678 CORRESPONDING SOCIETIES. 



included what Bergson called intuition. Like Goethe, but far less consciously and 

 articulately, he was fighting the battle of the organic against the mechanical inter- 

 pretation of nature. The importance of the poetic view of nature, especially as 

 expressed by Wordsworth and Shelley, had been insisted on by Dr. A. N. Whitehead 

 in his 'Science and the Modern World.' He laid down as 'notions' which 

 Wordsworth had made it incumbent on any adequate philosophy of nature to take 

 account of, endurance, value, organism, iaterfusion. The present paper attempted 

 to illustrate this important statement so far as Wordsworth was concerned. 



(1) Endurance. 'Wordsworth was haunted by the enormous permanences of 

 Nature.' This trait had a psychological basis ; his tenacity and frugality, his refusal 

 to believe that anything was lost without compensation — ' The chUd was father to 

 the man ' ; his indifference to action and to event. (2) Value. This was implied 

 in every form of what was known as the ' Worship of Nature.' But Wordsworth's 

 special discovery was the significance of common and familiar things. The meanest 

 flower could give him thoughts too deep for tears ; and he scorned Peter Bell, for 

 whom a yellow primrose was a yellow primrose, ' and nothing more.' For the modern 

 physicist Man was in danger of insignificance in the presence of the infinitely vast and 

 of the infinitely little. For Wordsworth there was no such disparity. Man and 

 Nature faced one another, closely bound together in their intercourse. Man reached 

 his highest achievement. Nature her destined end. In this conception Wordsworth 

 completely rejected the notion of a merely mechanical relation between them, and, 

 in so far, approached the conception of (3) organism. Wordsworth had no biological 

 ideas. But, feeling after the notion of organic union, he fell upon the symbol of 

 marriage. The mind of Man was to be ' wedded ' to the universe, and this blending 

 would produce an uplifting and inspiring power. (4) Interfusion. But even this 

 symbol did not express all that Wordsworth meant. In the famous Tintern lines he 

 expressed his sense of something pervading both Man and Nature, and found to 

 convey this the word ' interfused,' which Whitehead singled out. But Wordsworth 

 had moods of mystic ecstasy in which even ' interfusion ' seemed inadequate, and he 

 apprehended Man, Nature and God as a single unity. Here he lost all relation to 

 modern science, but came into touch with Spinoza. But he did not lose touch with 

 the Lake Country. On the contrary, while the Wordsworth of common and familiar 

 things might have lived and written anjrwhere, it needed a country of sublime 

 mountain scenery to produce Wordsworth the mystic. 



Wordsworth as a Pioneer in the Science of Scenery. 

 By Dr. Vaughan Coenish. 



The pre-eminence of Wordsworth as a poet of Nature has long been recognised, 

 but there is another aspect of his originality which has not yet received adequate 

 recognition. Wordsworth wrote ' A Guide through the District of the Lakes in the 

 North of England with a Description of the Scenery,' which appeared in several 

 editions between 1810 and 1835. The ' Guide ' proper is brief, the author regarding 

 this portion of his task as ' humble and tedious,' and he soon plunges into his des- 

 cription of the scenery. Here at once we find scientific originality, for he not only 

 records physical appearances, but also, whenever they give keen enjoyment, seeks 

 the source of the impression, investigating both the objective conditions and the 

 mental qualities concerned in their appreciation. Moreover, he writes in the hope 

 that his essay may lead to habits of ' more considerate observation than have been 

 hitherto applied to local scenery.' 



Consideration saved Wordsworth from the sentimental assumption that the 

 aspect of Nature is always harmonious. He points out, for example, a ' defect ' in 

 the colouring of the Country of the Lakes. But his faculty of observation made him 

 quick to recognise the conditions in which objects in the view enhance one another, 

 the harmonies which are the true beauties of scenery. Thus he directs attention to 

 the circumstance that the radial arrangment of the English Lakes from a mountainous 

 centre introduces every variety of the sun's shadowing. He points out that the 

 mountains of the district differ from hills not merely in mass but quality, owing to 

 the atmospheric absorption which etheriaUses the summit when viewed from the 

 valley. He notes the height which must be attained that ' compact fleecy clouds ' 

 should settle upon the crest. Among ' the varied solemnities of the night ' he recog- 

 nises the singular charm of stars which ' take their stations above the hill tops ' — an 

 excellent observation of enhancement due to a momentary and accidental relation. 



