36 The Bible of Nature 



But the moral of all this is obvious. The 

 wonder of the world is a stimulus to our scien^ 

 tific intelligence, it incites us to discover the " open 

 Sesame" for hundreds of Aladdin's caves, it makes 

 us bow in reverence. Moreover, it is most ob- 

 viously something to enjoy, to delight in more and 

 more. We do well to recall that line of Gold- 

 smith's, "His heaven commences ere the world be 

 past." Do we not need some infusion of the 

 simple delight in the earth which was expressed 

 by Matthew Arnold in his *' Empedocles on Etna," 

 "Is it so small a thing to have enjoy'd the sun ?" ? 



The Sense of Wonder and the Scientific Mood. — Our 

 second general reflection is on the relation between 

 science and wonder. Is not wonder the offspring 

 of ignorance? Is not science the sworn foe of 

 mystery? Do not all wonders disappear in the 

 light of scientific day ? 



There are two separate questions here, first, 

 whether the scientific outlook, which inquires into 

 natural causes, is in itself antagonistic to the sense 

 of wonder; and, secondly, whether the results of 

 scientific analysis have not explained away much 

 that used to be wonderful in human eyes. 



The Three Moods : Practical, Emotional, and Scien- 

 tific. — We must admit, of course, that the scien- 

 tific mood is quite different from the emotional 

 mood, just as it is quite different from the practical 

 mood. The practical man is concerned with 



