^2 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



did that hinder him from expressing thoughts as high as any of us 

 can follow ? Sophocles believed in omens and oracles ; did that 

 hinder him from writing dramas which still claim the admiration of 

 the world, in spite of the ' dry light ' of science thrown into the dark 

 corners of error and superstition? Milton chose to base his Paradise 

 Lost in a theory of the universe, which was not believed even in his 

 own day ; does that lessen the greatness of the conception and the 

 excellence of its treatment ? It has been said that no one in our 

 day could write Paradise Lost, not even Milton, were he alive ; I 

 do not doubt it ; but why ? This gives us the key to this whole 

 misconception. 



. When a poet has conceived, in a moment of inspiration, some 

 mighty thought, and burns to deliver this his message unto men, 

 he must do it in a way intelligible to them, as nearly as language 

 will do it. It would be folly for him to employ symbols of thought 

 which would not appeal to those whom he wishes to reach ; he 

 must use the words they know ; he must employ as comparisons 

 objects they are familiar with ; he must translate the divine idea 

 into the language of fact, and only so far is the poet bound down 

 by and made the follower of science. Science is continually adding 

 to our stores of knowledge ; poetry must make use of these stores as 

 a vehicle to convey its meaning. 



Besides there is a realm into which poetry enters from which 

 science is forever barred. Science can tell us what physical changes 

 take place at the moment of death, but it is absolutely incapable of 

 dealing with the question of why a man ' lays down his life for his 

 friend ' ; that belongs to Religion and Poetry. 



In concluding this question of the contrast between Science 

 and Poetry and Religion, I hazard the statement that it does not 

 follow from this contrast that they are opposed to each other. There 

 has- been too much said about the opposition of Science and Relig- 

 ion especially. There can be no opposition of them if each confines 

 itself to its own sphere. It is said that Carlyle, one of our prose- 

 poets, was bitterly opposed to Science, but such is not at all the 

 case. His true position is stated plainly in a short passage in 

 ' Heroes and Hero-worship :' "This green, flowery, rock-built earth, 

 the trees, the mountains, rivers, many-sounding seas ; that great, deep 

 sea of azure that swims overhead ; the winds sweeping through it ; 



