Review of Renews, iOI$l06. 



Leading Articles, 



285 



INDIVIDUALITY VERSUS DISCIPLINE. 



Mr. Edward E. Hale, junr., contributes to the 

 January issue of the New York Bookman an article 

 entitled " Individualitv and Discipline." 



WHY EDUCATION HAS FAILED. 



Many persons, he says, complain that education 

 in general has not done what was fairly to be ex- 

 pected of it in the last fifty years, but he thinks this 

 is rather a dark view of the question. One reason 

 why education has not attained the height we think 

 it might have done is that it covers so much more 

 ground than it used to do. Another is that every- 

 one has work carefully arranged so as to appeal to 

 his special powers or arouse his special interests, 

 whereas in an earlier day all were put through the 

 same mill. 



Mr. Hale summarises the case as follows : — 



Is it better tc pursue a disagreeable task w the utter- 

 most, or to alwavs take work that interests one? 



Is it better to have one way of doin^ things, and make 

 everyone do things in that way, or have each one work as 

 best suits him? 



Do any studies have a universal value, or will every study 

 be most useful to the particular one who likes it best? 



LIVING ONE'S OWN LIFE. 

 On the whole, he chooses the first alternative in 

 each case, and with reference to the tendencv to the 

 development of individuality of our day, adds: — 



Ir" the individual life in its higher moods lias freer play 

 than a hundred years ago, it is not the only element in 

 man that is so favoured. Greatly as the opportunities 

 have increased for the development of the higher nature, 

 they are slight as compared with the increase of the oppor- 

 tunities for the less noble elements of our being. 



The opportunities for personal comfort, amusement, grati- 

 fication, are ti-day such as they have never been before, 

 and people to-day are availing themselves of such oppor- 

 tunities to the utmost. And with this use, not to call it 

 abus« or indulgence, comes a weakening of power, because 

 people easily set to feel that they have a right to the 

 things that it is possible for them to get. 



There is no nlan for reform urged ito-day that is not 

 likely to be met bv the all-sufficient argument that if it be 

 carried out it will be hard on somebody. If we close the 

 saloons it will be hard on people who want to drink. 



And what does Education say? — 



At present Education says, with the rest. Individuality: 

 let us lead our own lives! But the note of Education always 

 has been Discipline. 



More and mo'e people are beginning to feel the weight of 

 too much liberty, often, it is true, of liberty on the part 

 of others. More and more are people coming to see again 

 the value of discipline. 



A FAMOUS BOOK. 



The "■ Religio Medici.' 



The January number of the Library publishes 

 Mr. William Osier's address on Sir Thomas Browne, 

 recently delivered at the Physical Society's Guy's 

 Hospital. He gives an account of the man and his 

 book, and concludes with an appreciation of 

 Browne's writings. 



Sir Thomas Browne was borne just three centuries 

 ago. and he died in 1682. The " Religio Medici," 

 which was written at " leisurable hours and for his 

 private exercise and s^itisfaction," was circulated in 

 manuscript among friends, several of whom tran- 

 scribed it, and it was first printed from one of these 



•' depraved '' copies. The first '' true and full copy 

 was printed in 1643, and the book soon became 

 popular. Sir Kenelm Digby is said to have read it 

 through in bed, and to have written " Obser\-ations 

 on it the sam.e night, amounting to about three- 

 fourths of the book itself. Some fifty-five editions 

 of the work have been published. 



COUNSELS OF PERFECTION 



In conclusion, the writer says:^ — • 



For the student of medicine the writings of Sir Thomas 

 Browne have a very positive value. The charm of high 

 thoughts clad in beautiful language may win some readers 

 to a" love of good literature; but beyond this is a still 

 greater advantage. Like the " Thoughts " of Marcus Aure- 

 lius and the Enchiridion " of Epictetus, the " Religio " is 

 lull of counsels of perlection which appeal to the mind of 

 youth, still plastic and unhardened by contact with the 

 world. 



Carefully studied, from such books come subtle influences 

 which give siability to character and help to give a man a 

 sane outlook on the complex problems of life. Sealed early 

 of this tribe of authors, a student takes with him, as 

 compagnong de voyage, life-long friends whose thoughts be- 

 come his thoughts, and whose ways become his ways. 



Masterv of self, conscientious devotion to duty, deep 

 human inte est in human beings— these best of all lesaone 

 you must learn now or never— and these are some of the 

 lessons which may be gleaned from the life and from the 

 writings of Sir Thomas Browne. 



THE GERMAN ROYAL TESTING OFFICE. 



In the American Review of Reviews Mr. H. S. 

 Pritchett writes on " Scientific Research as a Factor 

 in National Growth." He adduces Germany as the 

 paramount instance of what a nation can do with a 

 poor soil and few minerals, but by means of highly 

 organised brain power. As an illustration of this 

 principal asset of German progress, the writer refers 

 to the expansion of the Government's work in test- 

 ing metals, chemicals, machines, building materials, 

 etc., which has led to the establishment at Gross- 

 Lichterfelde, just outside of Berlin, of the Royal 

 Testing Office. It is a vast research laboratory. 

 The wav in which it promotes industrial progress is 

 thus explained : — 



A manufacturer who has a problem on his hands whidi 

 he finds difficult of solution can at a very moderate ex- 

 pense bring this to the research laboratorr. where it will 

 be not only attacked by the experts of the establishment, 

 but the experts of the fi-m may also work side by side 

 with those of the Government on tlie common problem. 

 The advantage which is thus afforded to the manufacturer 

 can hardly be over-estimated, for lie finds in the Govern- 

 ment establishment not only a corps of skilled and enthu- 

 siastic experts, but he finds also all the literature of the 

 subject brought together for their use and ready at hand 

 for convenient reference. 



In the matter of raw materials, such as building stones, 

 if a builder or owner anywlie:e in Germany discovers a 

 stone which seems valuable, he can send this to the labora- 

 tory. It will there be tested upon a large scale. One of 

 the most interesting machines used in the whole establish- 

 ment is an enormous freezing-machine, by which large 

 stones may be frozen and tliawed many times in the course 

 of a week, thus giving them all the wear and tear in a few 

 days which they would receive from fifty years of wea- 

 thering. In a similar way machines have been invented 

 for the testing of silks and textiles, of cotton thread, for 

 breaking great beams of iron and steel to determine their 

 strength and hardness and physical properties, which make 

 them valuable in manufacture or in the arts. An immense 

 laboratory has been built up for cement^testing, and the 

 testing of building stones and earths of various kinds. 

 Chemistry has been used in the most skilful manner to 

 solve the problems of industry, and to deal with all the 

 complicated processes which enter into manufacture. 



