THE NEW SCIENCE AND POETRY 137 



science did not furnish him fully the promised reward of fresh 

 imagery, it did aid him with a new interest. The facts of nature ! 

 were not to him cold and lifeless, but warm and living. In the 

 Seasons imagination and reason meet on terms of amity, and merely / 

 await the greater genius of Wordsworth to wed them. 



In John Dyer's The Fleece there is the same spirit of interested 

 observation. The subject-matter is humble and homely but the 

 enthusiasm of the poet is ever present. He wrote like an expert 

 shepherd. He seemed to know the causes of disease and their 

 cures; 127 he had patiently observed the habits of the flock; 128 he 

 knew the shearing time, the lambing time, the care of the fleece, and 

 its later process of manufacture. With all of his discursiveness 

 and preaching, like Thomson, his method of gathering information^ 

 was that of the new science, observation and experiment. 



One would not expect to find any new science or old science in 

 Somerville's The Chase, and yet the scientific attitude is there. 

 This lover of dogs has made a careful study of them, so that he 

 too can speak as an expert in his field. He has given an explana 

 tion of how a hound follows the scent of a deer, which might in 

 substance have appeared in the Philosophical Transactions, 

 ''The blood from the heart incessant rolls 



In many a crimson tide, then here and there 



In smaller rills disparted, as its flow 



Propelled, the serous particles wade 



Through th' open pores, and with the ambient air 



Entangling mix. ' ' 129 



This effluvium, escaping through the pores of the skin, clings to the 

 grass, shrubs, and bushes, unless destroyed by rain or heat. The 

 nostrils of the hound in pursuit sucks in this effluvium and dis 

 covers the scent. 



The poet had seen the weather signs, he knew the care of the 

 horse, the symptoms and the treatment of hydrophobia. The hab 

 its of the deer, the hound, the hare, and the wily fox, this poet 

 of the open fields also knew. His lines are filled with the fresh 

 ness and vigor of the outdoor life ; he wrote out of the enthusiasm 



127 Bk. I. 

 ^Bk. II. 

 129 Canto I. 



