Science in Public Affairs 



city is a feat which few of us ever achieve. Few 

 of us ever succeed in seeing even our own city, 

 let alone others. Hence the widespread illusion 

 that cities consist of shops, factories and dwellings, 

 with public-houses at the corners these being the 

 objects presented to the eye, as one passes along 

 the open tunnels called streets. But there are cer- 

 tain animals, like birds, butterflies, and some human 

 beings, that have the habit of viewing terrestrial 

 objects from a height. And it is obvious that it 

 is in vertical perspective only that a city can be 

 visualised. The habit of viewing objects, both 

 terrestrial and celestial, from a height was appa- 

 rently a much commoner habit among the human 

 species in former than in present times. Otherwise, 

 how explain the wide occurrence of special facilities 

 for the purpose ? The mounds, the pyramids, the 

 towers of many kinds which past civilisations have 

 erected in such abundance, have doubtless various 

 origins. But when facilities occur, as they generally 

 do, for reaching the summits and thence making 

 observations, we are bound to infer that we are 

 dealing with real observatories deliberately planned 

 for that purpose, whatever other purposes, reli- 

 gious, ceremonial, commemorative, aesthetic, these 

 constructions may also have served. Our recent 

 and contemporary civilisations continue to adorn 

 or supplement our buildings with towers as inevi- 

 table, and, one is inclined to say, as automatically as 

 the beavers build their dams and the bees their hives. 

 But more often than not, we do not provide a stair- 

 way to the summit ; or if we add that, how seldom 



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