LITERATURE AND SCIENCE 
it — our interpretation of it, or humanization of it. 
Literature is plastic, flowing, suggestive; science is 
exact, uncompromising, inflexible. If you want to 
know the exact condition of the weather, consult the 
thermometer and the barometer and the hygrome- 
ter, but if you want to know the quality of the day, 
or the subtle difference between spring and fall, and 
the morning and the evening, or between one day 
and another, consult your senses. The body will tell 
you what the instruments will not — the character 
of the day — its balminess, softness, sweetness; but 
it will not tell you the exact temperature, or the 
amount of moisture in the air, or the degree of pres- 
sure. The result of our sense impressions gives us 
the material of literature; the thermometer and the 
barometer give us science, exact knowledge, knowl- 
edge shorn of its fringe of poetry. The body and the 
mind sympathize with surrounding conditions; im- 
plements of precision do not. 
Science reveals things as they are in and of them- 
selves; literature, as they stand related to our men- 
tal and emotional condition and edification. One is 
not true and the other false; both are true in their 
own sphere, true as fact, and true as emotion and 
idea. Science explains the rainbow, but literature 
sees it as a symbol and a promise. So with the 
sunset or the sunrise. Science knows all about the 
diamond, but knows not why it is so prized by us. 
It explains the pearl, but not the pearl necklace. 
179 
