ABSTRACT
But what is most revealing is a comparison of the first and second editions of Science and Poetry. The second edition ca me out in 1935, a year after Coleridge on Imagination. In view of all that has been said about Richards' rejection of his early 'positivist' views, one would expect considerable changes. In fact, however, the changes are slight, and instead we get some additions to deal with misunderstandings of the first edition. There is an explanation of what he meant by his statement, which "seems to have puzzled Mr. Eliot and some other readers," about Eliot's having effected a "complete severance between his poetry and all beliefs"2; a footnote further c1arifying the concept of pseudo-statements; and an appendix presenting multiple definitions of the words 'belief' and 'nature', because "they see m likely occasions of misunderstanding ... and they have in fact misled so me readers." Apart from these additions, indicating not that he had changed his views but that they had been misunderstood in the first place, the only major alteration is one in which, following what he said in Coleridge on Imagination, he describes the scientific worldview as a myth, in the same way as religious and metaphysical systems. But even this is not such a big change from his early views as might appear, for he is referring to the metaphysical elements of comprehensive scientific theories rather than to the data of scientific experiment.
