And echoed in their thought be heard et terrible: qui me la masquée de ce faulx visage pasle et hideux? Il n'est rien plus gay, plus gaillard, plus enjoüé, et à peu que je ne die folastre. Elle ne presche que feste et bon temps: une mine triste et transie, monstre que ce n'est pas là son giste. Demetrius le grammairien rencontrant dans le temple de Delphes une trouppe de philosophes assis ensemble, il leur dict: Ou je me trompe, ou à vous veoir la contenance si paisible et si gaye, vous n'estes pas en grand discours entre vous. A quoy l'un d'eulx, Heracleon le Megarien, respondit: c'est à faire à ceulx qui cherchent si le futur du verbe ẞáλw a double X, ou qui cherchent la derivation des comparatifs χείρον et βέλτιον, et des superlatifs χείριστον et βέλτιστον; qu'il faut rider le front s'entretenant de leur science: mais quant aux discours de la philosophie, ils ont accoustumé d'esgayer et resioüir ceux qui les traictent, non les refroigner et contrister. . . . . L'ame qui loge la philosophie, doibt par sa santé rendre sain encore le corps: elle .... be opposed to truth, and, on the other, that error is only to be effectually confounded by searching deep and tracing it to its source.' etc. § 6. -"the observation of the calm, energetic regularity of nature, the immense scale of her operations, and the certainty with which her ends are attained, tends, irresistibly, to tranquillize and re-assure the mind, and render it less accessible to repining, selfish, and turbulent emotions. And this it does, not by debasing our nature into weak compliances and abject submission to circumstances, but by filling us, as from an inward spring, with a sense of nobleness and power which enables us to rise superior to them; by showing us our strength and innate dignity, and by calling upon us for the exercise of those powers and faculties by which we are susceptible of the comprehension of so much greatness, and which form, as it were, a link between ourselves and the best and noblest benefactors of our species, with whom we hold communion in thoughts and participate in discoveries which have raised them above their fellow-mortals, and brought them nearer to their Creator." § 12. See § 63, 4. The truth, the Nature's Poetry For Truth is only Harmony. doibt faire luire jusques au dehors son repos, et son aise: doibt former à son maule le port exterieur, et l'armer par consequent d'une gracieuse fierté, d'un maintien actif et allaigre, et d'une contenance contente et debonnaire. La plus expresse marque de la sagesse, c'est une esioüissance constante: son estat est comme des choses au dessus de la lune, tousiours serein. C'est Baraco et Baralipton, qui rendent leurs supposts ainsy crottez et enfumez; ce n'est pas elle, ils ne la cognoissent que par oüy dire. Comment? elle faict estat de sereiner les tempestes de l'ame, et d'apprehendre la faim et les fiebvres à rire: non par quelques Epicycles imaginaires, mais par raisons naturelles et palpables." Essais, I, xxv, De l'institution des Enfants, vol. I, p. 192. 66 Upon the general question as to vivification and diffusion of the spirit of Science, without amplifying upon the consideration that those of the highest eminence have been beyond the selfish and jealous vanity and tyranny of another class, and have laboured to impart their own spirit and success, in lofty and generous love of and sympathy with truth, the sentiment of Sir John Herschel may be expressed: Knowledge can neither be adequately cultivated nor adequately enjoyed by a few...... It requires not, perhaps, a greater certainty, but at least a confirmed authority and a probable duration, by universal assent; and there is no body of knowledge so complete, but that it may acquire accession, or so free from error but that it may receive correction in passing through the minds of millions. Those who admire and love know * -“so much of the happiness of each individual depends on the habits, practices, and opinions of the society in which he lives, that he cannot reap the full benefits of his own advancement, until similar principles have been embraced and realized in practice by his fellow-men. This renders it his Poetry is the power, the Life, In the depth and in the height ledge for its own sake ought to wish to see its elements made accessible to all, were it only that they may be the more thoroughly examined into, and more effectually developed in their consequences, and receive that ductility and plastic quality which the pressure of minds of all descriptions, constantly moulding them to their purposes, can alone bestow. every thing that tends to clothe it in a strange and repulsive garb, and especially every thing that, to keep up an appearance of superiority in its professors over the rest of mankind, assumes an unnecessary guise of profundity and obscurity, should be sacrificed without mercy. Not to do this, is to deliberately reject the light which the natural unencumbered good sense of mankind is capable of throwing on every subject, even in the elucidation of principles . . . . . . It” (Science)" delights to lay itself open to enquiry; and is not satisfied with its conclusions, till it can make the road to them broad and beaten: and in its applications it preserves the same character; its whole aim being to strip away all technical mystery, to illuminate every dark recess.”—Preliminary Discourse, § 63, 4. interest, as it is his duty, to communicate his knowledge to them, and to carry them forward in the career of improvement. At this moment, there are thousands of persons who feel their enjoyments, physical, moral, and intellectual, impaired and abridged by the mass of ignorance and prejudice which everywhere surrounds them. They are men living before their age, and whom the world neither understands nor appreciates. Let them not, however, repine or despair; but let them dedicate their best efforts to communicating the truths which have opened up to themselves the prospect of happiness, and they will not be disappointed." Combe's Constitution of Man, chap. IV, p. 96; 7th ed. Vivid, subtile, infinite: Things there are, and more will be, The very Truth of Poetry. Not yet has been Poetic thought Of what in Science may be sought. Not one has thought in depth and height All transcendencies afar. Things that have been done indeed (83) "Tantum nimirum interesse inter horum vanitates et veras artes in philosophia, quantum intersit inter pugnas Julii Cæsaris aut Alexandri; et rursus Amadisii ex Gallia, aut Arthuri ex Britannia, in historia. Constat enim clarissimos illos More than e'er sought magian spell The magic that the Persian thought I gaze till seems some lovely scene Far more than aught had ever been 85. How flames the glory of the sky Never one that sun may dream Such as science knows to deem. Ne'er one in dream'd 'infinity' imperatores majora revera præstitisse, quam umbratiles isti heroes fecisse fingantur; sed modis et viis actionum minime fabulosis et prodigiosis." Bacon, Cogitata et Visa, vol. IX, p. 171. See De Augm. Scient. III, v, vol. VII, p. 200. (84) "the Persian magic, which was the secret literature of their kings, was an application of the contemplations and observations of nature unto a sense politic;"-etc. Bacon, A brief discourse of the happy union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland. 66 Quinimo magia Persarum (quæ in tantum est celebrata) in eo potissimum versabatur, ut architecturas et fabricas rerum naturalium, et civilium, symbolizantes notaret." De Augm. Scient. III, i, vol. VII, p. 170. (85) "Etenim magia apud Persas pro sapientia sublimi, et scientia consensuum rerum universalium, accipiebatur";-v, p. 199. -"lifting up his head, he then would gaze On the more distant scene; how lovely 'tis Thou seest, and he would gaze till it became Far lovelier,"-Wordsworth. |