Pièce 4 - Part of a draft syllabus for a paper (‘On the Relations between Science and Some Modern Poetry’)

1 single sheet

(Docketed ‘Cosmic Emotion’. On the back are mathematical notes. The paper is of the same kind as E2/4a.)

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Transcript

Introduction on the Golden Verses.

The poetry to be considered is that which deals with cosmic emotion; i.e. with our feelings in regard to the sum total of things and in regard to the most general principles of human action. For as reason may be divided into practical and speculative, so emotions may be divided into moral and æsthetic; founded on the statements of reason and the actions suggested by the respectively.

The essence of Science is that it unites Thought and Action; {1} under its reign the speculative and the practical reason are one thing. Poetry which represents this union as universal, or in its general aspect, has relations with science. These we shall now study.

Provisis. {2}

1. The Cosmos is no longer a whole but a part, and true cosmic emotion must henceforth be marked by a want, an incompleteness, an aspiration.

2. Hence even about this part it cannot regard itself as final.

3. This fact of growth however is precisely what gives us our present key: the universe having previously had the odd aspect of a world suddenly petrified—History, not Nature.

4. But we must regard our generalities as subsequent and subordinate in importance to the particulars. We cannot by a sudden flash get anything without paying for it. The particular is the real thing.

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{1} Semi-colon supplied in place of a full stop.

{2} This is the apparent reading. The word is written to the left of the next paragraph.