VERSE-WRITING 439 



often assert themselves, he says : " To the oldish person who is a 

 bit weary with the repetitions of his days, to whom the best of 

 his profits have already a tiresome sameness, the effect of a new 

 accomplishment is magical. ... It brings again the joy of 

 youth, for the most of the pleasure of that time lies in just such 

 excursions into the great unknown of the self." He had so great 

 respect for the creative habit of mind that he urged those about 

 him to make an attempt at something of the kind, no matter in 

 how humble a vein. Such an attempt he believed would at 

 least lead to a keener appreciation of the art of those who had 

 won the great prizes of fame. 



Although few of his friends had failed to recognize the poetic 

 side of Mr. Shaler's nature, they had not suspected him of skill 

 in metrical composition. It was therefore a surprise when the 

 typewritten copy of the "Armada" was first passed from one 

 to another. The dramatic romance, "Elizabeth of England/' 

 of which the "Armada" is a part, the first that was written, 

 was begun, the author says in the preface to that work, "to 

 test the truth of a common statement as to the effect on the 

 mind of long-continued application to tasks such as occupy men 

 of science." Mr. Darwin's experience in the loss of the aesthetic 

 sense gave point to the argument, also the lack of literary skill 

 on the part of many eminent investigators. " These instances," 

 he says, "have led to a general belief that there is something in 

 the quality of scientific work which inevitably leads to a loss of 

 imaginative power." This charge of the essential incompati- 

 bility of science and the humanities Mr. Shaler took very much 

 to heart. He believed, on the contrary, "that the work of the 

 naturalist in interrogating his world of facts differs in no essen- 

 tial way from that of the poet in elaborating his fancies both 

 alike using the constructive imagination." With this convic- 

 tion he set to work to make a personal experiment which might 

 have some measure of critical value. He further states that it 

 was difficult to make a beginning, but after a few hundred words 

 had been set down in an automatic manner the writing began 



