Abstract
AN eloquent address on language and literature was delivered on January 27 by Lord Morley of Blackburn, as president of the English Association. Parts of the address dealt with the relation between science and letters, with particular reference to the use of scientific knowledge in poetry, and the antithesis between documentary fact and artistic style. Science aims at concise and truthful expression; and while Lord Morley testified to the value of its influence upon literature, he doubted whether scientific ideas had inspired even Tennyson to the best verse, whether the desire for fact scientifically recorded is not a misfortune in the treatment of modern history, and whether concentration upon scientific truth has not a deadening effect upon emotional conceptions and pleasures.
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Science and Literature . Nature 85, 446–448 (1911). https://doi.org/10.1038/085446a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/085446a0