1882.] Science and the Sense of Beauty. 205 
sunset lose their poetic spell because they remind us of the 
refraction of light. And yet, as we have said, the scientific 
and the poetical views of Nature ought not, in a well-regu- 
lated mind, to war with each other. They are opposite 
attitudes of the mind, it is true ; but they are complementary, 
and should correct and support each other. Science eradi- 
cates superstition. Art teaches us to enjoy Nature without 
analysis, and Science to investigate her. The artistic inter- 
pretation of Nature is one-sided and passive; it is the im- 
pression which Nature makes on our sensibility. But the 
scientific interpretation is aCtive, and engages our reason. 
Together they employ all our faculties, and we feel not only 
the sensuous pleasure inspired by the illusions of her beauty, 
but the rational satisfaction of knowing causes. Nature is 
no longer to us merely what she seems ; we have learned to 
know, in part at least, what she is. This knowledge must, 
of course, to a certain extent prune our imagination of some 
of its false conceptions regarding her ; but clearing away 
what is false cannot be permanently baneful ; it ought rather 
to be, in the end, a benefit. Moreover, for the cherished 
fancies which she sweeps away, Science often bestows ideas 
of Nature far more marvellous and grand. 
We ought not, however, to be slaves to the scientific view. 
When we are undergoing a course of purely scientific study 
it will of course be paramount. But a true education will 
counteract its influence by the study of art and letters. 
Scientific knowledge should be worn “ lightly like a flower,’’ 
and in harmony with all other learning. If, owing to our 
imperfect knowledge and training, Science should over- 
shadow our lives like the baleful Upas tree, let us reflect 
that it is only because our Science is fragmentary, our 
training incomplete. For we may rest assured that there is 
no discord intended between man and Nature. The great 
and good Michael Faraday, with all his knowledge and sci- 
entific habits and thought, could still feel the true poetic 
ecstasy of the sunset and the lightning flash. Perhaps the 
profound insight he had into the divine energy at work in 
both of these spectacles, only heightened the sublime feeling 
with which he gazed upon the calm beauty of the one and 
the terrific splendour of the other. 
We know that beauty is an illusion of Nature on the 
senses. We know from Science that sunlight and colour, 
music and sweetness, have no existence outside of our senses. 
That which causes the sensation of light is a wave-motion 
in the luminiferous ether, and sound is due to a wave- 
motion in the air. But yet colour and sound and sweetness 
