66 INDOOE STUDIES 



branches of scientific inquiry drew Goethe strongly, 

 but his aptitude in them was clearly less than in his 

 own chosen field. Alexander Wilson left poetry 

 for ornithology, and he made a wise choice. He 

 became eminent in the one, and he was only medi- 

 ocre in the other. Sir Charles Lyell also certainly 

 chose wisely in abandoning verse-making for geol- 

 ogy. In the latter field he ranks first, and in in- 

 terpreting " Nature's infinite book of secrecy," as it 

 lies folded in the geological strata, he found ample 

 room for the exercise of all the imagination and 

 power of interpretation he possessed. His conclu- 

 sions have sky-room and perspective, and give us a 

 sort of poetic satisfaction. 



The true poet and the true scientist are not es- 

 tranged. They go forth into nature like two friends. 

 Behold them strolling through the summer fields 

 and woods. The younger of the two is much the 

 more active and inquiring; he is ever and anon 

 stepping aside to examine some object more mi- 

 nutely, plucking a flower, treasuring a shell, pur- 

 suing a bu'd, watching a butterfly; now he turns 

 over a stone, peers into the marshes, chips ofl^ a 

 fragment of a rock, and everywhere seems intent on 

 some special and particular knowledge of the things 

 about him. The elder man has more an air of leis- 

 urely contemplation and enjoyment, — is less curious 

 about special objects and features, and more desirous 

 of putting himself in harmony with the spirit of 

 the whole. But when his younger companion has 

 any fresh and characteristic bit of information to 



