NA TURE 



14J 



THURSDAY, APRIL 19, 1917. 



EDUCATION AND RESEARCH. 



Science and the Nation. Essays by Cambridge 

 Graduates, with an Introduction by the Rt. 

 Hon. Lord Moulton. Edited by Prof. A. C. 

 Seward. (Cambridge : At the University 

 Press, 1917'.) Price 55. net. 



IT is the fate of many symposia to fail as a 

 whole by the very excellence of the parts ; 

 relationship and proximity as well as stars are 

 needed to form a constellation ; and this unsatis- 

 factoriness of ensemble is all too manifest in 

 this well-intentioned volume that the Master of 

 Downing has gathered together rather than 

 edited, to which Lord Moulton contributes an 

 introduction. Individually the chapters are of 

 the utmost interest to the general reader ; they 

 give him compactly and authoritatively a sound 

 idea of the scope and value of contemporary work 

 in chemistry, physics, botany, geology, medicine, 

 mathematics, and anthropology by such eminent 

 Cambridge hands as Profs. Pop)e, Bragg, Hobson, 

 BifFen, Wood, Nuttall, and Gowland Hopkins; 

 and it is only when his heart, glowing respon- 

 sively, demands, "And in return for all these 

 benefits, in a lively hope of more to come, in the 

 desire for more to come, what do you want the 

 general public to do for you? " that the book 

 becomes ineffective. This is not for want of a 

 common intention. There are clear indications 

 of a common intention to cry up "pure " science 

 and to insist upon the importance of scientific 

 Studies and scientific research, but the cry never 

 becomes more than a vague cry, and the need 

 of the present time is for definite prop>osals. The 

 present reviewer, w^ho is a journalist very anxious 

 for the advancement of science and very eager 

 to serve it if he can, turns from this book with 

 an uncomfortable sense that scientific men have 

 still to develop a definite policy with regard to 

 schools and colleges and higher education. They 

 do not seem to realise how far science progress 

 is bound up with these matters. 



Here, for example, is a passage from Prof. 

 Keeble's contribution. It shows an extraordinary 

 blindness to the difficulties of the educational con- 

 flict at the present time. To the keen parent of 

 promising boys, or to the keen patriot in these 

 ure^ent times, its easy, ill-informed carelessness 

 will be almost maddening. 



In our own sphere we might well make a beginning 

 by calling a friendly truce between the big-endians 

 and little-endians of Classics and Science. For if the 

 protagonists were to confer instead of to contend, they 

 would discover that in the ample years of leisure 

 which our youth enjoy there is room in plerty for 

 both classical and scientific education. In such a 

 spirit of sweet reasonableness the scientific and the 

 dassico-clerical might proceed together to a reform 

 of our system of education — from top to bottom. 

 There is room for it. It is essential that our states- 

 jnen and administrators, our teachers and our poets, 

 tnow somethiner of the work and method and beaut\' 



NO. 2477, VOL. 99] 



of science. It is no less essential that the men of 

 science of the coming generarton should be cultivated 

 citizens as well as comf>etent specialists. 



The Master of Downing failed in his editorial 

 duty when he let that passage stand. No parent, 

 no schoolmaster of any intelligence will endorse 

 Prof. Keeble's delusion that the swift years of 

 youth are "ample years of leisure." From first 

 to last through the whole curriculum the educa- 

 tionist knows that he is up against an inexor- 

 able limitation of time. The contemporary 

 dispute in education turns wholly upon the com- 

 pulsory imposition of the Greek language upon 

 those who go on to a higher education and uf)on 

 its use as a medium of philosophical instruction. 

 The case of the modems is that there is no time 

 for Greek, and that the Greek shibboleth cuts off 

 philosophical studies from the general intelli- 

 gence. Xo one anywhere is attempting to turn 

 education into a manufacture of "competent 

 j specialists," and the idea Prof. Keeble favours, 

 ' that to be cultivated and to be scientific are an- 

 ! tagonistic states, is a suggestion of the enemy 

 I that has no real foundation in experience. A man 

 ; may be a Greek scholar and a boor. A man may 

 ! be unable to construe half a dozen words in 

 I Greek and have a beautifully trained and subtly 

 refined intelligence. The case for the defence of 

 the Greek obstacle consists largely in ignoring 

 these facts. 



If scientific men who have not had the time to 

 follow up this educational controversy closely 

 wish to grasp its essential values, they cannot do 

 better than weigh over the implications of this 

 passage that follows, from an article by Lord 

 Bryce in the current Fortnightly Review : — 



I do not contend that the study of the ancients 

 is to be imposed on all, or even on the bulk, of those 

 who remain at school till eighteen, or on most of 

 those who enter a university. It is generally ad- 

 mitted that at the universities the oresent system can- 

 not be maintained. Even -of those who enter Oxford 

 or Cambridge, many have not the capacity or the 

 taste to make it worth while for them to devote much 

 time there to Greek and Latin. The real practical 

 problem for all our universities is this : How are we 

 to find means bv which the study, while dropped for 

 those who will never make much of it, may be. re- 

 tained, and for ever securely maintained, for that 

 percentage of our youth, be it 20 or 30 per cent, or 

 be it more, who will draw sufficient mental nourish- 

 ment and stimulus from the study to make it an 

 effective factor in their intellectual growth and an 

 unceasing spring of enjoyment through the rest of 

 life? This part of our youth has an importance for 

 the nation not to be measured by its numbers. It is 

 on the best minds that the strength of a nation 

 depends, and more than half of these will find their 

 proper province in letters and history. It is by the 

 best minds that nations win and retain leadership. 

 No pains can be too great that are spent on develop- 

 ing such minds to the finest point of efficiency. 



We shall effect a sa\nng if we drop that studv of 

 the ancient langoiages in the case of those who, after 

 a trial, show no aptitude for them. 



Let the scientific man read that over carefully, 

 and, if need be, re-read it. Let him note first 

 the invincible conceit of the classical scholar in 



