Opening the text

The Poetry of Science; or, Studies of the Physical Phenomena of NatureHunt, Robert

Philosophy

The Poetry of Science; or, Studies of the Physical Phenomena of Nature

Name: The Poetry of Science; or, Studies of the Physical Phenomena of Nature
Author: Hunt, Robert

Hunt, Robert

Physics; Science

We have gravitation, drawing all matter to a common centre, and
acting from all bodies throughout the wide regions of unmeasured
space upon all. We have cohesion, holding the particles of matter
enchained, operating only at distances too minute for the mathematician
to measure; and we have chemical attraction, different from either
of these, working no less mysteriously within absolutely insensible
distances, and, by the exercise of its occult power, giving determinate
and fixed forms to every kind of material creation.

The spiritual beings, which the poet of untutored nature gave to the
forest, to the valley, and to the mountain, to the lake, to the river,
and to the ocean, working within their secret offices, and moulding
for man the beautiful or the sublime, are but the weak creations
of a finite mind, although they have for us a charm which all men
unconsciously obey, even when they refuse to confess it. They are like
the result of the labours of the statuary, who, in his high dreams of
love and sublimated beauty, creates from the marble block a figure
of the most exquisite moulding which mimics life. It charms us for a
season; we gaze and gaze again, and its first charms vanish; it is ever
and ever still the same dead heap of chiselled stone. It has not the
power of presenting to our wearying eyes the change which life alone
enables matter to give; and we admit the excellence of the artist, but
we cease to feel at his work. The creations of poetry are pleasing, but
they never affect the mind in the way in which the poetic realities
of nature do. The sylph moistening a lily is a sweet dream; but the
thoughts which rise when first we learn that its broad and beautiful
dark-green leaves, and its pure and delicate flower, are the results
of the alchemy which changes gross particles of matter into symmetric
forms,--of a power which is unceasingly at work under the guidance of
light, heat, and electrical force,--are, after our incredulity has
passed away--for it is too wonderful for the untutored to believe at
once--of an exalting character.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The Poetry of Science; or, Studies of the Physical Phenomena of NatureHunt, Robert

Philosophy

The Poetry of Science; or, Studies of the Physical Phenomena of Nature

Hunt, Robert

Physics; Science

We have gravitation, drawing all matter to a common centre, and
acting from all bodies throughout the wide regions of unmeasured
space upon all. We have cohesion, holding the particles of matter
enchained, operating only at distances too minute for the mathematician
to measure; and we have chemical attraction, different from either
of these, working no less mysteriously within absolutely insensible
distances, and, by the exercise of its occult power, giving determinate
and fixed forms to every kind of material creation.

The spiritual beings, which the poet of untutored nature gave to the
forest, to the valley, and to the mountain, to the lake, to the river,
and to the ocean, working within their secret offices, and moulding
for man the beautiful or the sublime, are but the weak creations
of a finite mind, although they have for us a charm which all men
unconsciously obey, even when they refuse to confess it. They are like
the result of the labours of the statuary, who, in his high dreams of
love and sublimated beauty, creates from the marble block a figure
of the most exquisite moulding which mimics life. It charms us for a
season; we gaze and gaze again, and its first charms vanish; it is ever
and ever still the same dead heap of chiselled stone. It has not the
power of presenting to our wearying eyes the change which life alone
enables matter to give; and we admit the excellence of the artist, but
we cease to feel at his work. The creations of poetry are pleasing, but
they never affect the mind in the way in which the poetic realities
of nature do. The sylph moistening a lily is a sweet dream; but the
thoughts which rise when first we learn that its broad and beautiful
dark-green leaves, and its pure and delicate flower, are the results
of the alchemy which changes gross particles of matter into symmetric
forms,--of a power which is unceasingly at work under the guidance of
light, heat, and electrical force,--are, after our incredulity has
passed away--for it is too wonderful for the untutored to believe at
once--of an exalting character.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The Poetry of Science; or, Studies of the Physical Phenomena of Nature

The Poetry of Science; or, Studies of the Physical Phenomena of Nature

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