Ossian Collection > Aspects of poetry

III.] THE SPIRITUAL SIDE OF POETRY. 71
that it is not so. For what is it in Nature that espe-
cially attracts the poet, that he is gifted beyond other
men to feel, to interpret, and express? Is it not the
beauty that is in the face of Nature? Now consider
what this beauty is, what it means, how it is apprehended.
It is a very wonderful thing, both about ourselves and
the world we live in, that, as in our own inward nature,
to the gift of life has been added the sense of pleasure,
so in the outward world, to the usefulnesss of it has been
added its beauty. The use and the beauty are two
aspects of Nature, distinct, yet inseparable. This thought,
though not new, has been brought out with such peculiar
power by the late Canon Mozley, that in some sort he
has made it his own. In that sermon of his on Nature,
well known, I doubt not, to many here, he says, ' The
beauty is just as much a part of Nature as the use ; they
are only different aspects of the selfsame facts.' The
same laws which make the usefulness make also the
beauty, ' It is not that the mechanism is painted over,
in order to disguise the deformity of machinery, but the
machinery itself is the painting ; the useful laws compose
the spectacle. . . . All that might seem the superfluities
of Nature are only her most necessary operations under
another view, her ornament is but another aspect of her
work ; and in the very act of labouring as a machine,
she also sleeps as a picture.' In the physical world,
the laws, their working, and their use, are the domain
of science. The beauty which accompanies their