Spencer Heath Archive

Item 712

Recollected by Spencer MacCallum from conversation with Heath immediately after composing a letter to E. Merril Root.

October 17, 1956

/Poetry and science come both from the same source, but poetry is of the heart, science of the head. Spirit works through human nature. When it works through the heart of man, it expresses itself as art. When it works through the head of man, it expresses itself as science. Both are of one source, but of the two, the heart is more fundamental, because the spirit communicates with the head only through the heart. That is what makes poetry the mother of science. You must be a poet before you can be a scientist. You cannot be a scientist until you have been a poet./