SCIENCE AND LITERATUEE 53 



win availed himself of and reinvested ! Not so in 

 literature; to every poet, to every artist, it is still 

 the first day of creation, so far as the essentials of 

 his task are concerned. Literature is not so much a 

 fund to be reinvested as it is a crop to be ever new- 

 grown. Wherein science furthers the eye, sharpens 

 the ear, lengthens the arm, quickens the foot, or 

 extends man farther into nature in the natural bent 

 and direction of his faculties and powers, a service 

 is undoubtedly rendered to literature. But so far 

 as it engenders a habit of peeping and prying into 

 nature, and blinds us to the festive splendor and 

 meaning of the whole, our verdict must be against it. 



It cannot be said that literature has kept pace 

 with civilization, though science has; in fact, it may 

 be said without exaggeration that science is civiliza- 

 tion — the application of the powers of nature to 

 the arts of life. The reason why literature has not 

 kept pace is because so much more than mere know- 

 ledge, well-demonstrated facts, goes to the making 

 of it, while little else goes to the making of pure 

 science. Indeed, the kingdom of heaven, in litera- 

 ture as in religion, " cometh not with observation. " 

 This felicity is within you as much in the one case 

 as in the other. It is the fruit of the spirit, and 

 not of the diligence of the hands. 



Because this is so, because modern achievements 

 in letters are not on a par with our material and 

 scientific triumphs, there are those who predict for 

 literature a permanent decay, and think the field it 

 now occupies is to be entirely usurped by science. 



