12 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



rude joy in the heavens and the earth, and in 

 the pageant of the seasons something more 

 than the pleasure of basking in the sun like a 

 lizard. Probably, however, it was not until man 

 had gained some firmness of footing in the 

 world, secured by his wits against stronger rivals 

 and a careless environment, that the emotional 

 tone grew into dignity as a distinct mood, a 

 genuine enjoyment of beautiful things, which 

 found expression in music and dance, in song and 

 story, in painting and carving, and in religious 

 rites. 



Like the practical mood, so the emotional 

 mood has its obvious virtues. It is part of the 

 salt of life. It begets a sympathy that is insight. 

 In a noisy world it helps to keep us aware of 

 harmony hidden in the heart of things. 



We are perhaps apt to think too lightly of the 

 value of the more primitive aesthetic emotions. 

 Do we not need some infusion of the simple de- 

 light in the earth which was expressed for in- 

 stance by Matthew Arnold in his Empedocles on 

 Etna: "Is it so small a thing to have enjoy 'd 

 the sun?" There is a fine ideal, which no science 

 need contradict, in that line of Goldsmith's, 

 "His heaven commences ere the world be past." 

 It is only by the culture of the emotional mood 

 though the words are almost self-contradictory 

 that man "hitches his wagon to the stars." 



