April 23rd, rgoy.] Proceedings. xxxiii 



Mr. C. L. Barnes, M.A., read a paper, entitled "Science 

 and Poetry," of which the following is an abstract : — 



The paper was an attempt to enumerate the principal 

 ancient and modern poems which have any claim to be called 

 scientific. Paradoxical though it may seem, prose, considered 

 in its literary aspect, is of later growth than poetry, the reason 

 being that men learned to sing and to dance long before they 

 learned to write. By the time the latter art had assumed a 

 definite form the art of versification had already made consider- 

 able progress, the leit-motif being usually the praises of heroes 

 and warriors, or philosophical musings, or the operations of 

 Nature, then ascribed to the immediate action of deities. The 

 Homeric poems are a classic example of this tendency, and of 

 earlier date are the hymns to Osiris, Thammuz, or Astarte, found 

 on Egyptian and Babylonian tablets. It is well known also that 

 several portions of the Bible are written in metrical form. 



The earliest extant poems of a scientific kind are the 

 " Phenomena " and " Prognostica " of Aratus, written in Greek, 

 which date from the 3rd century B.C., and are doubtless 

 the source of the weather-lore in the " Bucolics " and " Georgics " 

 of Virgil. To the following century belong the " Theriaca " 

 and " Alexipharmaca" of Nicander, also in Greek; the former 

 contains a list of remedies against the bites of snakes and other 

 venomous animals ; the latter is a compendium of antidotes to 

 poisons in foods and drinks. 



Roman literature, as might be expected, is more fertile in 

 poems of the kind under consideration, and at the head of all 

 stands the " De Rerum Natura" of Lucretius (1st century B.C.). 

 In addition to many shrewd observations " on the nature of 

 things," and intelligent gropings after truth, it preaches an entire 

 disbelief in a future life together with a high moral code, 

 a combination rare at any period of the world's history. 

 The only works of Virgil which may be admitted into 

 this category are the two already mentioned, but his contem- 

 porary Manilius is the reputed author of a poem in five books, 



