MIXED RECORDS 191 



accurate observation and absolute rubbish, as, from 

 the standpoint of present knowledge, they are found 

 to contain. Think of some new Dark Age over- 

 sweeping the earth again another war such as the 

 last may bring it yet and, a thousand years hence, 

 all that survives of our present knowledge of the 

 internal structure of atoms being some notes, taken 

 down by one of you, of the lectures I have been 

 giving this term. It might well take another 

 thousand years of patient study to unravel them, 

 during which epoch my reputed lectures would 

 constitute part of the classics. Punch tells a story 

 of how, to amuse a patient laid aside on a bed of 

 illness, a friend sent her a jig-saw puzzle of "The 

 finding of Moses," with a handful of " The Map of 

 Europe " thrown in to make it interesting. So, 

 beware of relying too implicitly upon what has come 

 down to us by ancient records. 



To return to our theme, it is idle to pretend that 

 what is true must necessarily be either beautiful or 

 good. To adopt such a position is to assume 

 different kinds of truth : one for spiritual matters, 

 elevating and inspiring, another for the things of 

 the flesh, sordid and base, and yet a third for the 

 inanimate world, of utilitarian but of no possible 

 human significance. The scientific man regards 

 truth, not as an aspiration, but as an achievement, 

 and he holds that the truth he has been permitted 

 to achieve is but part of an ascertainable whole, to 

 which poets, seers and prophets have aspired. 



Science can claim to have kept the ideal of truth 

 burning very brightly in our universities. How 

 have the older studies covered their part of the 

 field and cherished the ideals of beauty and virtue? 

 As regards the first, I am quite certain that a 

 Labour Government would not find the present 

 faculties of arts in our universities to be sufficiently 



