Vlll PREFACE. 



each other, that it is not only undesirable but difficult to 

 separate them ; and none will make the attempt but those who 

 wish to render knowledge unpopular, harsh, and monotonous. 

 All who really love nature must love poetry, and feel an 

 additional charm when they hear her sing the manifold works, 

 beauties, and achievements of the former. With this con- 

 viction, I have not suppressed such poetic recollections as 

 occurred to me during the writing of this work. Herbert, 

 in his Remains, says, " there is no knowledge but, in a skilful 

 hand, serves either positively as it is, or else to illustrate some 

 other knowledge." Now the truth of the latter part of this 

 observation is well exemplified on several occasions in the poetic 

 quotations I have inserted, especially in those from poets who 

 lived in the comparative infancy of science. So frequently is 

 this the case in the writings of Shakespeare, that I have often 

 thought that if philosophical journals had existed in his period, 

 we should have found him amongst the most frequent of their 

 contributors, and that his master-mind would have been as 

 much engaged in teaching a knowledge of physical nature 

 as in pourtraying the virtues and vices of mankind. In the 

 absence of such convenient vehicles, we find that he has most 

 ingeniously made his plays and poems subservient to the 

 diffusion of many of his philosophical remarks; or, to use 

 his own words, " he hath strange places crammed with obser- 

 vation." What Ben Jonson has said in his poem on Tfie 

 Mind, may well be applied to Shakespeare : 



" Our sense you do with knowledge fill, 

 And yet remain our wonder still." 



Having thus noticed the peculiar features of this volume, I 

 have only to express the hope, that the reader may find as 

 much pleasure and instruction in perusing it as I found in 

 composing it. 



JAMES H. FENNELL. 



