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NATURE 



[July 27, 1916 



must be made for its development to the utmost. 

 It is only by the introduction of these principles 

 into the field of practical politics that the resources 

 of the Empire can be fully developed, and we shall 

 be able to hold our own against the competition 

 of other countries, or maintain that supremacy 

 which was obtained under entirel}' different con- 

 ditions by rule-of-thumb methods and speculation. 

 Mr. Henderson, the President of the Board of 

 Education, referred to the changing- conditions, 

 and the need for reform, in his speech in present- 

 ing the Education Estimates to the House of 

 Commons on July 18. In the course of his 

 remarks he said : 



The war is assisting in the creation of a 

 greater body of public opinion in favour of a more 

 liberal expenditure on education ; and the essential 

 importance of a comprehensive and efficient 

 system of education on the progressive develop- 

 ment of national life and the solidifying of the 

 Empire is going to be more universally recog- 

 nised. This principle must be encouraged and 

 fostered, and on no account should the nation, in 

 consequence of its expenditure on the war, be de- 

 tained from bringing it into action. 



The Government has decided to appoint com- 

 mittees to reorganise our whole system of educa- 

 tion, and one of these committees will be con- 

 cerned with the position of science. British edu- 

 cational endeavour has too often proved unproduc- 

 tive because of its haphazard character and its 

 control by men out of touch with modern needs. 

 A classical education at one of the fashionable 

 public schools, followed by something very similar 

 at an ancient university, accompanied probably by 

 the pursuit of some branch of athletics and almost 

 certainly by a continuous neglect of all branches 

 of science, is the typical training of our statesmen 

 and administrators. It is impossible for these 

 men to know what scientific teaching means to the 

 nation, or to understand the real difference be- 

 tween it and purely literary studies. Book-learning 

 may be ornamental to the individual, but it is not 

 of much practical value to a progressive com- 

 munity and is a danger when it prevents attention 

 to scientific things. None of us wish the training 

 of character to be disregarded in education, nor 

 do we desire to depreciate the influence of litera- 

 ture, art, philosophy, and religion. But we have 

 to safeguard our existence both in peace and war, 

 and scientific knowledge is necessary to ensure 

 this aim. The Empire is awake to the need for 

 a policy which will correlate education, science, 

 and industrialism for the benefit of all classes : if 

 our statesmen do not respond to the call to action 

 we hope that a new party of reform will arise 

 to drive them into the wilderness. 

 NO. 2439, VOL. 97] 



SCIENCE FOR LIFE. 



Discovery ; or. The Spirit and Service of Science. 

 By R. A. Gregory. Pp. x + 340. (London : 

 Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1916.) Price 5s, net. 



THIS book is the realisation of a long-cherished 

 project, " une pensee de la jeunesse executee 

 par I'age mur," its ambition being to make clear 

 what science — and natural science in particular — 

 aims at, what its human values are, and what 

 spirit characterises the discoverer. We think that 

 Mr. Gregory has done notable service in submit- 

 ting his apologia at the present time, when the 

 disposition to turn with expectation to science is 

 probably more widespread than ever in the past, 

 and we would congratulate him on the success 

 with which he has stated his case. For while 

 he hides no convictions, he has written temperately 

 and good-humouredly, with such wealth of con- 

 crete and personal illustration that there is no 

 hint of sermonising to offend. Perhaps the only 

 passage in the book which betrays a trace of 

 impatience — and we are not surprised— is one in 

 which the author speaks his mind in regard to 

 politicians. But it is all "good hunting," and 

 the politicians will not wince at worse. 



We admire greatly the restrained enthusiasm 

 with which Mr. Gregory writes of the advance- 

 ment of natural knowledge and of the great 

 masters who have contributed to this, and the 

 carefulness with which he gives chapter and verse 

 from the history of science, so that even a preju- 



j diced reader cannot but be impressed. Con- 

 tributing greatly to the pleasant temper of the 

 book is the author's evident sympathy with 

 humanistic as well as scientific studies, and his 



! clear recognition that if an antithesis is made 

 there is something wrong either with the science 

 or the humanism. It is ours to warm both hands 

 at the fire of life. 



Mr. Gregory is quite clear that scientific work 

 is not confined to any particular body of facts or 

 to any number of laboratories. As Clifford said, 

 "there are no scientific subjects. The subject of 

 science is the human universe — that is to say, 

 everything that is, or has been, or may be related 

 to man." "The work of science," Ruskin said, 

 " is to substitute facts for appearances and 

 demonstrations for impressions." These quotations 

 are taken from a very interesting series (not of 

 uniform value, we must confess), which occur as 

 a sort of intellectual hors d'oeuvre at the begia 

 ning of each of the twelve chapters. 



"La Republique n'a pas besoin de savants, 

 coldly remarked the president of the tribunal ol 

 French Revolutionists which condemned Lavoisiei 

 to death in 1793, and a "crime against the whol 

 intellectual world " was perpetrated. In such 

 measure as science is wilfully neglected and dis 

 coverers are starved or smothered in toil, civilis 

 tion remains impenitent, and it is part of the meri 

 of this book that it presses the charge home. The 

 fine chapter on "The Conquest of Disease" illus- 

 trates one side of the debt that humanity owes to 

 science, and not less eloquent chapters on 



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