MAUDSLEY ON HEREDITARY DESCENT. 33 



necessary for me to write hastily to meet public 

 events." Most touching is it to hear a soul all naph- 

 tha and fire berate itself for aesthetic deficiencies. 

 We shall pardon any poet much in the rhythms of 

 his verse if the rhythms of his heart are in perfect 

 accord with those of the great melodies of the Court. 

 He who speaks before the Throne is adequately ap- 

 proved, if the King crowns him. [Applause.] 



American and all other literature will undoubtedly 

 take coloring from science of many kinds. It is not 

 improper for us to remind ourselves that some of our 

 leaders of research in its merely physical departments 

 are urging us to make more and more of the revela- 

 tions of the microscope and scalpel when we open 

 our mouths to sing. Tyndall has had an aspiration, 

 perhaps the deepest in his life outside of his career 

 as a physicist, to be the prose-poet of nature. " The 

 position of science," he says, "is already assured, 

 but I think the poet also will have a great part to 

 play in the future of the world. To him it is given, 

 for a long time to come, to fill those shores which the 

 recession of the theologic tide has left exposed; to 

 him, when he rightly understands his mission, and 

 does not flinch from the tonic discipline which it 

 assuredly demands, we have a right to look for that 

 heightening and brightening of life which so many 

 of us need. He ought to be the interpreter of that 

 Power which as Jehovah, Jove, or Lord, has hitherto 

 filled and strengthened the human heart." (Frag- 

 ments of Science, p. 106.) What if the scientific tide 

 itself is a theologic one? What if every scientific 

 fact has a religious side? 



