2 o 6 Science and the Seme of Beauty . ; [April, 
are as real subjectively as matter in motion is objectively. 
The universe may be silent and dark where there is no mind 
and sense ; but it springs into light and music wherever 
there is an eye and an ear. The harmonic motions are 
there, but there needs a new creation to give them meaning, 
and change them from a dark mechanism into a vision of 
beauty,— an intelligent being to whom the dismal soulless 
engine is a minister. The sense of beauty is a divine gift 
for man to have pleasure in his dwelling-place, and to all 
but certain exceptional minds it is the most pleasing mode 
of regarding Nature. It is too precious to lose, and should 
be carefully cultivated. The old Greek worship of beauty is 
now impossible, but yet it should receive a due portion of 
our reverence. Science itself would counsel this, for true 
beauty means perfect health. The love of literature and art is 
to be fostered, for these foster the love of beauty and the 
imaginative and emotional parts of our nature. History and 
poetry, pictures and the drama, raise us out of the grooves 
of adfual experience and widen the contracted knowledge of 
life we have gathered from it : they breathe into us broader, 
loftier, and therefore truer notions of life ; for our petty ex- 
perience would be an inadequate measure of the world. 
They inspire a reverence for our fellow men and for every 
living thing. So, too, does Science when we are not im- 
mersed in its details, and are free to contemplate its grander 
revelations. The study of literature and art, communion 
with Nature, and intercourse with our fellow men, help to 
raise us to that unbiassed position. Science has no longer 
a morbid hold on us. We are dragged from the shade of 
the Upas tree, and can survey it with impunity, finding in 
it a medicine instead of a poison. Without destroying the 
reverence, Science, when properly studied, only confirms the 
truth of the ancient saying, “ We are fearfully and wonder- 
fully made” By the comparative study of the lower 
creatures we may get a higher appreciation of the wonders 
of our own nature, and still exclaim with Hamlet “ What a 
piece of work is man ! ” 
Not only does beauty link the soul to Nature, but it leads 
it to something beyond. It induces strange spiritual aspira- 
tions. A beautiful sunset evokes ineffable feelings in the 
soul, infinite longings, and strange dreams of “ perilous seas 
and faery lands forlorn.” Can Science chill these feelings 
by saying that we are tricked by the mere prismatic refrac- 
tion of solar light in passing through atmospheric vapour — 
a mechanical illusion of the senses ? What then becomes 
of our mysterious indefinable feeling of the infinite ? We 
