142 



NATURE 



[April 19, 19 17 



the superiority of his particular education to any 

 other, and his firm determination to secure the 

 pick of the available boys and the pick of the 

 administrative posts for the classical training. 

 Science and research are to have those rejected 

 as unfit in this sublime progress of the elect. In- 

 stead of our boys — I mean the boys destined for 

 real philosophy, living literatures, science, and the 

 study of actual social and political questions — 

 having a straightforward, well-planned school 

 course, they are to be tried over at Greek 

 for just the most precious years education- 

 ally, and our modern world is to have the 

 broken fragments. This claim is pressed even 

 more impudently by Mr. Livingstone in his re- 

 cent "Defence of Classical Education." He insists 

 that all our sons are to be muddled about with 

 by the teachers of Greek up to at least the open- 

 ing of the university stage, entirely in the in- 

 terests of Greek scholarship. Prof. Keeble's 

 dream of "^weet reasonableness" is a mere 

 dream. These classical people are absolutely 

 ignorant of their own limitations ; they can 

 imagine no compromise ; they mean to ram com- 

 pulsor}' Greek down the throat pf every able 

 English boy they can catch, and they mean to 

 load the scales in favour of Greek at any cost to 

 science, philosophy, and national ^veil-being. 



Against this strangle-grip of the classic-wor- 

 shipping mandarins on our higher English 

 education such a book as "Science and the 

 Nation " scarcely fights at all. Is it too much 

 to suggest that scientific men should take a little 

 more trouble collectively than they have hitherto 

 done to master the essentials of this question, 

 and to understand better what it is that really 

 sustains the general contempt and distrust of 

 modern knowledge in Great Britain and blocks 

 the way to a widespread national support of 

 research? H. G. Weu-s. 



THE WORLD CRISIS AND AFTER. 

 Janus and Vesta: a Study of the World Crisis 



and After. By Benchara Branford. Pp. xviii + 



316. (London: Chatto and Windus, 1916.) 



Price 65. net. 

 'X'HIS is not a "war book," but it makes a well- 

 -■- timed appearance, for in an England un- 

 illumined and unchastened by these last terrible 

 years it might have found few readers capable of 

 perceiving its value. The author should now, 

 however, be assured of a large company who will 

 accept his invitation to read his work "backwards 

 and forwards in the belief thjit it will repay careful 

 study." To one at least w^ho has done so it seems 

 a noble book, full of a wise and strong humanity, 

 w^orthy to be classed with writings to which all 

 men pay homage. Any scientific reader who will 

 start with the chapter on " Science and Occupa- 

 tion " and follow whither the clue leads will prob- 

 ably reach much the same opinion. 



Mr. Branford is well known in the educational 



world as a divisional inspector of the London 



County Council. He was once a lecturer on 



mathematics in the Victoria L'niversity, and was 



NO. 2477, VOL. 99] 



afterwards principal of the Technical College and 

 Director of Education in the Borough of Sunder- 

 land. In 1908 he published an admirable "Study 

 of Mathematical Education," which has been 

 translated into German- In 1902, in conjunction 

 with Prof. W. A. Bone, he issued proposals for' 

 a school of metallurgy, which recent unhappy 

 experiences have shown to be as necessary as they 

 were far-sighted. The statement of these facts 

 will suffice to commend to sciehtific readers the 

 views on educational reform that constitute a vital 

 part of the present work ; it should, nevertheless, 

 be added that the author deals with all aspects 

 of the problem of education with quite remarkable 

 insight and breadth of sympathy. His zeal for 

 universal vocational training is the expression of 

 no narrow ideal of "national efficiency," but 

 springs from a profound study of the conditions 

 of development of the human spirit. It is, there- 

 fore, in complete harmony with his passionate 

 conviction that a revival of university life (includ- 

 ing a renaissance of the "wandering scholar") is 

 one of the most urgent needs of the time, being" 

 necessary in order that the nations, old and young, 

 may not only rise to the full height of their 

 spiritual possibilities, but also learn, through the 

 intercourse and mutual understanding of their best 

 minds, to compose their historical discords. 



In this connection Mr. Branford argues with 

 much force that universities have, during the 

 modern epoch, largely forgotten their catholic 

 mission, and have become, in many insidious ways, 

 organs for the cultivation of national separatism 

 and egotism. As a remedy for this state of things 

 he presses the suggestion of a "world university," 

 neutral, as the Papacy is neutral, to be the guar- 

 dian of the common spiritual interests of mankind, 

 both Western and Eastern, as the Papacy was 

 formerly the guardian of the common spiritual 

 interests of the western European nations. 



It is not possible in a short notice to follow in 

 detail Mr. Branford 's diagnosis of the diseases of 

 our age, or to indicate the remedies he proposes. 

 It must be enough to say that whether he speaks 

 of things temporal or things spiritual, his voice 

 has the authentic accent of the prophet. Like 

 all true prophets, he shows not only the eager 

 desire to know the things that belong to the peace 

 of his own people, but also the depth of vision 

 that reveals them sub specie aeternitatts. For 

 this reason, though his ideas are often at first 

 provocative, they are generally seen, on candid 

 consideration, to be widely and solidly based. No 

 one concerned with the problems of our State, 

 internal or external, can afford to neglect them. 



SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATION AND 

 REASONING. 

 Comptes Rcndus of Observation and Reasoning. 

 By J. Y. Buchanan. Pp. xl + 452. (Cambridge: 

 At the University Press, 191 7.) Price ys. 6d. 

 net". 



MR. BUCHANAN is a believer in original 

 research in the full significance of the 

 words, including originality in methods and point 



