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minating age of classic art was contemporaneous with 

 the first great development of mathematical science. 

 In an earlier part of this discourse I have alluded to the 

 importance of mathematical precision recognised in the 

 technique of Art during the Cinquecento ; and I have 

 now time only to add that, on looking still further back it 

 would seem that sculpture and painting, architecture and 

 music, nay even poetry itself, received a new, if not 

 their first true, impulse at the period when geometric 

 form appeared fresh chiselled by the hand of the mathe- 

 matician, and when the first ideas of harmony and 

 proportion rang joyously together in the morning tide 

 of art. 

 Relations of Whether the views on which I have here insisted be in 

 LUeratiire ^^^^ ^^^^ novel, or whether they be merely such as from 

 and Art. habit or from inclination are usually kept out of sight, 

 matters little. But whichever be the ease, they may still 

 furnish a solvent of that rigid aversion which both 

 Literature and Art are too often inclined to maintain 

 towards Science of all kinds. It is a very old story that, 

 to know one another better, to dwell upon similarities 

 rather than upon diversities, are the first stages towards 

 a better understanding between two parties ; but in few 

 cases has it a truer application than in that here dis- 

 cussed. To recognise the common growth of scientific 

 and other instincts until the time of harvest is not only 

 conducive to a rich crop ; but it is also a matter of 

 prudence, lest in trying to root up weeds from among the 

 wheat, we should at the same time root up that which is 

 as valuable as wheat. When Pascal's father had shut 

 the door of his son's study to Mathematics, and closeted 

 him with Latin and Greek, he found on his return that the 

 walls were teeming with formulae and figures, the more 

 congenial product of the boy's mind. Fortunately for 



