XIV INTRODUCTION. 



actions by which its woody fibre and its juices are pro- 

 duced, and to investigate those laws by which is 

 regulated the power to throw back the white sunbeam 

 from its surface in coloured rays, our admiration passes 

 to the higher feeling of deep astonishment at the perfec- 

 tion of the processes, and of reverence for their great 

 Designer. There are, indeed, e ' tongues in trees ;" but 

 science alone can interpret their mysterious whispers, 

 and in this consists its poetry. 



To rest content with the bare enunciation of a truth, 

 is to perform but one half of a task. As each atom of 

 matter is involved in an atmosphere of properties and 

 powers, which unites it to every mass of the universe, so 

 each truth, however common it may be, is surrounded 

 by impulses which, being awakened, pass from soul to 

 soul like musical undulations, and which will be repeated 

 through the echoes of space, and prolonged for all 

 eternity. 



. The poetry which springs from the contemplation of 

 the agencies which are actively employed in producing 

 the transformation of matter, and which is founded upon 

 the truths developed by the aids of science, should be in 

 no respect inferior to that which has been inspired by 

 the beauty of the individual forms of matter, and the 

 pleasing character of their combinations. 



The imaginative view of man and his world the 

 creations of the romantic mind have been, and ever 

 will be, dwelt on with a soul-absorbing passion. The 

 mystery of our being, and the mystery of our ceasing to 

 be, acting upon intelligences which are for ever striving 

 to comprehend the enigma of themselves, leads by a 

 natural process to a love for the Ideal. The discovery 

 of those truths which advance the human mind towards 

 that point of knowledge to which all its secret longings 

 tend, should excite a higher feeling than any mere crea- 

 tion of the fancy, how beautiful soever it may be. The 



