Hello All - As we've been discussing Frankenstein, and the Romantics in general, I know I've mentioned Whitman's poem "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." And the other day, I ran across John Shaw's photos from Louisiana Tech's observatory. They are a perfect pairing, I think, for demonstrating one of Shelley's main points - that the pursuit of scientific knowledge has the potential to impede our understanding and/or appreciation of Nature.
From Louisiana Tech's Observatory:
From Walt Whitman:
WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.
From Louisiana Tech's Observatory:
From Walt Whitman:
WHEN I heard the learn’d astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.