1 882.] Science and the Sense of Beauty . 203 
fabric of Nature, with all its infinite variety of form 
and change, as an infinitely complex structure of atoms, 
built up by energy. He is led to regard the universe as being 
in incessant motion, — a living machine, it is true, but a ma- 
chine still, and only the more complex because of its life. 
The early philosophers of the seventeenth century, and 
even of the eighteenth, were unacquainted with these im- 
portant generalisations. Even Newton probably did not 
divine them. The study of the heavenly bodies, in their 
dimensions and evolutions, is conducive to grandeur of 
imagination, and the early astronomers had not yet learned 
to investigate them in detail by means of the spectroscope. 
Young, Franklin, and Priestley, conducted their pioneer ex- 
periments with a sense of religious reverence. Newton 
likened himself to a child picking up shells by the sea-shore, 
while the great ocean of Truth rolled before him. To these 
men, at least, Nature was still robed in mystery. We have 
trafficked with her a great deal since those days, and she has 
become more familiar to our vain minds. By occupying 
ourselves so much with the little we have learned to under- 
stand of her, we are insensible to what is still beyond our 
knowledge. By classifying the shells in the bay we have 
lost some respeCt for the ocean still unexplored. 
Yet there is a lofty poetry in the wonderful revelations of 
Science, — a poetry felt by Newton, Herschel, Faraday, and 
perhaps by all great discoverers. It is still sometimes felt 
by the student as he pursues his studies into fresh fields. If, 
then, we have lost a reverent sense for the marvels we are 
familiar with, we should rather attribute it to the triteness 
of our knowledge than to the character of that knowledge 
in itself. 
One of the consequences of a scientific view of life and 
the phenomena of nature is a certain tendency to Paganism, 
but without its religion of ideal beauty. According to Science 
we are subject to the natural laws of our nature and 
dwelling-place. We live, like the hyssop on the wall, be- 
cause we are strong enough to withstand the mechanical 
powers of the universe arrayed against us. Evolution ac- 
counts for our existence and maintenance, in the same way 
as it accounts for the existence of the lower animals. It 
discovers our immediate origin in the anthropoid apes, from 
which we are removed by a higher development of similar 
powers. If we brood too much on this kinship with the 
brutes, we shall be in danger of losing our subjective sense 
of the delicacy and grace of life. The beauty of life, for its 
own sake, will be taken from us, and there will be a tendency 
