196 



NA TURE 



[January i, 1903 



The older or central site will also need considerable enlarge- 

 ment, and fresh buildings should rise there. Half a million 

 may be set aside for ultimate building and equipment on and 

 near the Mason College site. 



Four out of the five millions are thus accounted for : the fifth 

 is intended for a real attempt at scientific research in all 

 departments. A fund by which men could be sent to any 

 part of the world : to study tropical diseases, or fisheries, 

 or mining possibilities — to investigate either nascent indus- 

 tries or injured industries of any'kind : a fund which could 

 equip research laboratories at home, and could defray the ex- 

 pense of researches undertaken on a large or engineering scale, 

 so as to bring in rapidly some practical results. At present there 

 are men who perceive how many things could be reformed or 

 improved, whether in purification of the atmosphere, or in novel 

 modes of locomotion, or in many other ways ; but they lack 

 the means to demonstrate their plans or to try experiments. 

 Manufacturers and Municipalities sometimes try experiment on 

 a very extensive scale indeed — a really commercial scale — and 

 in case of failure the resulting experience is over-dear. The 

 endowment would not allow experiments on such a scale as 

 that ; considering the variety of subject, the amount available 

 for each would permit of no extravagance. Some of the ex- 

 periments undertaken would undoubtedly fail, yet the success of 

 a few would far more than compensate for the failure of many, 

 and the activity could not but conduce to progress. 



The fund would have to provide, not only the necessary 

 appliances and assistance, but it would endow fellowships for 

 post graduate study, and would attract workers from many parts 

 of the world, and certainly from the Colonies. 



One Principal could not possibly supervise all the multifarious 

 activities which we have thus supposed may some day be called 

 into being. There would have to be a Research Principal 

 (whatever he might be called), to organise and superintend the 

 scientific and post graduate study : a Technical Director, in 

 touch with all the technical departments ; and an Educational 

 or General Head, to supervise the general scheme of the 

 College in all its various avenues to a degree, and to take a lead 

 in whatever conduced to general culture. 



If the scheme is lavish it represents lavishness in the right 

 place. It is the kind of lavishness for which the nation is 

 waiting — one of the few kinds of which hitherto it has been 

 afraid. 



" There is that scatterech but yet increaseth : 

 There is that wiihholdeth more than is meet, but 

 it tendeth to poverty." 



These lines refer not to individual wealth alone, but to 

 National wealth also. We have failed to make the most 

 hitherto of the brains and energy of our more able and 

 specially-gifted youth, but have cramped them by the necessity 

 of earning a living : a process wholesome enough for the in- 

 dividual, and right for 999 out of every thousand, but for the 

 remaining one far less repaying to the Commonwealth than the 

 special service w-hich he could render, if set free and encouraged I 

 by suitable surroundings for a few years of research, fol- 

 lowing on a thorough educational preparation. Not all of 

 these would justify their selection : nine-tenths of them even 

 might do only moderately well ; but the discoveries of the select 

 tenth would be of incalculable value. The world has been 

 wasteful of its genius hitherto. It thinks too facilely that people 

 exceptionally endowed will struggle to the front somehow. A 

 few do, but a number do not ; the conditions are not favourable ; 

 and the struggle for existence, though doubtless a stimulating 

 training for the hardier and sturdy virtues, is not the right 

 atmosphere for the delicate plant called genius. Different kinds 

 of treatment are suited to different characters, and the hot- 

 house plant will not thrive in bracing arctic air. 



From the Trust Deed with which Mr. Carnegie has endowed 

 a research Institution at Washington with ten million dollars, I 

 extract the following altogether admirable statement of 

 "aims " : — 



" 1. — To promote original research ; paying great attention 

 thereto, as one of the most important of all departments. 



"2. — To discover the exceptional man in every department of 

 study, whenever and wherever found, inside or outside of 

 schools ; and to enable him to make the work for which he 

 seems specially designed his life work. 



"6. — To ensure the prompt publication and distribution of 

 the results of scientific investigation; a field considered highly 

 important. 



no. 1 73 1, VOL. 67] 



. . . '• The chief purpose of the founder being to secure if 

 possible for the United States of America leadership in the 

 domain of discovery, and the utilisation of new forces for the 

 benefit of man.'' 



MUTUAL AID. 



Mutual Aid, a Faclor of Evolution. By P. Kropotkin. 



Pp. xix + 34S. (London : Heinemann, 1902.) 

 "PHIS book is undeniably readable throughout. The 

 -L author has a creed which he preaches with all the 

 fervour of genuine conviction. He is anxious to make 

 converts, but his zeal never leads him to forget fairness 

 and courtesy. Those who disagree with him may learn 

 much by studying the book. 



The line of argument is, briefly, as follows. In the 

 case of animals, there is very little evidence of any 

 struggle for existence among members of the same 

 species, though plants, beyond all doubt, jostle their own 

 kin out of existence. Animals are, as a rule, banded 

 together for mutual protection, and those that have the 

 best organisation for mutual defence are those that 

 thrive best. Such species are represented by large, 

 often by countless, flocks. Those that are least sociable, 

 such as the great carnivores, are far less vigorous, to 

 judge by their small numbers, and barely hold their own. 

 The term " struggle for existence " should not, therefore, 

 be used in a literal sense, as if there were an unceasing in. 

 ternecine war between the members of the same species, a 

 limited amount of food available and no individual able to 

 dispel the cravings of hunger except by robbing his own 

 kin and reducing them to starvation. So far from this, we 

 see mutual aid almost everywhere. There is a struggle 

 for existence, but only in a wide, a metaphorical, sense. 

 There is at normal times plenty of food, and there is, 

 therefore, no need for fighting among the members of a 

 species. Rats are a painful exception, and the cries of 

 distress that come from cellars tell of their fights 

 and their cruelty. 



Turning to men, we find that mutual aid is, or at 

 any rate has been in the past, even more general 

 than among animals. Among savages, mutual aid is 

 the chief factor in evolution. The individual is never 

 isolated, but is one of a clan. Among barbarians, we 

 find the same tendency to sociability and cooperation, 

 but historians, by dwelling exclusively on wars, have 

 misrepresented the facts. When the clan broke up, men 

 formed village communities. So unwilling were they to 

 fight that they got soldiers to protect them, and in many 

 cases became the slaves of their protectors. The risk 

 of this led to the growth of the mediaeval town ; it was 

 a union of several village communities for defence against 

 marauders. Within the larger community of the town 

 were smaller associations, the guilds. In these mediaeval 

 towns, the arts flourished to an extraordinary degree. 

 Sometimes leagues of free cities were formed, and held 

 their own against all enemies. But in time these little 

 homes of freedom disappeared. The big centralised 

 State arose and crushed out those smaller communities 

 that existed for mutual help. Within the State has 

 sprung up an individualistic civilisation, but even now 

 there is an enormous amount of mutual help. There are 

 benefit societies, cooperative associations, trades' unions. 



