Vol. XXIV.

OCTOBER, 1899.

No. ".

BY DR. L. HARRISON METTLER.

Professor of the Physiology of the Nervous System, in
the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of Chicago.

F science be synonymous with knowledge and poetry with inspiration, I hope to show that the latter is the necessary forerunner of the former; that poetry of the very highest type is being evolved at the present day; that the leading scientists of all times have been veritable poets; and finally that the materialism and agnosticism, so much dreaded as the ultimate outcome of scientific research, are mere spectres of the mind, false interpretations of both inspiration and observation.

What is poetry and what is science? Poetry, from the Greek poieo, meaning to make or create, has reference to any creation or production of the mind. As the imagination is preeminently man's creative faculty, the finest poetry is closely allied to imagination. For that reason it is often regarded as pure inspiration. Science, on the other hand, from the Latin scio, to know, has to do with. simple knowledge, however acquired. The terms science and poetry are both employed nowadays in a more

restricted sense than they should be,
for by the former is usua.y meant
applied science and by the latter a
particular form of literature or ap
plied poetry. In this sense poetry
becomes an art and stands apart from
pure science; for, as Karslake has
well put it, "science and art may be
said to be investigations of truth, but
science inquires for the sake of
knowledge, art for the sake of pro-
duction." In the most liberal sense,
however, poetry is knowledge by in-
spiration, as science is knowledge
by experience. In the words of Cole-
ridge, poetry is the blossom and
the fragrance of all human knowl-
edge, human thoughts, human pas-
sions, emotions, language."
"Sci-
ence," on the other hand, says Sir
William Hamilton, "is a complement
of cognitions, having in point of form,
the character of logical perfection
and in point of matter, the character
of real truth."

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In both of these definitions the underthought is identical, though upon superficial examination nothing could Copyright, 1899, by Edgar S. Werner. All rights reserved.

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