NOTES 115 



H. H. Asquith was appointed in 1909, W. J. Dundas, Esq., in 1914, the only three 

 scientific members among the nominated Trustees having been appointed in 1917. 

 There is still one vacancy, caused by the death of Lord Kinnear at the end of 

 191 7, to be filled up, and, when this has been done, it is to be hoped that the 

 statement made, that the vacancies have for the most part been supplied by the 

 appointment of men eminent in various branches of science, may continue to 

 be true. 



February 9, 191 8. 



Postscript added February 21, 1918 : 



The papers announce that at the Annual Meeting of the Carnegie Trust, held 

 on February 20, 1918, the vacancy above referred to was filled by the appointment 

 of Lord Sands, so that the British Science Guild will draw its own conclusion as to 

 this misleading statement. 



F. S. 



The Awakening East 



Busy as we are nowadays, it is always pleasurable as well as profitable to read 

 those well-conducted magazines, the New East (Tokyo) and the Hindustan 

 Review (Allahabad). They are, in fact, not second in interest to anything pub- 

 lished in this country, while the views are more novel and the atmosphere is 

 fresher. In both of them we find British as well as Japanese or Indian names 

 among the contributors — which gives us the pleasant assurance that in literature 

 as in science there is, after all, only one nation. This is indeed the great ideal of 

 civilisation ; let us not puff our chests and crow the one against the other, 

 pretending that our own nationals are so much better than the rest of the world — 

 which is not true. It is a higher wisdom to join hands round the world in order 

 to make it better everywhere. And in these periodicals we can see how rapidly 

 the million-peopled East is now coming up level with the West. A day may 

 arrive when the East shall excel the West in science, art, and literature, even as 

 now the people of the East excel those of the West in manners, gentleness, and 

 many virtues. 



We are, therefore, much concerned to read in the New East that Russian 

 literature is now fashionable in Japan and that Shakespeare is neglected for 

 Tolstoy. That literature is really based on a lie— that men should prefer their 

 rights to their duties— the fundamental lie of all the so-called radicals, socialists, 

 revolutionaries, nihilists, Bolsheviks, and Sinn Feiners. The lie has ruined Russia 

 and Ireland ; it poisons all it touches ; it turns men into a kind of arguing apes. 

 Not these doctrines, believe it, will ever better the world. Compare for a moment 

 the benign, all-seeing Shakespeare, and that dishevelled mumbling old crank, 

 Tolstoy ! 



In the Hindustan Review for January (containing many good articles) Rao 

 Bahadur M. V. Kibe, M.A., remarks that "when India came under foreign rule, 

 the goddess Poetry deserted the land." This is scarcely borne out by the fact 

 that the only Nobel prizeman for literature in the British Empire besides Kipling 

 is Tagore ; nor by the fact that India is now producing much good work of all 

 kinds. Contrary to what political parrots repeat, nations have often to thank 

 Heaven for having lived under foreign rule. Progress in science and art, not in 

 demagogy, is the true test of advance. The world is sick both of autocrats and 

 democrats, who have brought it to its present pass. The object of government is 

 to organise prosperity— not to feed the fads of rights-mongers. India and Japan 



