IN THE NOON OF SCIENCE 



Without soul and sentiment we cannot have litera- 

 ture, art, music, religion, and all that gives the charm 

 and meaning to life; and without reason and the 

 scientific habit of mind we cannot have exact knowl- 

 edge and the mastery over the physical forces upon 

 which our civilization is based. We must transcend 

 physical science to reach the spiritual and grasp the 

 final mystery of life. To science there is no mys- 

 tery, there is only the inexplicable; there is no 

 spiritual, there are laws and processes; there is 

 no inner, there is only the outer, world. To science 

 Goethe's exclamation, "There is a universe within 

 thee as well," or as Jesus put it before him, "The 

 kingdom of heaven is within you," has no meaning, 

 because it cannot weigh and measure and systema- 

 tize this inner universe. Hence, I say, if we would 

 know the world as it stands related to our souls, 

 to our emotional and aesthetic natures, we must 

 look to literature and art; if we would know it as it 

 stands related to our religious instincts and aspira- 

 tions, we must look to the great teachers and proph- 

 ets, poets and mystics ; but if we would know it as it 

 is in and of itself, and as it stands related to our 

 physical life and well-being, and to our reason, we 

 must look to science. 



Science and poetry go hand in hand in this re- 

 spect at least they transform and illuminate the 

 common, the near at hand. They show us the di- 

 vine underfoot. One brings to pass what the other 

 61 



