"
PROVERBS OF SOLOMON.
Those who have not tried for themselves can hardly imagine how much
Science adds to the interest and variety of life. It is altogether a
mistake to regard it as dry, difficult, or prosaic--much of it is as easy
as it is interesting. A wise instinct of old united the prophet and the
"seer." "The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walketh in
darkness." Technical works, descriptions of species, etc., bear the same
relation to science as dictionaries do to literature.
Occasionally, indeed, Science may destroy some poetical myth of antiquity,
such as the ancient Hindoo explanation of rivers, that "Indra dug out
their beds with his thunderbolts, and sent them forth by long continuous
paths;" but the real causes of natural phenomena are far more striking,
and contain more true poetry, than those which have occurred to the
untrained imagination of mankind.
In endless aspects science is as wonderful and interesting as a fairy
tale.
"There are things whose strong reality
Outshines our fairyland; in shape and hues
More beautiful than our fantastic sky,
And the strange constellations which the Muse
O'er her wild universe is skillful to diffuse.
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