218 



DISCOVERY 



radiant matter won for him the prizes and medal of the 

 French Academic des Sciences. In his suggestion 

 of the existence of what he called the meta-elements 

 he seems to have foreshadowed the modern idea of 

 isotopes, an article on which appeared in the February 

 issue of Discovery. This was in connection with his 

 extensive study of the rare earths, the separation of 

 which he attempted by an elaborate method of chemical 

 fractionation assisted with the spectroscope. This 

 work occupied more than twenty years and led to the 

 very full studv of the clement Scandium. 



In 1S89 the Ro3'al Society awarded Crookes the Davy 

 medal. He was now acknowledged to be the greatest 

 exponent of the spectroscope in this country, and it was 

 on this account that Sir William Ramsay sent him a 

 specimen of his newly discovered tcrrcstial Helium 

 for spectroscopic examination and confirmation. 



Madame Curie's discovery of Radium led Crookes 

 to turn his attention to radiography, the result of which 

 was the invention of the spinthariscope, a little in- 

 strument for counting the scintillations of radio-active 

 bodies. 



In addition to the researches and discoveries referred 

 to above, Sir William carried through some very 

 important investigations for the Government and the 

 Royal Society, chief among which was the Investi- 

 gation of Glass Workers' Cataract, for which he 

 produced a number of recipes for glasses which have 

 proved of considerable use to the workers in cutting 

 off the heat- and ultra-violet-rays which injured their 

 eyes. It is quite impossible to refer to the publications 

 of so industrious a life, but mention must be made of 

 the Chemical News, of which he remained the sole editor 

 from its inception in 1859 till 1906. It would not be 

 right to omit reference to this great discoverer's ex- 

 cursions into the realms of Psychical Research, as he 

 was just as serious about liis study of Spiritualism 

 as he was about his other scientific researches. 



The reader will find a fuller biography in the London 

 Chemical Society's Journal for April 1920. 



Aristotle's Ethics 



By H. Lang Jones, M.A. 



Headmaster of Willaslon School, Nanlwich 



" Idou, chelldon! chelidon ! " 



The cry, started by a keen-eyed youngster, is quickly 

 caught up by others ; and it acts like a charm. 

 Wrestlers relax their grip, boxers cease to spar, throwers 

 of disc and javelin pause in act to hurl, jumpers drop 

 their weights, runners step back from the mark — even 



the trainer's switch is lowered ; the older men strolling 

 up and down the covered track turn and come out 

 into the open ; the lively groups in the porticoes and 

 the rooms and recesses behind them break off their 

 talk, and crowd into the spaces between the columns, 

 their eyes blinking in the glare of the noonday sun. 



" A swallow ! a swallow ! there it is." Across the 

 courtyard it shoots, like a dark meteor against the 

 background of gleaming marble, dives into the shadows 

 where hang last year's nests " under a white Greek 

 architrave," flashes out once more into the hving 

 sunlight, and is lost in the blue of cloudless skies. 

 " It's spring now," say the boys ; and a couple of 

 them (come to Athens with their parents, across the 

 water from Rhodes, to see the stage-plays at the great 

 spring festival of Dionysus) begin to chant — 



" She's come, she's come, the swallow is here. 

 That brings the season of the year I " 



Gradually the Lyceum resumes its wonted aspect of 



activity, with the naked bodies performing their 

 varied movements in the courtyard and on the running- 

 track, or in the cooler park beyond, while in the 

 shadows of the colonnades breaks out afresh the 

 clatter of tongues and nimble play of wits. Let us 

 approach that group which is slowlj' pacing to and fro 

 in one of the covered walks. The speaker is evidently 

 one to command respect, though his appearance does 

 not show that studied negligence which is usually 

 affected by philosophers — perhaps because he has 

 spent some years (as tutor to a prince named Alexander) 

 at the roj-al court of Macedon. 



" Human good, then," he is saying as we join the 

 group, " human good consists in activity of the soul in 

 accordance with virtue ; or, if there be more virtues 

 than one, according to the highest and most complete. 

 Moreover, it must be m a life that is complete. For 

 one swallow does not make a spring, nor one fine day ; 

 so also perfect happiness is not achieved in a single 

 day or in a brief space of time." He pauses, to refresh 

 his memory from the papyrus roll in his hand ; and 

 his disciples busy themselves with their wax-covered 

 tablets and the iron pencil, or "stile," which they use 

 to write on the wax. 



Such is the setting of the Ethics — Aristotle's lectures 

 on the Character of the Perfect Citizen. A more 

 appropriate setting could not be desired. Here, in this 

 " gymnasium " (just such another as the Academy, 

 where Plato taught, and where his school continues), 

 is one side of our Greek education — the training of the 

 Bodj- — in full operation before our eyes ; let us, who 

 make it our resort, use what is before us as we discuss 

 the other side — the training of the Soul. The trainers 

 yonder have their principles and rules ; but these are 



