1880.] 14*^ [Hartshorne. 



science. It is not without evidence of some power 

 of imagination. Scarcely a false rhyme or incor- 

 rect measure, or even a harsh sounding line, occurs 

 throughout. Yet it is almost equally v/ithout a spark 

 of poetic genius. The " nie^is divi7tior^'' the Olympic 

 gift, which comes not with any toil and is created by 

 no strongest force of will, is wanting. Many scientists, 

 like Sir Humphry Davy, have begun life with poetic 

 aspirations ; but no born poet, except Goethe, ever 

 contributed important and permanent original gifts to 

 science.* Still less, perhaps, ought we to look for the 

 fire of genius where the whole character of a man's 

 productions is that of great accumulation rather than 

 of creation. Let us, then, without further criticism, ac- 

 cept on behalf of this epic, whose subject was the Mil- 

 tonic one of the Fall of Man, and the scenes that fol- 

 lowed it during the life-time of Adam and Eve, some of 

 Dr. Wood's own earlier lines, written in the album of 

 a friend, in 1831 : 



" What tho' no fire celestial glows 

 Along the burning line ; 

 Nor stream of sweetest music flows, 

 Nor gems of fancy shine ; 



" And even should my hand untaught 



Fail from the string to wrest 

 A note responsive to the thought 



That dwells within my breast ; 



*The scientific mind has been more often associated with artistic than with 

 poetic genius; as, vei-y remarkably, in the case of Leonardo da Vinci. In our 

 own times, Charles Kingsley and O. W. Holmes have been the most notable 

 instances of the combination of attainments in science with great literary success. 



