42 The Bible of Nature 



Our point just now, however, is rather different. 

 It is simply that for ordinary men and women one 

 of the conditions of sanity is an alternation of 

 moods. Darwin was no ordinary man, yet he 

 once admitted that it was a rest to lie under the 

 trees and listen to the birds without bothering his 

 head about how they came to be thus or thus. The 

 great embryologist Von Baer once shut himself up 

 in his study when snow was upon the ground, and 

 did not come out again until the rye was in har- 

 vest. He was filled, he tells us, with uncontroll- 

 able pathos at the sight. "The laws of develop- 

 ment may be discovered this year or many years 

 hence — by me or by others — what matters it ? It 

 is surely folly to sacrifice for this the joy of life 

 which nothing can replace." Life is not for science, 

 but science for life. In short, it comes to this, that 

 there is a time for science, and a time for emotion. 

 It is a part of man's chief end not only to know 

 nature, but to enjoy her forever. 



The Sense of Wonder and the Results of Science. — 

 Turning now to the second part of the question, 

 we have to ask whether the results of science do not 

 explain away the wonderful. Take the rainbow, 

 for instance. It made Wordsworth's heart leap 

 up; when he was a child, when he was a man. 



'So be it when I shall grow old, 

 Or let me die." 



