SCIENCE AND LITERATURE

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1002, 17 December 1910, Page 9

SCIENCE AND LITERATURE

_ Articles on the relation of science and literature are perennial, often seeming to pop out of ! .a clear sky. That the sub-

ject has remained 1 baffling has seemed sufficient excuse for any' invest-igativo spirit to board it. The .latest discussion of it 'in, the ."Oxford/ and Cambridge Review" is instructive; chiefly bocausc, ■with a fine. despito of - contemporary views, it manifestly. ; harks . back . to Aristotle's theory of fine art as. tlm 'mily-;aTithbrity worthy "of 7 attention;' Aristotle applied, or misapplied, as was the casbviivtho Middle Ages, and in tlio seventeenth arid, eighteenth . centuries, has'always caused excitement, and a broken bead or. two. : . • '

But, approached in still another way, the relatipii becomes especially, intcresljflft To "lobk .. atliterature •«%{ Mffie&'tion <vy.lijji}h eiiif. otisly shows ' a ,passi6i'[ ■ for "small-eroKi-sections of life,; and for. Iptting them speak for themselves, unedited and 1111coloured'. This' is strongly of course;-, iipon the : stage, -which - has become a riiiroir do I'honimo in the most minute, and literal sense. In company with this'sort, .strangely enough, aro. stories and. plays-so.:far.-removed from tho • actual facts of lift* that they are closer to fairy-tales than aiiything\ else. "The Bluo Bird": and' "Hans' tho FlutePlayer'' give pleasure, but appeal to tho holiday.-spirit,, in iiiucr, .the-sa«< way as, gay;-" As- You Like It," .and,'i-tliere-fore; according' -to -tho. populariidea, are not. real: '. But ;tliis is ,tho old,- old 'story- .Fact' and, fancy yhavo : alwavn. gono' hand 'in hand, .and the',temper of tho age.has been' determined: by the quo, that led. Incidentally, it-may bo said :with confidence that, in the periods' of most noted literary' output they have walked abreast,; and that never has fancy .been lost by; t!io .wayside. -Just now fact is leading" by' a -good arm's length. .

what of science to-day? Since tho . beginning of this century science hasVoponed up vistas of .whicil ,110 0110 can yet seo to the end. It has long been the custom to_ think of'literature as possessing 'ah imaginative sweep not granted to.science. And yet, defined by such standards, - it would seem as though they had now exchanged places. For while.- concehied with principles, underlying such , huge inventions as wireless. telegraphy.'! : and - tho airship,, scientists must-,, by tho nature of the case, mingle a very human imagination , with their, iWork. - "Wireless telegraphy, oven to' 'them, means rescue at sea and not sheer principles. And- in many other ■ ways—in medicine and of science aro coil.fronted by possibilities'which they cannot fail to express in ternis of a very personal, humaiii experience. Somo of tho greatest of. our modern 'scientists have confessed that "tho. deeper they have plunged, into' natural, laws, • the greater has Become their sense' of tho real mystery of-life.'. It may Well bp that science will. show the. way to ii proper sort of imagination for literature/

■ What, we have in iniiidis, of course, '< something very different from the pil- : lago of scientific,forms and mere.; external situations -which has beeii going on from "M'Andrew's Hymn" down to theatrical flying. Tho writer in tho "Oxford, and.Cambridge Iteview" quotes' the following example from tlio pert of a man who wrote delightfully before! ; lie '.'got" science:' ; "The object: to be attained (when ono disciplines his:life for the good of his fellows) is an active change in the distribution of the atomic particles composing tlie'magnetic force,' so. as to render tlie'm susceptible by; magnetic contact to the highest order of beings in thbunseen world , and impervious •to tho invasion of • the counter-currents, whether from persons -in" this world or tho other." '

Without taking ..this example quite so seriously >as did.our English -author,! or resting our case upon It, : \ve can recall plenty of instances' ill which' a few hours of-study have furnished a writer with :terms 'for - local ■ colour; that- it has passed as realism makes' it nono the less .'meretricious. -. .... -'

In times past , the chief service of -science-to literature has been an insistence upon mi .accurate observation of details. Down- -to surprisingly lata times old-tashioued natural histories still held -sway, mingling fables . plenteously.. Dr. .Johnson's- belief that "swallows certainly sleep-.all winter. A number of them conglobulate together by flying round and round, and then, all in a heapj throw themselves' under water, and'lie in' the bed of a river," sconis almost incredible. .-

Wordsworth and Tennyson " learned from llio spirit of : their timo to look before l-hey wrote.- (And their observation shows in-the precision .of . their analogies. "I- wandered lonely- as 'a cloud'-'' is as accurate as - it is - paqtic, and is only one of the, -countless Sinstances which give--the poetry of.thnt great period, "vhntev-r. be enid of underlying ideas, a surface' of'limitless shades of truth. .

'Precisely .what_thn_lesson. of- science is for literature to-day,. ; no ono would, venture to predict." /Slot ono thing'is clear—even if it ride -'with science through tho air, discovering now worlds, literature will have to employ its old :■ mothods of careful selection and suggestion, of magnifying and'.foreshortening. It is well enough for. a Teniers to put in every detail of a small- Flemish room, but . with vastness literal reproduction is impossible, and would mean nothing. The greatest litcraturo of tho past has taken to imaginative symbols, and it is boimd to do so in tho future more than ever. . If scienco can; help bring that about; so much the better. —A T ew-,York "Nation." ' • NEW BOOKS. "Bothasborg,' and Other Verses." By Captain -John Tomblcsoii (Gisborne, New Zealand). London: Walter • Scott. Is. •

■ Captain Tombleson's verses are chiefly about phases of station life, but. bis tastes are not narrow.. Ho writes impartially of Halloy's Comet, Sale Day, Lord Kitchener,.Kifle-shooting at.Trentham, the Poverty Bay Show, ' Spring, tho Sailing Ship, and Telephones. His verses can hardly, be called good,' but they are genuine -enough in their way.

"Petals in the Wind: Verses, of a Persifleuse.".. By. Helen Jerome. • Mclbourne: Lothian, ,15.:.; The-first thing-that strikes us about this. slim- little-32-rpagc - volume is . the excellence of. the printing. ■ Tho imprint" (of ..those good workers Butler and 'J'aur.or, of l'jrome. ...and : London) was not necessary to, show that ' the ■prihting_ was dono in England.' Tlio author is well known, : to amateurs 1 of Australasian verse ' as- a' kind "of Ella' W heeler -Wilcox, of the South,' and like that queer''original 1 she. is by. turns poor and strikingly good , in a Wilcbkian way.Her sole preoeoupaticn ns'Love,' and her Castaly is as biting', a' IjraJidy as can be desired by those who love tho mawkish trailers of Australia., If her verses have a tendency at all/.their 'teaching'. is that of "A Song'of Materialism". ' Love, listen to my .all-compelling cry. What havo you left; •if close you lock your heart? Can God.Himself give'-you a better part ? •■' "' . ■ " > - Why should your.human, nature ycu deny? . \ ...

And she .is jm'cy iii'"The Law." Tho lady is "Desire": , j v

Close she behdsMvith her red mouth ■ hungering,.*- ; , Fastening her. lips till'your senses ■; reel! ' ■>, •"■' J■ 1 ' ■''■ Fading fast are' your life's high duties Once at her shrino a slaye you knee!; . ,

After getting' through /even only 32 pa"e3 of Love 1 through ithe eyes of.Ella Wheeler Wilcox, , even though there aro good lines and good enough versification, wo felt that one warm welcome, at anyrate, could be ■'counted upon by any Australian poetess .who would.writo about dustpans. . ■ . .

"The Book of tho Acts 'of the Apostle's: Is it History or Komance?" Being four addresses delivered in tho ■ Unitarian 1 Church,.Wellington, New .. .;..Zealand,Lby -'JohniGainmc'lhlß.A., (Lond.)-.' —r~~r~

In • addresses VMr. . Gtimmcll deals iivitlr 'one ,oftlio : ''most! -difficult yet most interesting problems'of modern Jiiblioal criticism, and one must admire the.! confidence in which hp-states his conclusions on. subjects concerning which the greatest modern-scholars aro ill;, .marked , disagreement.' However, .;J\K.s6ammell: is just , as'entitled to his opinions as anyone else,' especially as lie always gives, his reasons for them. He is no slavish...follower. qf.-J'gveat. authorities,".for,Vas.he tells tis; tho views ho expresses . are the •of his own ■ and original researches." He says 1 "In this, as in all my other courscs, I have, been my own authority.'". „:Mr,, Gaminell.arrives at the conclusion that the Book of tho Acts of the Apostles , is, a religious romance of, yety little historical value, written about. the.-year ]25 A'.n. . I-lis views are sulnmcd^up\:in,''. i th'e':fdlli'n-ing passage:—^i^yhiiyo^ntil'Recently accepted as an aefciial': -liistpria'ii/ t :i^hofe^; statements of fact,-at least those that aro non-nliraculons, ■ might be, accepted as authoritative and. acknowledged as good history.' I' ani bound,to confess," however, that tho thorough examination to which I liavb, more recently subjected the narrative of' the Book of Acts does not bear out this verdict. As you know tho book is full'of "supernaturalism, a fact which ought to. have discredited it-' to . us'all as of doubtful worth even in its non-miraculous .sections.- And a thorough 'analysis of .theSc. non-miracu-lous sections sho\vs that "in many, ca&s they arc as ,imtrii'stworthy : as' tho miraculous narratives themselves, and probably often-relate events that nc.ver occurred. At the;bbst tho book - is simplj' a historipa'l novel,- and whcSicr it ought to be ranked even as high as .that •I am s iiot at ail sure. It is written for- edification'and-'not for instruction. I have already said we must eliminate all .the narratives;; of. supernatural occurrences as . palpably '. fictitious ; we need spcnd ; no'time in proving that point."- ,

Such a verdict js. oven more destructive than tliat of Dr. Schmoidel, one of the most extreme /German critics, while other.. scholars of- t-lio - same school,, liko Pflciderer, Woizsaclier, and Julicher, admit'.'' that _ the author • of. , tho "Acts" wrote in..- simple; faith, and tells iis much;that,; is; .trustworthy. Mr. Gammell: appears /-to ' have great faith in-Zellcr, but. many tilings navo happened sinco .tliat scholar'..'wrote-.on tho • subject,- and quite recently one of tlie foremost living critic's, Harnack, after a-careful re-examin.atioii ,of tho whole question,' declares;. in favour -of tho Lucan authorship of thc-'Act's, and states that""the 'Lucan -'..writings recover _ their "own • excelling, value as historical ■ authorities,■ for" they were written by ;a Greek, who was" a fcllow,worker of St. Paul; and companied with Mark, Silas', -Philip,--and James, the. brother of the Lord.". This is also .the view of Ziilinj t'heT great German conservative fceliolaiy aiul it has' been endorsed-by.English critics like Ham-. : say, Moffalt. Turning to another matter, one might ask : Is Air. Gammell's attitude quite scientific when he states that;, all narratives of supernatural occurrences must be eliminated as. "palpably fictitious" ?■ Was it not Huxley who stated, that there was no justification for the. statement' that miracles were impossible? It was siniply-a question of. evidence. If so, tho evidence, .should-, bo- examined, not arbitrarily, strilck' out; ' The.', developments of science" and philosophy' since Huxley wrote-.certainly tend, to emphasise his position. Scientists and philosophers now admit'that <u-q ;aro : surrounded l h.v..niysferies yvliich become the more mysterious ,the more they are thought about,' ; and' after scientific explanations have been carried to their farthest- limit wo are told that "the fundamental ihysterioiisness -of the universe ■remains untouched." In one sense everything is miraculous, and tho greatest .miracle is that -there is anything. at,/all, - and not. notliing'. Such being the case; ' can anyone arbitrarily fix the limits; of the possible?- Besides, so much -depends .011 - the definition of such words as-; "supernatural" and "miraculous:"' ' Although as . regards. the highly . controversial 'questions '-lib has' raised" 1 ilr.-• Gammell can hardly expect anything -like-general -agreement, with .his;/conclusions; vet everyone .'who is. intefcstcd/in tho Book of. ;Acts :i\yill;. rccogniso that ■ l:e has grappled frith", the problem 'in'an able, independent, and resolute manner.