NATURE 



- 



461 



I IHKSDU . I EBRU ^R"i [3, 1919. 



/ 111- S( ll \ 1 ll It \i LA \S hi RDE \. 



fhr Twin Lh'uls: An Educated Commonwealth. 

 By Sir James W. Barrett. Vols. i. and ii. 



Pp. \wii 512 and \\ • 5114. (London: II. K. 



Lewis mikI Co., Ltd., icii.S. ) Price 255. nil. 



THESE volumes consist oi .1 series ol essays 

 and articles, mostly written originally for 

 the daily Press, on a very large variety of topics, 



classified under the heads: l ni \ ersii ies ; educa- 

 tion; medicine; venereal disease; milk and 

 neglected children ; town planning and play- 

 grounds; rural life; national parks and the work 

 of explorers; bush nursing; travel and immigra- 

 tion; social; music ; electoral reform ; Imperial and 

 Australian politics. The author, a Melbourne 

 medical man and consultant, who has taken an 

 active part in the affairs ol the Melbourne Uni- 

 versity, in Australian public and medical ques- 

 tions, and, during the war, in the Australian 

 Army Medical Corps, tells in bis preface of the 

 gTOWth of his own faith, away from the original 

 university ideal of leavening the affairs of State 

 by the production of a few well-trained thinkers, 

 towards the twin ideals of Imperial federation and 

 the production of an educated proletariat as 

 necessary for the salvation of the Empire. The 

 first is necessary for the senility precedent to 

 any scheme of social betterment, without which 

 the foundations of society are hollow, and the 

 d, thl effective education ol all adolescents 

 in realities, is forced by the spectacle in Australia 



of the superficiality and insincerity of popular 



rnment. But is not the original university 



il a! least equal import 



ted in these essavs is the special need oi 



the younger .md vigorous communities of our 



Empire and America, overflowing with natural 

 wealth, as regards education in an earl) Sta 



devel " the immediate 



business of life, looking to the universities for 



guidance and service in their work, rather than 



in their thoughts, confounding leisure with idle- 



msider resean h, exi ep1 Fi ir utili- 



n ends, as Sn md culture, unless 



hidden, as a sou :e to the a\ erage 



man. Whether from these beginnings anything 

 will ultimately follow as worth) of the name "I 

 real progress and abiding advancement as has 

 come Qui of the old univei ol Europe, with 



their monastic origins, has yel I" be seen. In- 

 struction in, and the utilisation, dissemination, 

 and popularisation of, knowledge is one thing; 



no one doubts its necessity and importance; but 

 the getting of knowledge is another. For tin- 

 latter objective the atmosphere of a monaster) 



would seem to In- more suited than the bustle and 

 turmoil attendant upon making adequate returns 

 in social service for pecuniary benefits received, 

 or piously anticipated, which stems to be the 

 ideal, here over-extolled, of what a modern 

 university should be. 



NO. 2s72. VOL. I02] 



Xo one will want to qy.arrel with the author 



for his long and arduous public work in insisting 

 upon the national and social importance ol c(\u- 



cating the proletariat to the highest attainable 

 point, 'il disseminating amongsl the workers ol 



the world all the science that is of any concern 

 to them in their work. Also, what in older coun- 

 tries than Australia is at least as important is 

 to fill their hours of leisUP lease from 



the monoton) of life with the a© umulated intel- 

 lectual spoils ol the ages. ll, moreover, it be 

 considered that the universities are the best-fitted 



instruments lor this work, let it only be remem- 

 bered that something more than mere lip-service 

 is due to their original ideals. Let those who 

 want to advance knowledge, and not shout about 

 it, be given back at least the modern equivalent 

 of the monastery, and be left to their work in 

 peace. In point of social service their contribu- 

 tion may prove to be as important as, for example, 

 the running of "more and better live-stock special 

 1 us " for the education of the agricultural com- 

 munitv. Hut this is precisely the point that those 

 who want the universities to enter into the life of 

 the community more closely will not honestly and 

 fully concede. "Sporting the oak " to the world, 

 and shutting out the interminable chatter about 

 it, is to them either sheer superciliousness, or 

 else mistaken recluseness, for which closer con- 

 tact with their fellow-men and acquaintance with 

 the needs, thoughts, and aspirations of the great 

 world are to be prescribed. 



In his controversy with Prof. Masson, of which 

 surely the reader ought to have been given both 

 sides, and his article on "The Man of Science 

 especially, the author seems not to have appre- 

 ciated the real position, apart altogether from 

 current popular estimation, filled by the creator 

 of new knowledgre in the community. The man 

 1 ni e is regarded as in need of reform no 

 l.ss than other people before he can be considered 

 a successful popular leader, which is as true as 

 is the futility of expecting ligs from thistles. 

 Elbert Hubbard is quoted to the effect that Nature 

 intends knowledge I ir service, not as an orna- 

 ment or for the purposes of bric-a-brac. A man 

 of science would, perhaps, tiol care to dogmatise 

 is to the intentions of Nature, but he would 

 almost certainly regard as a dangerous lunatic 

 anyone who in the twentieth century considered 

 knowledge as 'nnainent.il. lie might point to 

 the advisability, before cooking a hare, of catch- 

 ing it. The application of science to service, if 

 it is to be regarded as the proper work oi 

 man of science, can only be at the expense ol 

 his own work. If the argument merely is that, 

 unless the man who catches the hare can i 

 cook it or catch it cooked, he will never have 

 that position of honour and esteem in the com- 

 munity which is his due, that matter will surely 

 right itself. For the community will not continue 

 to exist, and will not deserve to, in competition 

 with those that are more intelligent, or, at least, 

 better organised. 



The creative tvpe has always been treated as 



B 1; 



