New-York daily tribune., 1861-07-07

rightly that all our knowledgei in Its beginning
,nilt upon facts, but who oOuntenance what seems
"a me The very dangerous opinion, that every Increase
knowledge be preceded by Gn increase OF facts
To such men it will appear that Black had far better
have occupied himsef in making new obseryauonS' OF
ievsing new experiments, than IN thus induiehT is
imagination in wild and Improbable dreams. ibey
will think that these flights of fancy are suitable, III
deed TO the poet, but unworthy Of that severe accn
racy and Of that close attention TO facts when eunu'
to characterize Philosopher. In England, espec,a,
there Is, among physical nqrers an ond 70
look upon them not only Indifferent, but as
Among that class of thinkers whose zeal and a,lny
are beyond all praise and TO whom we owe amos.
unbounded obligations, there does undo ioted'y
exist very strong opinion that, in their own
nursuir the IMAGINATION is extremely dangerous,
as leading to speculations OF which the oasis
is not yet assured, and generating oe
sire to catch too eagerly at distant gnpes before
the intermediate ground has been trayeTsed lhaf ihe
ms oxlation has this tendency is undeuia6Ie. But |
tbsy who object to it on this account and who woud'
therefore divorce poetry from philosophy, have, lap
prehend, taken too limited view OF tue .l.
the human mind, and of the manner In which truth Is
obtained. There H. in poetry, divine ara propnes
power and an insight into the turn and aspect Oh
things, which if properly used, would make II the
any OF science instead OF the enemy, by .ne p"tS,
nature is contemplated the eide Of the emoions by
the man of science on the side Of the understanding
But the emotions are much pant OF us as the un-
derstanding; they are as truthful: they are hs
likely be right. Though tDelf view h
is not capricions They obey fixed laws; they follow
an orderly and uniform course; they run in sequences:
thew have their logic and method of inference Poety
therefore, is part of philosophy simply because lue
emotions part OF the nind IL lhe I' VI se'e %
despises their teaching much the worse Tor bl re
has only half bis weapons; his arsenal IL hlneo'
Conquests, indeed, lie may make, because bis native
strength may compensate the defects oi MS Ell Pne
But his success would be more complete ana more
rarid. be were properly furnished aud made ready
for tue battle. And cannot but regard as tue WIT.
iaeectual symptom OF this great country Wha' uu'
venture 10 call the imperfect education OF ybc WI
losophers, as exhibited both In their winnings and III
their trains OF thought This is the more serious be-
cause they as body, form the most important ciss IN
England whether we look at their abiliy or AZ lhe
benefits we have received from them, or al the ihece
they are exercising, and likely to exerclse, over
the ,ro0ress OF society Ii cannot however, be con-
cealed that they display an inordlnae fespeS' i9i eA
perimens, an undue love Of minute DETAIL ana ulso
sion to Overrate the inventors Oi new ins,iunen'e
and the dscoverers Of new but often lnsigihhcih'
facts Their predecessors of the seventeenth century
Inv nsin0 bypotheses more boldly and by Inducing
tieir Imagination more frequently ana cei,hp ene,s
grea er things, in comparison with the theh s'ae VI
know ledge, than our colempOrares, Win niuon
snrerior resources have been able TO achieve
( The magnificent genersizstions OF Newton ana
Harvey could never have been completed IN hh
age absorbed Ia one unvaylhg IVunu "a eSP.rr
nIen,s and observations We IN that predloament
that our facts have outstnpped our knOWiedee ana
are now encumberng It's march. Ihe publications. ol
our scientific institutions aui Of our scientific anlor1
overflow with minute and countless detah, which per-
MEX the Judgment aud which no memory can retain:
In vain do we deuaud that they should lie geneahed
and reduced into order. Instead OF that, The heap
continue, to swell. We want ideas, and We get more
facts. We hear constantly OF what nature Is DONG
but we rarely hear Of what man Is thinking. owlng
IN the ndefaQabe industry of this and Cue preceding
century we are in porsess Of huge and incoheTeh
mass o observations which have been stored up WIN
| great care but which, unth they are connected by
I 4. .lksFH .la lha aEunt
effective way of turning them TO account wonk be to
give more scope TO the imagination, and incorporate
the spirit Of poetry with the spirit OF science i this
means or philosophers would double Their resources
| instead q, working as now, nalEed, and with only
half their nature They fear the Imagination, On ae-
count of its tendency to form hasty theories. Bat,
surely sll our faculties are needed IN the pursuit of
| truth and we cannot he justified In dhcredsmg any
| rart of the human mind. And | can hardy doubt,
that one of tie reasons whywe In Eng land made such
wonderful discoveries during the seventeenth century,
was because that century was also the grea' age OF
! Epelish poetry. The two migbue-t lntclects o'u
country Las produced are Shakespeare a'd Newton;
and that Shakespeare should have proceoed Ne Ston
yes believe no casual or unmeaning event. Shakes
peat aud the poets sowed the seed which Newton and
he Nh osophero reaped Discardirg the old scholastic
and theological pursuits, they drew attention 10 nature,
and thus became the real founders o al natural science.
They did even more than THE They irst impTegnated
the mind Of England with bold and lofty conceptions
They taught the Of their generation TO crave after
. II
and rise above the visible world Of sense In this way
by cutvating the emotions, they opened ore Of the
paths which led TO tfnth. The Impetus wbi,h they
communi, aied survived their own day, and, like OIL
great movements, was felt in tsety department Of
thought. But now 1t il gone; and, unless lam
greatly mistaken, physical science If at present
suffering from its absence. Since the seven.
teenh century, we have had no poet Of the highest
| hapl have become one. lie had something Of that
burning passion, that sacred fire. which kindles the
soul as though il fresh from the altar OF the gods
But be was cut off in his early prime, when his splen
did genius was still in its dawn. If We except his i'm
| mature though marvellous etioHs, we may a-euTedly
saw that for nearly two hundred years England has
produced no poetry which bears those unmistakable
marks of inspiration which we lind IN Spenser, 10
Sbakesptte aud in Milton. The result is, that we,
sepaatad by 40 long in erva from those great feed
ers NJ the imaginati0n who nurtued our ancestors
and being unable 10 enter IGlly into tho feelings of
poets who wrote when nearly all opinions, and, there
FORE nearly all forms Of emotion, were very different
TO what they now are cannot possibly sympathze with
those immortal productions 80 closey their coenpo
rarles did The noble English poetry Of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries is read more than ever but
it does not color thoughts II does not shape our
understandings, it shaped the Understandings Of
forefathers. Between us and them ID O cham which
we cannot entirely bridge. We are 30 far removed
from the associations amid which those poems
composed, that they do not flash upon us with that
reality and dstinctness OF aim which they would have
done had we lived when they were written. Their garb
ssrange ard belongs Not merely their
dialect and their Dress but their very complexion and
their nnost sentiments tell OF bygone days. Of which
we have no firm hold. There is no doubt, O certain
ornamental culture, which the most highly educated
persons receive from the literature Of the past and by
which they sometimes enlarge their ideas. But the
real culture Of great people, that which supplies each
generation with ts principal strength consists Of what
is learned from the generation immediately preceding
Though we often unconscious of the process we
build nearly all conceptions on the basisrecognized
Al s....