THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS 



a cheering person to contemplate. And his hairy, 

 low-browed forebears in Tertiary times can we 

 see ourselves in them? It makes a vast difference 

 whether we see the past as poetry, or see it as sci- 

 ence. In the Bible, and in Whitman, we see it as 

 poetry, in Darwin we see it as science. 



"Rise after rise bow the phantoms behind me." 

 Here Whitman, through his own creative imagina- 

 tion, anticipates Darwin. Carlyle probably would 

 have been moved by such a picture of his origin as 

 Whitman gives. It would have touched his fervid 

 ego. When Haeckel or Darwin gives us an account 

 of man's origin, it is not of my origin, or your origin; 

 the personal element is left out, the past is not 

 linked with the present by a flash: in other words, 

 we see it in the light of science, and not in the light 

 of the poetic imagination. And the light of science 

 in such matters is the light of the broad, all-reveal- 

 ing noonday. It is therefore in the nature of things 

 that the scientific view of life in some of its aspects 

 should repel us, when it comes too near us, when it 

 touches us personally, especially when it comes be- 

 tween us and our religious beliefs and aspirations. 



in 



We are not to forget that physical science is of 



necessity occupied with the physical side of things. 



And what is there in nature or in life that has not 



its physical side? Exclusive occupation with this 



58 



