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Article THE POETIC INTERPRETATION OF NATURE.* ← Page 4 of 6 →
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The Poetic Interpretation Of Nature.*
think is a reductio ad absurdum of the Theory of tho Physicists as to Light ; ancl the same will hold good as to Sound ; ancl the same Ave think as to Beauty . Hacl tho Physicists have enunciated that Avithout a receptive brain , there would be no perception of Light or Sound , none could well have disputed their proposition ; hacl Principal Shairp have stopped short in asserting that without an answering soul there could be no perception of Beauty , none could have disagreed with him but the necessity of the receptive soul to
; the existence of the quality , Ave must altogether deny . . Just as there have doubtless been meteors emitting light which no soul of man has ever beheld ; just as there have been for countless ages , the loud crack of the inmost recesses of the pine forest , or the sullen "oar of the far-off cataract , that no mortal ear has ever listened to ; so—as one of Principal Shairp ' s friends has told
us" Full many a gem , of purest ray serene , The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear ; Full mauy a flower is boru to blush unseen , And waste its sweetness on the desert air . '' Before ever a soul of man was created , the Beauty of God's handiwork Avas in existence , and He Himself , regarding it , hacl seen that " it Avas good . " With the remarks folloAving our previous quotationAve are quite in accord ; in them
, Principal Shairp seems to take our OAVU expressed position : — " It " [ BEAUTY ] " is nomerely mental or subjective thiug , born of association , and depending on individual caprice , as the Scotch philosophers so long fancied" . . . And when , either through our owu perception , or through the teaching of the poets , we learn to apprehend it ; when it has found entrance iuto us , through eye and ear , imagination and emotion , we have learnt something more about the world in Avhich we dwell , thau Physics have taught us , —a new truth of the material universe has reached us through the imaginationnot through the scientific or logical
, faculty . " If , then , Beauty be a real quality interwoven into the essential texture of Creation , " [ which postulate being exactly what we insist upon !] " and if Poetry be the fittest human expression of the existence of this quality , it follows that Poetry has to do Avith truth as really as Science has , though with a different order of truth . "
This prerogative of Poetry to be the interpreter ancl not merely the representative ( maugre the Athenreum *) of the Beauty inherent in Nature seems to us so conclusively proved by Principal Shairp , that it seems almost as unnecessary as unkind to chronicle our trifling divergence from his conclusions , and hacl he not have founded them upon the teaching of the Physicists , Avith Avhom he , too , in other places , seems by no means to agree , we should not have dwelt upon it at the length Ave have . As the author tells us ( as quoted above ) Science has to do Avith quite a different order
of truth to that which falls Avithin the domain of Poetry , ancl , therefore , Ave agree with him that the rise of the former need be no bar to the growth of the latter . We presume that no doctor Avould deny the Beauty of a young ancl handsome face , because his Science told him of the muscles and other anatomical parts of which it Avas composed , ancl which his OAVH scalpel could lay bare : no more then would your true philosopher , geologist though he Avere , be hindered from drinking in the beauties of a lovely
landscape , merely because in another corner of his brain there Avas stored aAvay the knowledge , that all those lovely banks Avere but upheavals of the soil , or that glittering cascade , was but simple oxygen and hydrogen in certain combinations ; rather would he admire the God of Nature , the more in that out of such unlikely materials He could call such Beauty into being at His Word . The vieAv that Principal Shairp takes , that : —
" Every new province of knowledge which Science conquers , Poetry may in time enter into anil possess , " is quite granted by the Avriter of the before-mentioned Review , but he adds , disparagingly ,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Poetic Interpretation Of Nature.*
think is a reductio ad absurdum of the Theory of tho Physicists as to Light ; ancl the same will hold good as to Sound ; ancl the same Ave think as to Beauty . Hacl tho Physicists have enunciated that Avithout a receptive brain , there would be no perception of Light or Sound , none could well have disputed their proposition ; hacl Principal Shairp have stopped short in asserting that without an answering soul there could be no perception of Beauty , none could have disagreed with him but the necessity of the receptive soul to
; the existence of the quality , Ave must altogether deny . . Just as there have doubtless been meteors emitting light which no soul of man has ever beheld ; just as there have been for countless ages , the loud crack of the inmost recesses of the pine forest , or the sullen "oar of the far-off cataract , that no mortal ear has ever listened to ; so—as one of Principal Shairp ' s friends has told
us" Full many a gem , of purest ray serene , The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear ; Full mauy a flower is boru to blush unseen , And waste its sweetness on the desert air . '' Before ever a soul of man was created , the Beauty of God's handiwork Avas in existence , and He Himself , regarding it , hacl seen that " it Avas good . " With the remarks folloAving our previous quotationAve are quite in accord ; in them
, Principal Shairp seems to take our OAVU expressed position : — " It " [ BEAUTY ] " is nomerely mental or subjective thiug , born of association , and depending on individual caprice , as the Scotch philosophers so long fancied" . . . And when , either through our owu perception , or through the teaching of the poets , we learn to apprehend it ; when it has found entrance iuto us , through eye and ear , imagination and emotion , we have learnt something more about the world in Avhich we dwell , thau Physics have taught us , —a new truth of the material universe has reached us through the imaginationnot through the scientific or logical
, faculty . " If , then , Beauty be a real quality interwoven into the essential texture of Creation , " [ which postulate being exactly what we insist upon !] " and if Poetry be the fittest human expression of the existence of this quality , it follows that Poetry has to do Avith truth as really as Science has , though with a different order of truth . "
This prerogative of Poetry to be the interpreter ancl not merely the representative ( maugre the Athenreum *) of the Beauty inherent in Nature seems to us so conclusively proved by Principal Shairp , that it seems almost as unnecessary as unkind to chronicle our trifling divergence from his conclusions , and hacl he not have founded them upon the teaching of the Physicists , Avith Avhom he , too , in other places , seems by no means to agree , we should not have dwelt upon it at the length Ave have . As the author tells us ( as quoted above ) Science has to do Avith quite a different order
of truth to that which falls Avithin the domain of Poetry , ancl , therefore , Ave agree with him that the rise of the former need be no bar to the growth of the latter . We presume that no doctor Avould deny the Beauty of a young ancl handsome face , because his Science told him of the muscles and other anatomical parts of which it Avas composed , ancl which his OAVH scalpel could lay bare : no more then would your true philosopher , geologist though he Avere , be hindered from drinking in the beauties of a lovely
landscape , merely because in another corner of his brain there Avas stored aAvay the knowledge , that all those lovely banks Avere but upheavals of the soil , or that glittering cascade , was but simple oxygen and hydrogen in certain combinations ; rather would he admire the God of Nature , the more in that out of such unlikely materials He could call such Beauty into being at His Word . The vieAv that Principal Shairp takes , that : —
" Every new province of knowledge which Science conquers , Poetry may in time enter into anil possess , " is quite granted by the Avriter of the before-mentioned Review , but he adds , disparagingly ,