February 25, 1892] 



NATURE 



395 



London provided with a body of superior Professors, who 

 would net merely add to its distinction by their own 

 labours and public instruction, but would guide the 

 studies and researches of the young graduates. With the 

 right men for Professors, and such picked students as the 

 vast area of London would supply, I do not doubt that 

 the reputation of the University of London would at no 

 distant date rival tl.at of any in the world. I hope Prof. 

 Karl Pearson will *"orgive me if I appropriate in this 

 connection a portion of his letter in the Academy of 

 December 19 : — 



" The professorships ought to be the best in England, 

 and the chief posts, at any rate, might remain in the gift 

 of the Crown ; the laboratories and libraries ought to be 

 the best equipped in the Kingdom, and the University 

 ought to draw students and investigators, not only from 

 the five millions of London, but from the Greater Britain 

 over the seas. Such a University would not only be able 

 to retain in London men like Burdon-Sanderson, Seeley, 

 Gardiner, Sylvester, and Lankester, but it would bring 

 others there." 



With the main idea expressed in these words with so 

 much enthusiasm I most heartily agree. But I think 

 those understand their countrymen and the possibilities 

 of things best who would use, as I would, the existing 

 University as a foundation. It has deserved well of the 

 State ; it has done its appointed work in the past well : 

 instead of abusing it, we should strive to remove its 

 defects, and give it higher work to do. 



Two possible objections to my proposition may be con- 

 sidered. It may be said that such professorships are not 

 wanted in London because such professorial teaching is 

 supplied by Oxford and Cambridge. My reply is, that 

 only a small portion of the population pass through those 

 Universities, and London would draw from a much larger 

 field. Again, it may be objected that the Professors of 

 the existing teaching institutions in London would object 

 to the creation of posts of a superior grade. On the other 

 hand, such posts might stimulate ambition ; they would 

 be the prizes of the academic career. To object to them 

 seems to me as reasonable as for a stuff-gownsman to 

 object to the existence of judges, or for a curate to that 

 of bishops. 



The depletion of London of its most distinguished 

 teachers, which continually goes on, is a real loss to its 

 intellectual life. Dr. Dollinger says : — 



" The force which moves the world, that which brings 

 on the important crises in the history of mankind, is not 

 to be found in material interests and passions, but in the 

 great ideas which it is the business of Universities to 

 work out." j 



Why should London, of all places in the world, dismiss : 

 from its midst, as it has long continued to do, those ' 

 whose gift it is to open up most successfully new territorv 

 in the unknown world of knowledge .? Yet the depletion 

 goes on. Not one of the five officers of the Royal Society 

 is at the moment resident in London. The President 

 attends its meetings from Glasgow, and the Senior 

 Secretary from Cambridge. 



I must say a word about Gresham College. The pro- 

 moters of the Albert University, whose untiring energy 

 would be invaluable in a better cause, have, no doubt, 

 done a clever thing in securing the adhesion of this 

 obsolete institution to their scheme. Years ago I at- 

 tended one of the prelections with two friends. The Dean 

 of Manchester favoured, very unwillingly, an audience 

 composed of ourselves and a few casual passers-by, 

 whipped in apparently by the beadle, with a demonstration 

 of Euclid I. 47, in the Latin tongue. Yet the institution 

 which had descended to this mere husk of formality had 

 once, if tradition is to be believed, been one of the most 

 famous seats of learning in the world, and Francis L is 

 said, in emulation of it, to have founded the College de 

 France in Paris. I believe the present Gresham Professors 

 NO. I 165, VOL. 45] 



are not quite so sleepy as they were ; but the contrast be- 

 tween the two rival institutions is more than melancholy. 

 That Gresham College can nowadays clothe its dry bones 

 and live is more than doubtful. It is, no doubt, only too 

 glad to undertake the " teaching" department of the new 

 University, which proposes to carry on its examining 

 work in the empty building in Basinghall Street. 

 Kew, February 20. W. T. Thiselton-Dyer. 



A PRELIMINARY STATEMENT OF AN IN- 

 VESTIGATION OF THE DATES OF SOME 

 OF THE GREEK TEMPLES AS DERIVED 

 FROM THEIR ORIENTATION.^ 



TV/r R. LOCKYER has made out I think quite satis- 

 ^^ factorily that the Egyptian temples were so 

 oriented that the rising or setting of some conspicuous 

 star on or near the axis of the temple, and visible from 

 the adytum, would give warning of sunrise ; and he 

 applied to me for particulars of Greek temples for the 

 purpose of seeing if there was any analogy, and the com 

 parison appeared to promise a favourable result. Mr. 

 Lockyer had found, before he had proceeded far in these 

 studies, that he had been anticipated to a considerable 

 extent by Herr Nissen, of Bonn, who has published 

 several articles on the subject in the Rheinisches 

 Museum of Philologic, and has brought within his scope 

 both the Egyptian and the Greek temples. There is 

 room, however, in the inquiry for a distinct work on the 

 Greek temples, and especially with the help of more 

 exact measurements of the orientation angles than Herr 

 Nissen has made use of ; as he appears to have contented 

 himself with magnetic bearings— which are liable to 

 considerable local variations, which are sufficient in an 

 inquiry like the present to vitiate many of the conclusions 

 that may be founded on such measurements — and there is 

 a want of recognition of the influence of an elevated 

 horizon. I had taken, in several instances, astronomic 

 observations with a view to the more exact orientation of 

 different temples, but something more is wanted even in 

 the case of most of these — namely, the apparent altitudes 

 of the mountains in the directions of the axes of the 

 temples. I wish also to add that, but for Mr. Lockyer's 

 suggestion, I should probably not have carried the inqury 

 further than I already had done. 



The great value of the inquiry lies in this : that it 

 offers a means of determining, within tolerably close 

 limits, the date of the foundation of a temple — not, 

 perhaps, in most cases (although in some I believe it 

 does) of the very structure which we now see, but of 

 an earlier foundation on the same site. The key to 

 the chronology lies in the movement of the stars with 

 reference to the local horizon, owing to what is called the 

 precession of the equinoxes. The object the ancients had 

 m using the stars was to employ their rising and setting 

 as a clock to give warning of the sunrise, so that on the 

 special feast days the priests should have timely notice 

 for preparing the sacrifice or ceremonial, whatever it may 

 have been : 



"Spectans orientia solis 

 Lamina rite cavis undam de flumine palmis 

 Sustulit," &c. 



The inquiry, even in its present state, is sufficient to 

 establish a very high probability that the principle is a 

 true one. There is nothing vague about it. It has to be 

 kept within very severe limits, and it holds good never- 

 theless. 



No stars can be accepted except from among the 

 brightest, unless conspicuous star groups may have been 

 used instead. Again, of single stars, only such can have 

 been used for orientation in Greek temples which during 



' Being the substance of a paper read to the Society of Antiquaries on 

 February i8, 1E92. 



