Page:Adams - Essays in Modernity.djvu/148

136 say sovereign, thought. It is brilliant, it is ingenious, but it is not great. Again, take 'Hertha,' a poem which has some superb snatches in it: the same remark has to be made. Professor Clifford, indeed, eager to show that the mathematical mind could appreciate the fine flow of poesy, took the thing au pied de la lettre and discoursed on its 'cosmic emotion.' Perhaps it was encouragement from some such unexpected source that induced Mr. Swinburne to say to himself, 'Go to, I will also write a poem on "Genesis, and the precious poem on 'Genesis' was the result. It would be interesting to have the opinion of the fiery but grim scientific realist, Herr Häckel, upon its scientific value—Herr Häckel, who has knocked together the heads of poet and teleologist with an admirable impartiality. He could not have a finer example of 'the painter in glowing colours of the wonderful mystery' to be derived from a few popular scientific text-books than our English poet. He has very few ideas, and those he does to death, sometimes amazingly so. For instance, there is his ceaseless phrase, 'spirit of sense.' It or its equivalent occurs at least four times in the Songs, three times in the second Poems and Ballads, five times in the Essays and Studies, and elsewhere. The origin of it is Shakespeare's Troilus, the Keats of Shakespeare (according to Mr. Swinburne); and Lord