SPIRIT OF THE CHASE 8 



has no appeal for the level-headed. To the level- 

 headed there is no statement, however profoundly 

 true, that is not demonstrably absurd. That is 

 what logic does. It applies itself to elemental 

 things, which are never all of them present at any 

 given moment, and becomes grotesquely arrogant 

 in its unconscious incompetence. Truth of any 

 value is never captured by the level-headed. That 

 is a lesson which Poetry is constantly striving, 

 though in vain, to teach. Take this subject of the 

 odes. Is it the case, or is it not, that each season is 

 the best ? I say it is the case." " As presented by 

 Nature, perhaps it is," said the critic ; " one certainly 

 would not have summer in December or winter in 

 June." " As presented by Nature ? Of course ! " 

 answered the poet. " How otherwise could we deal 

 with it?" "Art?" the critic suggested. "Ha! 

 Your canons of Art, then, are but the limitations of 

 the practical mind defects of the mind in relation 

 to reality, which is infinite? The Scot, with his 

 logic, is as far astray as the Irishman, who has 

 none ! " "I cannot but observe," said the critic, 

 "that you use logic to destroy logic." "Reason, 

 not logic," said the poet, " reason to destroy logic." 

 "You split a hair?" "What then? It may be 

 a very important act. The distinction may be 

 vital. It is the small distinctions that are most 

 easily overlooked. But what has size to do with the 

 fundamental truth of things ? Nature, the universe, 

 the infinite, has no quality of size. Otherwise I 

 should point out to you that the whole solar system 



