NATURE AND THE POETS. 



I HAVE said on a former occasion that " the true 

 poet knows more about Nature than the naturalist, 

 because he carries her open secrets in his heart. 

 Eckermann could instruct Goethe in ornithology, but 

 could not Goethe instruct Eckermann in the mean- 

 ing and mystery of the bird ? " But the poets some- 

 times rely too confidently upon their supposed intui- 

 tive knowledge of nature and grow careless about 

 the accuracy of the details of their pictures. I am 

 not aware that this was ever the case with Goethe ; 

 I think it was not, for as a rule the greater the poet, 

 the more correct and truthful will be his specifica- 

 tions. It is the lesser poets who trip most upon their 

 facts. Thus a New England poet speaks of " pluck- 

 ing the apple from the pine," .as if the pine-apple grew 

 upon the pine-tree. A Western poet sings of the 

 bluebird in a strain in which every feature and char- 

 acteristic of the bird is lost ; not one trait of the bird 

 is faithfully set down. When the robin and the swal- 

 low come, he says, the bluebird hies him to some 

 mossy old wood, where, amid the deep seclusion he 

 pours out his song. 



