Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1887 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

Pans Pipes 269
planet all the while whirling in the opposite
direction, so that, for all their hurry, they
travel back-foremost through the universe of
space. Sometimes it comes by the spirit of
delight, and sometimes by the spirit of terror.
At least, there will always be hours when
we refuse to be put off by the feint of
explanation, nicknamed science; and demand
instead some palpitating image of our estate,
that shall represent the troubled and un-
certain element in which we dwell, and
satisfy reason by the means of art. Science
writes of the world as if with the cold finger
of a starfish ; it is all true ; but what is it
when compared to the reality of which it
discourses ? where hearts beat high in April,
and death strikes, and hills totter in the
earthquake, and there is a glamour over all
the objects of sight, and a thrill in all noises
for the ear, and Romance herself has made
her dwelling among men ? So we come
back to the old myth, and hear the goat-
footed piper making the music which is itself
the charm and terror of things ; and when