May 26, 192 1] 



NATURE 



187 



parts of our "neurography," compounded of the 

 neurograms of, say, ourselves, some action, and 

 some future time (p. 144 et seq.). This failure 

 to do justice to the significance of purpose is 

 evident in the elaborate discussion of the organ- 

 isation of thought (chap. xi.). 



The same tendency to explain values in terms 

 of facts is seen in Mr. Garnett's use of the phrase 

 "aesthetic satisfaction" to "denote the pleasant 

 feeling that results when the instinct of curiosity 

 achieves its end " (p. 253), and in his description 

 of religious faith as " action on an hypothesis with 

 a view to its verification " (p. 307). More import- 

 ant is the effect of his preoccupation with the tidy, 

 exact world of scientific facts iipon his conception 

 of the aim of education. " Every citizen ought to 

 develop a tidy and perfectly integrated mind — a 

 single endarchy of neurograms — which should 

 correspond, so far as the time and effort available 

 for his education and his own ' educability ' 

 permit, to the endarchy of science " (p. 313). 

 These individual endarchies will vary according 

 to the citizen's special activities in the life of the 

 community ; but in all cases they should centre in 

 a single wide interest system. Education must, 

 therefore, aim at the development of an appro- 

 priate single wide interest in the mind of each boy 

 and girl. Schools should be so organised as to 

 offer unified courses of training for different 

 classes of individuals, distinguished mainly by the 

 types of callings for which they are prepared. 



Mr. Garnett, however, has too keen an interest 

 in ethics and religion to remain entirely content 

 with the endarchy of science. Hence on ethical 

 grounds he holds that human souls are really free, 

 and can influence neural activity by the exercise 

 of will (p. 97). What exactly is meant by the 

 will and how it is related to the soul and to the 

 body does not seem very clear. But it is the 

 principal factor in developing a single wide in- 

 terest (p. 268). Such interests, indeed, centre in 

 conscious purposes, and we even find the alarm- 

 ing statement that " the possessor of a single wide 

 interest will tend always to be conscious of his 

 supreme and dominant purpose " (p. 244). In an 

 important chapter (chap, vii.) it is argued that 

 strength of will is measured by g, the index of 

 general ability, and that g can be increased by 

 training. "Indeed, the cultivation of strong wills 

 by the formal training of attention is one of the 

 chief ends of education (p. 332 et seq.). Again, 

 the world of science is brought into relation with 

 religion, and more particularly with Christianity. 

 "The Christian account of the universe . . . com- 

 pletes the discovered part of the endarchy of 

 science with an hypothesis concerning the hitherto 

 NO. 2691, VOL. 107] 



undiscovered central essences, it does so ... in 

 a manner that enables the corresponding neuro- 

 graphy to fulfil the conditions that have to be 

 satisfied by the neurography of the typical citizen 

 of a maximally efficient and progressive com- 

 munity " (p. 355). 



This conception of the function of religion is 

 suggestive in many ways, but it is another ex- 

 ample of the loss which the deeper things of life 

 must suffer in order to be fitted into the Pro- 

 crustes bed of the neat and tidy endarchy of 

 science; and, speaking generally, Mr. Garnett's 

 effort to make room in his world of scientific facts 

 for freedom and religion can scarcely be regarded 

 as successful. His system of education is too cut- 

 and-dried, too externally determined and bureau- 

 cratic to meet the deepest demands of human 

 nature. It might give us industrious citizens, 

 good officials, and scientific experts, but scarcely 

 prophets, artists, and men of genius. For while 

 a tidy and integrated mind is greatly to be 

 desired, it is not, perhaps, the highest type of 

 mind we know. As Dr. Rivers has recently re- 

 minded us, some degree of mental instability is 

 probably a condition of great achievement in art 

 and science, and gives strength to man's deep 

 craving for religion. 



It has been impossible in this review even to 

 touch upon many of the important topics which 

 Mr. Garnett discusses with marked ability and 

 wide knowledge. We may mention, for example, 

 his discussion of general ability, cleverness, and 

 purposefulness. It is from no lack of admiration 

 for his achievement that we have dwelt upon an 

 apparent weakness in his argument. That weak- 

 ness will, we fear, militate against the general 

 acceptance of his special point of view. But he 

 has done us no small service in giving us a book 

 which treats the theory and practice of education 

 in a thoroughly scientific spirit. It is this spirit 

 which matters most, and the book will stimulate 

 and encourage all who hold loose thinking and 

 vague metaphor to be as pernicious in education 

 as they are in any other field of thought. 



Advances in the Study of the Yeasts. 



The Yeasts. By Prof. A. Guilliermond. Trans- 

 lated and thoroughly revised in collaboration 

 with the original author by Dr. F. W. 

 Tanner. Pp. xix + 424. (New York: John 

 Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; London : Chapman and 

 Hall, Ltd., 1920.) 335. net. 



OUR knowledge of the yeasts has made great 

 strides within the past twenty years,, and 

 for this we have mainly to thank the classical 



