424 



NATURE 



[July 31, 1919 



them fail to meet with acceptance. Mr. Mackinder 

 has exercised to the full his ability to see the 

 broad issues of history in terms of geographical 

 influences, and he has produced a fresh and stimu- 

 lating commentary on the world politics of to-day. 

 Seeking fundamental generalisations, he sees a 

 world-island comprising Europe, Asia, and 

 Africa, and a heartland covering all continental 

 as opposed to coastal Asia and European Russia. 

 As the world-island is the base of sea power, so 

 the heartland is the home of land power. In the 

 antagonism between the two — that is, between 

 German and Slav — Mr. Mackinder sees one of the 

 fundamental causes of the war. There was no 

 immediate quarrel, he contends, between East 

 Europe and West Europe. Germany's object was 

 to gain control of the heartland, and if she had 

 thrown her main strength against Russia and 

 stood on the defensive towards France, this aim, 

 he thinks, might have been achieved before the 

 peoples of the West realised its strategical 

 danger. 



The issue between German and Slav is still 

 unsettled, and the danger of German control of 

 the heartland still remains. To obviate this 

 danger a balance must be held between German 

 and Slav in East Europe. Certainly there is no 

 indication that German psychology has undergone 

 any change by the defeat of Germany in the West, 

 and it might well be argued that the Allies' vic- 

 tory marks merely a respite in the world-war. 

 Severe as are the terms imposed on Germany, her 

 economic resources will eventually lead to her 

 complete recovery, and her old ambitions may be 

 reborn. Mr. Mackinder's solution of the problem 

 is to break up Eastern Europe into self-governing 

 States, so that there is a tier of independent States 

 between Russia and Germany. Poles, Bohemians, 

 Hungarians, Southern Slavs, Rumanians, Bul- 

 gars, and Greeks are each, he believes, people 

 with the capacity for a strong independent 

 national existence and capable of self-government. 

 That is possible, but at the same time it is equally 

 possible that such buffer-States, if weak, might 

 become bones of contention and eventually lead to 

 war on a large scale. It should be added that 

 the volume was written last winter, and so is in 

 no sense a criticism of the Peace Treaty. 



OUR BOOKSHELF. 



The Annual of the British School at Athens. 



No. xxii. Sessions 1916-1917, 1917-1918. 



Pp. vii + 272 + xi plates. (London: Macmillan 



and Co., Ltd., n.d.) Price 255. net. 



The most interesting paper in this valuable 



review is that by Mr. E. Norman Gardiner o'n 



"The Alleged Kingship of the Olympian Victor." 



Two theories have been suggested to explain the 



origin of the Olympian games : one, that they 



were derived from funeral games held in honour 



of Pelops ; the other, that they represent a ritual 



contest for the throne. As regards the first, the 



writer points out that the evidence in its favour 



is not to be found in any theory of the origin of 



NO. 2596, VOL. 103] 



funeral games in general, but in the fact that 

 such games are of very early date, earlier than 

 Homer, and reaching back to Achaean or Dorian 

 times. The real objection to the funeral theory 

 is that it does not explain any of the peculiar 

 features of the Olympic festival, and that the 

 evidence for it is inadequate. 



The second theory depends on the supposition 

 that the victor received honours regal and divine, 

 such as riding in the chariot of the sun-god, being 

 crowned with an olive wreath, like Zeus, and being 

 pelted with fruit and flowers, like a tree spirit ; 

 and that hymns were sung and statues erected 

 in his honour. Mr. Gardiner shows that these 

 marks of honour will not bear the suggested 

 explanation. "Students of religion are," he says, 

 "apt to exaggerate the importance of the 

 religious motive to the neglect of equally import- 

 ant secular motives." Athletic sports are already 

 fully developed in Homer, the natural recreations 

 of a race the business of which was fighting. In 

 historical Greece they are naturally associated 

 with festivals, held in times of holiday and peace, 

 when the people met in friendly union. 



Another important paper is that by Mr. F. W. 

 Hasluck on "The Mosques of the Arabs in Con- 

 stantinople," in which it is shown .that the two 

 so-called "Arab" mosques do not go back to 

 the earlv date attributed to them, and that the 

 Arab saint is often the successor of the Arab or 

 negro Djinn well known in the folklore of the 

 Nearer East. 



An Introduction to the Study of Science: A First 

 Course in Science for High Schools. By Wayne 

 P. Smith and Edmund Gale Jewett. Pp. xi + 620. 

 (New York : The Macmillan . Co. ; London : 

 Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1918.) Price 75. 6d. 

 net. 

 In the presentation of their subject the authors 

 have followed "the psychological rather than the 

 traditional logical or dogmatic method "■ — as the 

 preface puts it. The principles of science have to 

 be looked for in the text or verified in the labora- 

 tory by the young student for whom the book is 

 written. There is little doubt that when they are 

 discovered they will make a far stronger appeal to 

 his intelligence and his memory than if they were 

 thrust upon his unwilling attention in the tradi- 

 tional manner. 



The bearing of science upon human life and 

 activities is kept constantly in view. The first 

 chapter is about weather , the last, about the pro- 

 tection of health ; and a quarter of the book is de- 

 voted to biological problems. The purist in 

 science may find points at which to cavil, but 

 the authors have run the risk of that, and are to 

 be congratulated on writing a book which is 

 within the scope of those for whom it is intended 

 and can be read with profit and pleasure by the 

 young. 



Most of the illustrations are taken from the 

 United States, for the book is intended primarily 

 for students in the schools of that country. 

 Another disadvantage, for English boys and girls. 



