"
"The astonishing effect of the stimulus which has been given to investigation
into material nature by the rise of geology and the prosperity of chemistry"
is seen in the literary development of the day. "To-day's science
bears not only fruit, but flowers also! Poems, as well as steam engines,
crown its growth in these times." The passage closes with
these significant words: "Poetry will never fail, nor science,
nor the poetry of science." This view remained with him till the end
of his life. He hailed the scientific progress of the nineteenth century
as one of its greatest achievements, and constantly related it
to the rise of landscape painting, modern nature poetry,
modern music, and the English novel. His attitude thereto
is made all the more notable by the fact that throughout the country,
and especially in the South, there prevailed the utmost distrust
of scientific investigations and hypotheses. During the seventies
the criticism of the invitation extended to Huxley to deliver
the principal address at the opening of Johns Hopkins University,
and the controversy arising out of President White's enunciation
of the principles that would dominate the newly created Cornell University,
all tended to make the controversy between science and religion
especially acute. American poets, notably Poe and Lowell,
had expressed their distrust of modern scientific methods and conclusions.
But Lanier saw no danger either to religion or to poetry in science.
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