SCIENCE AND POETRY. 



1. Optical error in the fable of the Dog and the Shadow. 2. Explanation 

 of the phenomena. 3. Table showing the reflection at different 

 obliquities. 4. Effect of looking down in still water over the 

 bulwark of a ship or boat. 5. Effect of the varying distance of 

 the observers. 6. Experiments with a basin of water. 7. Expla- 

 nation of their effects. 8. Scientific errors in Moore's Irish melody, 

 "Oh, had we some bright little isle." 9. Demonstration of the 

 physical impossibility of what the poet supposes. 10. Allusion in 

 Moore's Irish melody, " Thus when the lamp that lighted," explained. 

 11. Allusion in Moore's melody, "While gazing on the moon's 

 light." 12. Shakspeare's allusion to the cricket. 13. Moore's 

 allusion to the glowworm. 14. Shakspeare on the economy of the 

 bee. 15. Error of the phrase "blind as a beetle." 16. Lines from 

 Campbell's "Pleasures of Hope." 17. Error of the allusions to the 

 foresight of the ant Lines from Prior. 18. Verses from.the Proverbs. 

 19. Celebrated description of the war-horse in Job. 20. Unmeaning 

 language of the translation. 21. Examination of the true meaning 

 of the original Hebrew by Dr. McCaul and Professor Marks. 22. 

 Interpretation by EGesenius. 23. By Ewald. 24. By Schultens. 

 25. Correct meaning explained. 



1. IN a former Tract we observed, that although the illustrations 

 and images drawn by poets from physical phenomena are generally 

 just and true, yet this is not always the case. They are some- 

 times altogether at variance with the principles of physics, and 

 involve suppositions totally incompatible with the laws of Nature. 

 The fable of the Dog and the Shadow, which has been handed 

 down through so many ages, diffused through so many languages, 

 and taught so universally in the nursery and in the school, was 

 given as an example of this.* 



It was there stated, that this popular fable involved an optical 

 blunder, inasmuch as no reflection which could be supposed to 



* See vol. vii., p. 91. 



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