Science makes discoveries, Art composes …

Science makes discoveries; Art composes works. Science is an acquirement of man; Science is a ladder: one savant mounts above his fellow. Poetry is a soaring flight.

William Shakespeare by Victor Hugo

Poetry, like Science, has an abstract …

Poetry, like Science, has an abstract root. Science produces from that root masterpieces of metal, wood, fire, or air,- machine, ship, locomotive, aerostat; Poetry causes to grow from it the masterpiece of flesh and blood, Iliad, Song of Songs, Romancero, Divine Comedy, Macbeth.

William Shakespeare by Victor Hugo 

The work appearing superhuman, people wish to …

The work appearing superhuman, people wish to exhibit the intervention of the extra-human: in antiquity. the tripod; in our days, the table. The table is nothing but the tripod come again. To accept in a literal sense, the demon that Socrates talks of, the bush of Moses, the nymph of Numa, the spirit of Plotinus, and Mahomet`s dove, is to be the victim of a metaphor.

On the other hand, the table, turning or talking, has been very much laughed at. To speak plainly, this raillery is out of place. To replace inquiry by mockery is convenient, but not very scientific. For our part, we think that the strict duty of Science is to test all phenomena.

William Shakespeare by Victor Hugo