Science and Citizenship 



are facilities provided for observation from the 

 summit. Even to the old church and castle towers 

 that survive with their stairway and their observing 

 platform, access is generally made difficult or im- 

 possible to obtain. We lock them up, and if that 

 does not guard them against the curiosity of the 

 citizen and tourist, there are other well-known 

 modes of generating indifference. There is the 

 custom of charging an entrance fee, which repre- 

 sents a considerable slice out of the worker's 

 day. And if all these precautions fail, there is 

 the final and frequent resource of losing the key. 

 Assuredly the gods first blind those whom they 

 wish to destroy. 



The Imperial Institute in London, which com- 

 memorates the Jubilee of Queen Victoria, is adorned 

 with a handsome and commodious tower of many 

 storeys. In each storey there is a large chamber. 

 A visitor in the early days of the Institute asked 

 permission to enter and ascend the tower. The 

 officer in charge was complaisant, and offered to 

 conduct the visitor over the tower ; but the key 

 could not be found, and the visitor said he would 

 return another day. On his next visit he was told 

 that the key had been found, but it was not con- 

 sidered advisable to use it, for the structure of 

 the tower was defective ! Is any further explana- 

 tion needed of the admitted failure of the Institute 

 in the first decade of its existence ? Happily, it 

 has now been reorganised, and entered on a more 

 useful phase. 



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