SCIENCE AND POETRY. 381 



poet communing with nature, and teaching us new and 

 better feelings, and the glory of a higher life. 



It is not saying too much, then, to predict that the true 

 mission of poetry is that of leading us to see fairer aspects 

 of things, to cultivate the beauty-sense, and to lead us to 

 see nature in her thousand moods, even if the thoughts 

 it evokes are ofttimes " too deep for tears." Poetry thus 

 becomes the handmaid of culture, and still more of religion. 

 Science, it may never attempt to supersede ; although there 

 is and must be a poetry of knowledge, and the aesthetic 

 celebration of every new fact and history which research 

 adds to our stores of thought. Theologies may grow 

 apace, and in turn wax old and decay, dying out because 

 unfitted to represent the newer aspects of life and the 

 nobler thoughts of God which the progress of the ages 

 reveals. But poetry, as the expression of the deepest 

 emotions of the human soul, can never fade. In her 

 records lie embalmed, as in a treasure-house, the thoughts 

 of the far-back past, and the noblest sentiments which 

 humanity may express. Such are the functions of true 

 poesy, and such the mission of those 



"Who on earth have made us heirs 

 Of truth and pure delight by heavenly lays ! " 



THE END. 



PRINTED AT THE CAXTON PRESS, BECCLES. 



