I might quote another, and a recent instance of the 

 modification which poetry must undergo at the hand of 

 science, I should cite a passage from Mr. Browning's 

 " Prince Hohenstiel Schwangau," wherein, speaking of the 

 descent of man, he says : 



"That mass man sprang from was a jelly lump 

 Once on a time ; he kept an after course 

 Through fish and insect, reptile, bird, and beast, 

 Till he attained to be an ape at last, 

 Or last but one." 



Now, as explanatory of Mr. Darwin's theory of the 

 " Descent of Man," Mr. Browning's words are absolutely 

 incorrect. In that theory, despite the popular notions, Mr. 

 Darwin certainly does not hold that the insect, fish, reptile, 

 bird, and beast are so many connected links in one con- 

 tinuous and connected chain of descent ; and he does not 

 maintain that man is the direct descendant of an ape. 

 Once again, the poetry is subtle, but the inferences are 

 wrong; and even as a matter of theory, the more exact 

 knowledge of what Mr. Darwin teaches or holds, is shown to 

 act as a corrective to the substance of the poetry, although 

 the form retains all its grace and charm. Thus it would 

 appear that the mere mood of poetry is untouched by 

 science, and that a poem utterly at variance with nature 



