December i8, 1919J 



NATURE 



405 



real religion. For a long time I have thought that 

 we should be much nearer understanding our real 

 position in these things if we could persuade the 

 classical scholars to do for Greek religion what the 

 compilers and translators of the Bible did for the 

 Hebrew — that is, to collect together in the best avail- 

 able translation the literature of the Greeks which 

 formed the basis of their guides to conduct. The 

 appropriate contents of such a collection were sketched 

 out by Dr. James Adam, a college colleague of mine 

 at Cambridge, whose untimely death is still deplored, 

 in his Gifford lectures on the religion of the Greeks. 

 With him the subject was a source of unbounded 

 enthusiasm, and his lectures are a series of sermons 

 on the Testament of the Greeks. B.ut we ordinary 

 readers, unlearned in the Greek literature, are in the 

 position of those who are offered sermons on the Old 

 Testament instead of the Old Testament itself. 

 If you imagine where we should stand if the 

 Old Testament were denied to us except in the 

 original Hebrew, you will understand the posi- 

 tion the vast majority of us must occupv with regard 

 to Greek ethics, which are,' in fact, the ethics of our 

 ruling classes in the old sense. Therefore I use this 

 opportunity to beg those who arc enthusiastic for Hel- 

 lenistic studies to give us such a Testament. I feel 

 sure it will enable us to understand the ideals of the 

 public schools and universities, and throw an entirelv 

 new light upon the supposed conflict of classical and 

 scientific studies, which is possibly onlv another phase 

 of the other perennial dispute about religious 

 education. 



The ethical ideals of our schools and universities are 

 clear, excellent in themselves, and appreciated every- 

 where. They ' manifestly excite enthusiasm and 

 develop the spirit of self-sacrifice for their mainten- 

 ance. But what of the intellectual ideals? The sub- 

 ject is important, becau.se the cultivation of the intel- 

 lect is the avowed purpose of academic institutions, 

 and the part of education which is necessary for carry- 

 ing on the world's work. Looking at the actual 

 practice of the universities, we can see that the intel- 

 lectual ideals are obscured, confused, and enfeebled 

 by the very process of competition between colleges 

 which is so eminently successful in developing the 

 ethical spirit. 



But the opportunity for strengthening and clearing 

 our intellectual ideals is now. It may require some 

 sacrifice of prejudices and traditions as between col- 

 leges and the university, but the reward will certainly 

 be great. 



I supoose that the character of any distinguished 

 educationist a century ago would be summed up in 

 the words. 'He spared not the rod"; and to-day 

 perhaps the highest praise is expressed by saving that 

 " He spared neither the ratepayer nor the taxpayer," 

 but even that is not enough. Money without motive 

 power does not make education. We may reserve our 

 highest praise for those educational establishments of 

 which it may be said that in the pursuit of a true 

 ideal they spared " neither their prejudices nor their 

 inherited privileges." It may sound sacrilegious, but 

 it must be said ; the Portia of our dreams will not 

 become the alma mater that the nation needs if she 

 can never be obtained except after the manner of her 

 father's will. 



lecturer in metallurgical chemistry in the L'niversit) 

 of Glasgow. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Sheffield. — Prof. C. H. Desch has been appointed 

 professor of metallurgy in succession to Prof. J. O. 

 .Arnold. Since September, igi8. Prof. Desch has been 

 professor of metallurgy in the Royal Technical Col- 

 lege, Glasgow, and he was previously Graham Young 



NO. 2616, VOL IO4I 



Viscount Hald.i.ne, as president of Birkbeck 

 College, was in the chair at the founder's day 

 celebration on December 12. Fifty-eight of the 

 graduates of the college who have tajien their 

 degrees at the University of London since iqi4, 

 totalling 138, were presented to the president. The 

 Principal (Dr. George Senter), in his report, said 

 that 600 Birkbeck men were known to have been on 

 active service. Of these 331 obtained commissions, 

 and 87 names were on the roll of honour. During 

 the war the chemistry department of the college pro- 

 vided certain drugs needed for war purposes, and the 

 physics department tested more than two thousand 

 optical instruments. Four-fifths of the students in 

 normal times were evening students. Lord Haldane 

 gave an address on "What is Truth?" He said this 

 was a topic on which he had been reflecting for forty- 

 five years — ever since he first entered a university. 

 This question was bound up with another, the same 

 thirrg in another form, the relativity of knowledge, 

 of which we had heard a great deal just lately. 

 F.instein had told them about it, but he had dealt 

 only with a fragment of the problem of rela- 

 tivity, which covered the whole field of knowledge. 

 The problem of relativity went far beyond the mathe- 

 matics of astronomy. What was it that Einstein had 

 been trying to tell the world? Even when you could 

 put truth into a nutshell, it was not always possible 

 to keep it there. The problem which Einstein had 

 rai.sed was not new. People had thought of time 

 and space as something they knew all about, of a 

 straight line as the shortest distance between two 

 points. He then explained that to answer the ques- 

 tion "What is Truth?" we must realise that the 

 principle of relativity had shown us that the reality 

 and our conception of it are not wholly separate. The 

 observer and the observed could not be separated, 

 and account must be taken of the observer. Sir 

 Frederic Kenvon moved a vote of thanks, which was 

 seconded by Mr. James C. N. White. 



The Manchester Municipal College of Technology is 

 making an appeal to the industrial and commercial 

 community of Manchester and of south-east Lanca- 

 shire for the sum of 150,000^, with a view to the 

 extension of the present building and equipment on 

 land adjoining the college bought some years ago 

 for that purpose at a cost of 44,000^. The present 

 teaching resources of the college are taxed to over- 

 flowing with full-time day students, who now exceed 

 five hundred, the majority of whom are proceeding 

 to degrees in the faculty of technology in the Univer- 

 sity, whilst others are' engaged in whole-time post- 

 graduate scientific industrial research. There is every 

 prospect that this number will be considerably aug- 

 mented in the near future, and the governing body is de- 

 sirous of making the fullest preparation for the increase, 

 having regard to the serious competition of the chief 

 foreign nations, notablv America, Germany, Switzer- 

 land, and Japan, in theoverseas markets. The urgent 

 need for this' extension has been commended b\ several 

 important firms representative of the chief industries 

 of the area, notablv those engaged in the chemical, 

 engineering and textile trades; and at a recent 

 meeting of the local branch of the Federation 

 of British Industries held in the city the fol- 

 lowing resolution was unanimously passed :—" That, 

 having regard to the fact that the Manchester 

 College of Technology was the first technical institu- 

 I tion of university rank to be established in this 

 I countrv, and being firmlv of opinion that the develop- 

 i ment of the invaluable w^ork of the College of Techno- 



