THE PSYCHICAL ELEMENT. 



Ill 



nic utterance which, however, on close inspec- 

 tion is worm-holed through and through by 

 a defective logic. Still today, though more 

 than forty years old, as a sample of the Lit- 

 erature of Science it remains of the greatest. 

 In this connection the remark is due that the 

 band of scientists contemporary with Darwin 

 show a sense of style unusual with their pro- 

 fession; the result is that they have added to 

 Literature proper a new department, repre- 

 sented before their time only by a few sparse 

 and humble works (like White's History of 

 Selborne). Not a little of the power of Dar- 

 win himself springs from his feeling for the 

 right word in the right place ; he has for his 

 work the appropriate literary gift which is 

 always felt by the reader. The beauty-winged 

 words of these writers has borne science to 

 the hearts of the people where it must finally 

 have lodgment, if it is to be effective and ful- 

 fil its highest purpose. Scientific thought and 

 speech in their less technical forms have be- 

 come implanted in the consciousness of the 

 folk and have intrenched themselves as a spe- 

 cial branch in the belles-lettres of the age. 

 This must be deemed a very significant fact, 

 and gives us a glimpse of a fresh trend of the 

 time-spirit. The scientific thought-world is 

 thus a necessary element or strand of the 

 whole man, but it must not claim total and 



