454 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



they are sometimes now inserting in their columns under the name of " The 

 New Poetry." Here is a characteristic example, said to be by an American 

 " poet " : 



"I 



Am in the Grip 



Of a strange 



Urge. 



Oh Urge what do you 



Represent ? 



Why are you ? 



Why am I ? 



God knows ! " 



The scribbler, who has evidently nothing to say and does not know how 

 to say even that, while he is so ignorant as to spell the vocative exclamation 

 wrongly, is clearly only attempting to stand on his head in order to attract 

 attention. But what are we to say of the literary gentlemen, the reviewers 

 and dilettanti, who praise such performances as the product of a great new 

 age of poetry ? Fortunately there are signs of rebellion ; and attention 

 should be drawn to an amusing parody of this new school, called Gorgeous 

 Poetry, 1911-20 (Philip Allan), by J. B. M. The witty author asks : " Who 

 are they whom we are joining ? . . . They say, for the most part, nothing, 

 but they say it repeatedly. . . . They eat their way into periodicals, like 

 strange insects. They salute each other in the market place. Some, no 

 doubt, have their tongues in their cheeks But most of them are sad with 

 seriousness, and move in a gloom, unhappy and misunderstood. Others, 

 more fortunate, are acclaimed." Here are two stanzas of one of these 

 parodies, exactly " true to type " — note the reminiscence of Tennyson's 

 " Break, break, break." 



" Flocks of thoughts 

 Scramble over 

 The cornices 

 Of my mountainous mind. 



" Flocks, flocks, flocks 

 At the foot of my bed I see. 

 But the undying ego 

 Knows nothing of aU this." 

 Anti- Science. 



On November 24 the University of London Union Society held a debate 

 as to whether " The Advance of Science is Detrimental to Human Happiness," 

 and no less than 43 out of 125 voted in favour of this ridiculous motion. Of 

 course most of the people attending were young people who probably had 

 little or no experience in the world, and certainly none of countries in which 

 there is no science. Science began with the first fur jacket, the first bow and 

 arrow, and the first wigwam, and will go on until the world's incompetents 

 succeed in subverting civilisation — which is not at all unlikely to happen. 

 It is melancholy to reflect that this country pays something like one hundred 

 million pounds a year in educating people to such a standard as was reached 

 by the minority on this occasion. 



Notes and News. 



H.M. the King has approved of the award of the Royal medals of the 

 Royal Society to Mr. C. T. R. Wilson for his work on condensation nuclei, 

 and to Mr. J. Barcroft for his researches in physiology. The President and 



