i 5 4 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



tion is whether, if you had any spare time, you could fill it by reading Plato in the 

 original Greek. 



Candidate: Really, sir, I am not interested in philosophy, and if I had any 

 spare time, I should not spend it in reading philosophy, either in Greek or 

 English. 



Examiner : Mr. Jones, you are trifling with the Examiners. Of course you 

 would not read Greek. No one reads Greek, except to prepare himself or some 

 one else for examination. You were not asked whether you would read Greek : 

 you were asked whether you would be able to read some difficult Greek writer, 

 such as Plato, in case you had the leisure, and wished to read him. 



Candidate : I might be able to spell it out with the help of a dictionary, but I 

 should not understand it. 



Examiner : Is it possible, Mr. Jones, that you are so ignorant as to suppose 

 that any one can understand Plato ? Do you not know that he has been studied 

 for more than two thousand years, and that his meaning is more hotly debated 

 than ever ? I am afraid it will be quite impossible for us to recommend the 

 appointment of a candidate who is so completely uneducated. Pray, Mr. Jones, 

 have you any other qualification to put forward for the consideration of the 

 Examiners ? 



Candidate : I am afraid not, sir. I wish now that I had spent on Greek the 

 time I devoted to football. 



Examiner : Football, Mr. Jones ? Did you say football ? Had you any suc- 

 cess at football ? 



Candidate : I won my blue, sir, and played for the 'Varsity. 



Examiner: Dear me, Mr. Jones, why did you not say so before? This is 

 most important. We had no idea— really, Mr. Jones, modesty is very becoming 

 in a young man, at any rate before he enters the Service, but even then it 

 may be pushed too far. We shall have much pleasure in submitting your 

 name to the Secretary of State for this important post, and we wish you every 

 success in your career, which we are sure will be most distinguished. But do 

 cultivate the ability to read Plato. You need never read him, you know. No 

 one reads him who is not compelled to do so ; but unless you could read him 

 if you wished to, there is something wanting. We never consider a man who 

 cannot read Greek quite — quite— you know what I mean. No one wants you to 

 read Greek, and no one in his senses, except professors and people of that kind, 

 ever does read Greek ; but if you can read Greek, it gives you that air of 

 superciliousness which is so highly valued in the Civil Service, and is, in fact, the 

 stamp of the higher ranks of the Service. We never say that a man who cannot 

 read Greek cannot be a gentleman, but every one will admit that the man who can 

 is intellectually, morally, and above all, socially, superior to the man who cannot. 

 And take my advice, and give up hunting after metals, and breeding sheep and 

 goats. It may never be useful, but there is a taint of utility about it that the 

 Office does not like. If you must breed something, breed hyaenas, or crocodiles, 

 or some other good sporting animals ; but if you want to get on, beware of utility. 



Candidate (sotto voce, as he retires) : Well, I'm damned ! 



Chalk Flints and the Age of the Earth 



Standing by the new Lighthouse at Beachy Head, in front of the grand cliff 

 section there exposed, even the casual and ungeological observer must be struck 

 by the curious black lines in the chalk. These are the well-known flints of the 

 Upper Chalk. We notice how they occur here in more or less parallel lines, 



