Ixxii REPORT — 1872. 



US the perception of tliose beauties and harmonies which his own trained" 

 sense has recognized, and thus impart to us the pleasure ho has himself derived 

 from their contemplation. As no two Artists agree in the original constitu- 

 tion and acquii'ed habits of their Minds, all look at Nature with different 

 (mental) eyes ; so that to each, Nature is tvliat he individually sees in her. 



The Poet, again, serves as the Interpreter of Nature, not so much when 

 by sliilfiil word-painting (whether in prose or verse) he calls up before our 

 mental vision the picture of some actual or ideal scene, however beautiful ; 

 as when, by rendering into appropriate forms those deeper impressions made 

 by the Nature around him on the Moral and Emotional part of his own 

 Nature, he transfers these impressions to the corresponding part of ours. 

 For it is the attribute of the true Poet to penetrate the secret of those mys- 

 terious influences which we all unknowingly experience ; and having dis- 

 covered this to himself, to bring others, by the power he thus wields, 

 into the like sympathetic relation with Nature, — evoking with sliilful touch 

 the varied response of the Soul's finest chords, heightening its joj's, assuaging 

 its griefs, and elevating its aspirations. Whilst, then, the Artist aims to 

 picture what he sees in Nature, it is the object of the Poet to represent what 

 he feels in Nature ; and to each true Poet, Nature is ivhat he individually 

 finds in her. 



The Philosopher's interpretation of Nature seems less individual than that of 

 the Artist or the Poet, because it is based on facts which anj' one may verify, 

 and is elaborated by reasoning processes of whicli all admit the validity. 

 He looks at the Universe as a vast Book lying open before him, of which he 

 has in the first place to learn the characters, then to master the language, 

 and finally to apiu'ehend the ideas which that language conveys. In that 

 Book there are many Chapters, treating of different subjects ; and as Life is 

 too short for any one man to grasp the whole, the Scientific interpretation of 

 this Book comes to be the work of many Intellects, differing not merely in- 

 the range but also in the character of their powers. But whilst there are 

 " diversities of gifts," there is " the same spii'it." While each takes his 

 special direction, the general Method of study is the same for all. And it is 

 a testimony alike to the truth of that Ifethod and to the Unity of Nature, that 

 there is an ever-increasing tendency towards agreement among those who rise 

 it aright ; — temporary differences of interpretation being removed, sometimes 

 by a more complete mastery of her language, sometimes by a better appre- 

 hension of her ideas ; — and lines of pursuit which had seemed entirely distinct 

 or even widely divergent, being found to lead at last to one common goal. 

 And it is this agreement which gives rise to the general belief— in many, to 

 the confident assurance — that the Scientific interpretation of Nature represents 

 her not merely as she seems, but as she really is. 



But when we carefully examine the foundation of that assurance, we 

 find reason to distrust its secinity ; for it can be shown to be no less 

 true of the Scientific conception of Nature, than it is of the Artistic or the 

 Poetic, that it is a representation framed by the Mind itself out of the 

 materials supplied by the impressions which external objects make upon the 

 Senses ; so that to each Man of Science, Nature is what lie individucdly believes 

 her to be. And that belief M'ill rest on very different bases, and will have 

 very unequal values, in different departments of Science. — Thus in what are 

 commonly known as the " exact " Sciences, of which Astronomy may be taken 

 as the type, the data afi'orded by precise methods of observation can be made 

 the basis of reasoning, in every step of which the Mathematician feels the 

 fullest assurance of certainty ; and the final deduction is justified either by 



