THE REVIVAL OF SCIENCE 105 



systems confront each other in the poem, in much 

 the same relative position which they occupied in the 

 mind of the public. The ordinary, habitual mode of 

 speaking of celestial phenomena is Ptolemaic ; 2 the 

 conscious or doctrinal exposition of the same phe- 

 nomena is Copernican. 3 



But the incongruity between these two 

 statements is no greater than will be found 

 today in authors writing of subjects still sub 

 judice. Further, we must not forget that 

 Milton never saw either of his great epics in 

 writing or in print. His power of impressing 

 his visions on the world was, however, such that 

 Huxley held that it was not the cosmogony of 

 Genesis but the cosmogony of Milton which 

 had enthralled and misled the world. 



More distinctly than in his epics, Milton, 

 in his history, showed a leaning to the scientific 

 method. Firth has lately told us that "his 

 conclusions are roughly those of modern schol- 

 ars, and his reasoning practically that of a 

 scientific historian." In one respect, however, 

 he was less than lukewarm. He had no sym- 



2 Mark Pattison cites Paradise Lost, VII, 339-356; III, 420- 

 481. And yet, in 1639, Milton had visited Galileo. 



3 See ibid. VIII, 77, 122-140. 



