DISCOVERY 



323 



from the basin of Lake Chad. The geological formation 

 of these hills is varied, and has not yet been subjected 

 to expert examination. The Jebel Meidob group 

 appears to contain both sandstone and granite, but 

 has been much distorted by volcanic action. Many 

 of the hills comprising it are the craters of extinct 

 volcanoes, and much of the country immediately 

 surrounding it is littered with calcined rock and 

 lava. It consists for the most part of a conglomeration 

 of low tangled hills, but the highest peak in the central 

 range rises to a height of about 1,200 feet above 

 the ]5lain." 



But the difftculties which the Sudan Government 

 had to surmount were not only geographical. They 

 had to deal with a conglomeration of races, the main 

 elements in which were; " (i) The Arabs; (2) the 

 Tibbu or northern Negroid peoples ; (3) the sedentary, 

 indigenous races ; (4) the immigrants from the west ; 

 (5) the immigrants from the north." 



Order was eventually restored by a mobile column 

 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel T. B. 

 Vandeleur (Royal Irish Regiment), which left Fasher 

 for northern Darfur on December 18, 1916. The 

 writer accompanied it as Political and Intelligence 

 Officer. Early in 1917 various district headquarters 

 and police posts were established throughout the 

 province, and the " veritable orgy of raiding and 

 lawlessness " carried on by the Zaghawa of northern 

 Darfur, a " wild, dark, quarrelsome, thieving people," 

 under the leadership of Mohammed Erbeimi, was put 

 an end to. 



The province is " well suited for stock-raising," 

 while " excellent crops are grown in southern Darfur," 

 and, though a geological survey has not yet been 

 made, mineral deposits, especially as regards iron, 

 copper, and lead, are fairly extensive. 



SCIENCE AND CIVILISATION 



" It is emphatically the promise of the application of 

 science to the whole of life which is the finest feature 

 of our age ; it is the delay in fulfilling that promise 

 which leaves our civilisation so crude and elementary. 

 We apply science to the metals and chemicals of the 

 soldier, even to the brains of his generals ; but when 

 it comes to studying the human conditions out of 

 which wars arise, we leave the job to a group of 

 utterly unscientific statesmen and diplomatists, who 

 ivill consider a hundred things except what ought 

 chiefly to be considered. We apply science to industry, 

 and it invents machines for us which are as far beyond 

 any mechanism known in Babylon or Athens as the 

 Athenian loom was beyond the flint scraper of pre- 

 historic man ; but we will not applj' science to the 

 very greatest and gravest of all industrial problems — 



whether it is really necessary to keep the greater part 

 of the race in a state of poverty and imperfect mental 

 development and let a few monopolise its art and 

 culture. We apply science with brilliant success to 

 discover the evolution of mind or the evolution of 

 morals ; but we do not consult it at all when we 

 Confront the very imperfect moral condition of the 

 world, the poor general level of character from age to 

 age, and the chaos of contradictory opinions which is 

 responsible. 



" The old Greeks were right. The first virtue is 

 wisdom. The uplifting of our race demands the 

 cultivation of the heart — of fine sentiment and 

 character — ^just as much as the cultivation of the 

 mind, but the latter is more fundamental. We must 

 know the right way before we can walk in it. That 

 is the truth we are re- discovering. We are beginning 

 to apply science to life. We have done with laissez- 

 faire — which means, let things grow up. We are 

 going to make them grow up. We have so bred 

 and trained cows that they will give three thousand 

 gallons of milk a year. There is not an element or 

 feature of life that we cannot similarly raise to a 

 vastly higher level. We are going to treat life as a 

 scientific breeder treats plants. It shall all be plotted 

 out, and its conditions scientifically studied, by a 

 central brain. The idea of fighting it out and letting the 

 better survive is the very opposite of science. Evolu- 

 tion guided by intelligence, constructive evolution, 

 harmonious social co-operation — these are the ideals 

 obviously thrust upon us by the very fact that intelli- 

 gence now exists. 



" And it is an essential condition of this further and 

 more rapid progress that a way shall be found of 

 putting an end to the old division of the race into a 

 cultivated few and an uncultivated many. Democracy 

 is inconsistent with such a situation, and is always 

 in danger of being wrecked by it. Fine sentiment is 

 inconsistent with it. The time is coming when men 

 of brain will themselves devise a way out, for our age 

 is now rapidly advancing in sentiment as well as in 

 intelligence. When these conditions — the general and 

 concentrated application of science to life and the 

 elevation of the mass of the people until they can 

 demand and watch it — are realised, the race will move 

 on at an amazing pace. I am optimistic enough to 

 believe that this new era, new sort of evolution, will 

 begin in the twentieth century. And before the race 

 lie millions of years during which this planet will be 

 habitable. 



" In fine, a word to the croakers who say that science 

 may work out definite tasks, but it assigns no general 

 goal to life. The fact is that you need no science 

 whatever to answer that foolish question : What is 

 the end of life ? It is whatever we men may choose 



