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IXDIAXA rXIYEKSITY STUDIES 



instead of in unimaged facts (plain facts), or in abstract terms. 

 He does not think in the atmosphere of empirical or systematic rea- 

 son so mnch as in that of sensation. For the truth of his thoughts 

 he relies not on method, but on an appeal to emotions. Poetically 

 speaking, he gives nature reality by viewing it as shape and color 

 and expressing it in terms of feeling, instead of in the impersonal 

 terms of an aggregate of facts and laws. Scientifically or philo- 

 sophically speaking, he makes the mistake of introjecting his own 

 soul into nature till he sees there purposes and wills like his o\yii, 

 and especially does he make the mistake of seeing evolution as the 

 expression or result of divine purpose instead of seeing purpose 

 as the result of evolution. I have before me a scientific book, 

 written by a geologist, on 'The Scenery of England;' also 

 I have Wordsworth's 'Prelude.' I can turn in each book 

 to descriptions of mountain scenery in Wales or in the Lake 

 District. Each writer sees vividly the same objects. But 

 the scientist is interested here in the causes and effects of 

 forces that enable him to explain why these mountains have 

 a certain shape ; and the poet is interested here in the emo- 

 tional effects of these mountains on his life, and in the emotional 

 effects of words. The scientist's view makes an orderly objective 

 arrangement of facts, from which ideas about beauty of mountain 

 contour might be deduced impersonally. The poet's view is a col- 

 ored impression wherein ideas originating in his own mind form 

 themselves in external objects, which so become images and symbols 

 of his feeling. 



Such distinctions need in no way obscure the fact that the mind 

 of any great man is a mirror of life, and that this is especially 

 true of the artist. The poet's mind in AYordsworth is an inclusive 

 mind, a mind in which things grow into harmom^ in which the 

 varying aspects of nature are reflected sharply and at the same time 

 are rendered consonant. I shall here attempt to describe the most 

 important phases of his thought about the relation of nature to 

 man, how they developed and what their significance is in the 

 poetic answer to the ancient question of science, philosophy, and 

 poetry. 



