26 



DISCOVERY 



duing and controlling the divine curiosity of men. And 

 then, as Professor Curtis views the history of civilisation, 

 there comes the welcome dawn, and the new theories of 

 life — the theory of evolution, the theory of the cell- 

 structure of living creatures — to change the mind of man, 

 and, furthermore, a hundred inventions which altered 

 the face of the earth. 



This is a really good book. It fulfils the first essential 

 of a good book — it is interesting. It is well balanced, and 

 gives us a glimpse of a very wide variety of subjects. It 

 preaches the doctrine of " Science for its own sake." All 

 knowledge is useful knowledge. The Dutch microscopist, 

 Leeuwenhoek, who first described little animals in water 

 in which pepper had lain infused, pointed the way to 

 Pasteur and Lister and the germ theory of disease. The 

 author considers that the industrial spirit of to-day is the 

 great enemy of science ; commerce was born of science, 

 and now ungratefully forces research into lines of obviously 

 and immediately useful discovery, rather than into 

 general and impartial efforts to know " how the wheels 

 go round." 



It is an interesting and instructive study in the varieties 

 of the human mind to turn to another American book, Mr. 

 R. Shafer's Progress and Science. We turned the last page 

 of Professor Curtis's book with a slight feeling of dis- 

 satisfaction. We were asked to be so completely con- 

 tented wtih science. It seemed a rather comfortless 

 prospect. There was so much else besides facts to be 

 reckoned with in the tangle of human life. " Instincts 

 immature," " Purposes unsure," " Fancies that broke 

 through language and escaped," did not seem to fit into 

 his picture. We whispered with Bernard Shaw, " I-ife's 

 not logical. So much the worse for logic." 



And here is a book which has serious doubts about 

 science. Like our English Dean Inge, the author does 

 not believe that our ant-like activities really advance 

 humanity. He is far more dismal than our own optimistic 

 pessimist; his final opinion is that, "We are bound to 

 conclude that there is at present no valid ground for belief 

 that life will ever be easy or pleasant for the vast majority 

 of mankind." We turned from Professor Curtis, regretting 

 our " banshess," and find Mr. Shafer too unhappy even to 

 find relief in them. " Industry has succeeded only through 

 oppression." " The term ' labour-saving device' is little 

 else than a fool's coinage." Evolution gives no guarantee 

 that an ethically or aesthetically good quality will be 

 evolved. However, although we can gather that he 

 appreciates certain spiritual values of the very religious 

 instinct that to Professor Curtis was anathema, he does not 

 tell us what real progress would be. He quotes Descartes : 

 " We shall be able to find an art, by which, knowing the 

 force and action of fire, water, air, stars, the heavens, 

 and all other objects, as clearly as we know the various 

 trades of our artisans, we may be able to employ them in 

 the same way for their appropriate uses, and make our- 

 selves the masters and possessors of nature. And this 

 will be not solely for the pleasure of enjoying with ease 

 and by ingenious devices all the good things of the world, 

 but principally for the preservation and improvement of 

 human health, which is both the foundation of all other 



goods and the means of strengthening and quickening 

 the spirit itself." But he cannot find solace even in such 

 a prospect. 



For ourselves, we meekly subscribe to Descartes' fine 

 prophecy. We think of Matthew Arnold's " Hymn of 

 Empedocles " : 



" I say. Fear not ! Life still 

 Leaves human effort scope. 

 But since life teems with ill. 

 Nurse no extravagant hope 

 Because thou must not dream, thou need'st not then 

 despair." 



There is no panacea for human happiness. Truth 

 lives at the bottom of a well — there are man\- wells, and 

 men will till the end of time go seeking her as fancy takes 

 them. Cannot we keep our fairies, even if science teaches 

 us how best to trap them ? What harm can there be if 

 science hastens our journey from well to well, helps us to 

 cram a few more journeys into the short space of cur 

 days ? And, even if the one gift of science were relief 

 from pain, would it not by that gift be consummately 

 justified ? 



R. J. V. PULVERTAFT. 



A SIDELIGHT ON THE NEAR EAST PROBLEM 



Greece and the Allies, 1914-1922. By G. F. Abbott. 

 (Methuen & Co., Ltd., 75. 6^;.) 



The claim that history may be considered an exact 

 science is now generally accepted ; but the head master 

 who stated that " any good classical scholar could ' get 

 up ' history in a fortnight " stiU expresses the attitude 

 of a minority. This minority feels that the difiiculty of 

 obtaining reliable data confines the scope of the historian 

 to the recording of a more or less inaccurate narrative of 

 purely academic interest. Indeed, the study of con- 

 temporary historj^ in which prejudice and inaccuracy 

 can only be dealt with by a process of cancellation, throws 

 a convincing light on the difi&culties of the political 

 scientist or economist who would build theories of early 

 civilisation from a few broken records. 



Mr. Abbott's book will be of great value to the dis- 

 criminating student of contemporary history, since it 

 shows the situation in the Near East not only in an 

 entirely new light, but supplies a wealth of hitherto 

 unpublished information. There is a popular feeling that 

 if it is worth while for someone to suppress information, 

 that information is worth getting, and Mr. Abbott's book 

 loses nothing in attractiveness from the statement in his 

 preface that, owing to the activities of D.O.R.A., " not 

 until now has it been possible for the voice of facts to 

 refute the fables dictated by interest and accepted by 

 credulity." Nevertheless, Mr. Abbott has done more 

 than give us a mere record of facts ; he has penned an 

 indictment first of M. Venizelos, and secondly of the 

 diplomacy of the Entente. The indictment is able and 

 the defence for the Allies would be hard put to it to make 

 out a case. It is a startling record of indecision and 

 blundering. " By shilly-shalhing at Athens, Nish, and 



