178 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



seeking to suggest that there are a number of 

 strong impressions borne in on man by Nature 

 which have formed and should continue to form 

 the raw materials of poetry and the impulses of 

 other forms of art. But before continuing this 

 simple argument, we must pause for a moment 

 to protest against the not uncommon heresy that 

 Nature is man's creation! We are told that 

 Nature has no suggestions of her own, that what 

 we see in Nature depends on the arts that have 

 already influenced us, that Wordsworth found 

 in stones the sermons which he had himself hidden 

 there. 



But this seems to us an extreme subjectivism. 

 It is indeed the function of Art to read into 

 Nature, but the impressions which we have been 

 discussing have scientific validity. And if it be 

 urged that it is difficult to free even science from 

 anthropomorphism, as has been illustrated in the 

 volume on EVOLUTION in this Library, we should 

 answer that this applies rather to theoretical 

 interpretations than to the great data of expe- 

 rience. When a scientific impression is really 

 sound, it is not something that may be accepted 

 or rejected as one will, it does not depend on 

 individual outlook, it stands the test of veri- 

 fiability by all normal intelligences. 



RAW MATERIALS OF POETRY. Our argument, 

 then, is this, that the fundamental impressions 



