Browning as a scientific poet / by Edward Berdoe.

  • Berdoe, Edward, 1836-1916.
Date:
[1885]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Browning as a scientific poet / by Edward Berdoe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    origin of the nervous system according to our greatest physiologists. Easter Day was I think written in Florence in 1850. I believe it was not till 1855 that Herbert Spencer published his Principles of Psychology, and therein speculated on the evolution of tlie first rudiments of a nervous system in Medusaj and other low types of animal life ; his speculations having since to some extent been confirmed by the investigations of Eomanes and Eimer. Herbert Spencer points out how an impression or stimulus comes to habitually traverse a certain path along the lines of least resistance, thus leading to a differentiation of the protoplasm. Bastian, in his Brain as an Organ of the Mind (p. 21), says, Wherever external impressions produce molecular movements which traverse with frequency some definite path, the transference of such movements is made easier by each repetition, and there is a tendency to the initiation of a struc- tural change along this path. Ultimately by the constant repetition of such a process we should have the gradual formation of an actual 'Nerve fibre.' Now I know of no writer anteiior to Mr. Spencer who suggested this as the process by which nerves are formed, yet Mr. Bro\ATaiug— in a highly concentrated manner it is true—but still actually seems to have anticipated the great and interesting discovery. In Numpholeptos (p. 97) these lines occur— as flash may find The inert nerve, sting awake the palsied limb. The reference is to the use made of electricity in medical science, and the fact that by its aid a paralysed muscle can be restored to its normal condition. No reader of Browning can have failed to remark how great an accumulator of facts he is—facts of all sorts, and from every conceivable and out of the way place. Odd scraps of lore here and there on every possible subject demonstrate that nothing in the range of human learning is beneath his notice or unworthy of being treasured in his storehouse; this is essentially the scientific habit of mind, and this habit has largely contributed to his greatness. Voltaire said, There can be no great poetry without great wisdom, and Horace had said it before him. Although it is true enough that the poet is born and not made, it is equally true, as Carpenter says, that the imaginative faculty may be directed and invigorated, cultivated and chastened by volitional effort. Mr. Browning's industry it is that makes him so difficult to the careless readex'. If at times he is unintelligible it is because he knows so much more than we do. The automatic action of our faculties is in direct proportion to their exercise, and it is because Browning has travelled