A WERKT.y ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCTLNCJ- 



" To the solid ground 

 Of Xatiirc trusts the mind u'/nV/i builds for uvt'."— Wordsworth. 



THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1918, 



CAMBRIDGE STANDARDS OF VALUE. 

 Catnbridge Essays on Education. Edited by Dr. 

 A. C. Benson. With an Introduction by the Rt. 

 Hon. Viscount Bryce. Pp. xix + 232. (Cam- 

 bridg'e : At the University Press, 1917.) Price 

 js. 6d. net. 



THESE essays, with one notable exception, con- 

 stitute an appreciation and a defence of a 

 classical education. They set forth all that is best 

 in classical and literary studies, and abound in 

 stimulating^ thoughts and provocative theories. 

 But, with one exception, the writers have no great 

 belief in scientific studies ; though Cambridge 

 essays, they do not represent Cambridge thought, 

 of which Mr. Bateson assures us the dominant 

 forces come from the scientific school. Even the 

 Dean of St. Paul's, who has natural leanings 

 towards science, pronounces scientific studies to 

 iye thin— like the air on the mountain-tops — whilst 

 :' he admits that they are pure and bracing. But 

 - with all this fear of science there is in most of 

 the essays the feeling of an unfulfilled hope, which 

 is not allayed by the somewhat forced and arti- 

 ficial methods with which the writers seek to 

 stimulate interest in literary studies. They have 

 great possessions, but something is lacking; thjit 

 something, students of science mav claim, is the 

 nut look of science. 



It will be admitted that the advent of such 

 mighty things as modern scientific discoveries 

 might be expected to awaken a new curiosity 

 and bring with it a new revelation. But un- 

 fortunately the outlook and aims of science are 

 little understood and are confused with other 

 motives. Mr. Paton, for example, declares science 

 to be the embodiment of materialism. The last 

 century, with all its brilliant achievement in 

 ..scientific discovery, was, he tells us, spiritually a 

 failure. He is probablv mixing up science with 

 what he sees around him in business. Sir John 

 McClure, who writes on vocational training and 

 i^ so distrustful of it, does the same. He quotes 



^'O. 2-2.1. VOL. 10 1 1 



I with approval from the speech which Mr. Hlchens 

 I acJdressed to the Headmasters' Association. But 

 Mr. Hichens is not thinking of science; he is 

 I thinking of "business." For high business 

 I capacity he does not want a man trained in 

 1 science ; he wants him trained in classics, to be a 

 i man of ability and of moral strength of character. 

 ' This is one type. For research he will employ 

 a man trained in science. 



The difference arises from tlie existence of these 

 two types of men ; and these types, Mr. Bateson 

 candidly tells us, scarcely know each other— their 

 outlook and methods are diverse, and this diversity 

 affects thought, ways of looking at things, and 

 mental interests. One type is possessive, as Mr. 

 Russell might say, the other creative. Mr. Hichens 

 is, naturally enough, thinking of the conventional 

 qualifications of the governing type ; but in the 

 changing order of affairs it is not so certain that 

 I this type will be able to deal with the new relation- 

 ships which are in rapid process of development. 

 At any rate, men of this kind are in full power in 

 the State, in Government offices, and in many 

 business affairs, and they have not prevented 

 strikes, ox wars, or revolutions ; and at the 

 moment their methods and aims and powers are 

 in a fair way towards paralysis. Who can tell 

 whether the men of research will not be called 

 from their laboratorv to save and reconstruct the 

 State? 



"The rapture of the forward view," which Dean 

 Inge quotes as belonging to science more than to 

 any other study, is much needed to-day if we are 

 to be saved from disaster. Dr. Inge discusses 

 many important educational problems. He re- 

 minds us that the aims of education should be 

 the knowledge, not of facts, but of the relative 

 value of them, and he insists on training the 

 reasoning faculties, and not in placing faith in in- 

 tuition. He even traces the instinct of acquisitive- 

 ness, .so prevalent amongst the governing and 

 p>ossessive classes, to the absence of trained 

 reason. No one, he says, who had formed any 

 reasonable estimate of the relative values of life 

 would devote his time to exploiting his neighbours. 

 It is a question, however, whether too much reli- 



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