SEPTEMBER 7, I916| 
tact with this high Minoan culture at a time when it 
was still in its most flourishing condition. The evi- 
dence of Homer itself is conclusive. Arms and armour 
described in the poems are those of the Minoan prime, 
the fabled shield of Achilles, like that of Herakles 
described by Hesiod, with its elaborate scenes and 
variegated metal-work, reflects the masterpieces of 
Minoan craftsmen in the full vigour of their art; the 
very episodes of epic combat receive their best illustra- 
tion on the signets of the great days of Mycene. 
Even the lyre to which the minstrel sang was a 
Minoan invention. Or, if we turn to the side of reli- 
gion, the Greek temple seems to have sprung from a 
Minoan hall, its earliest pediment schemes are adapta- 
tions from the Minoan tympanum—such as we see in 
the Lions’ Gate—the most archaic figures of the Hel- 
lenic goddesses, like the Spartan Orthia, have the 
attributes and attendant animals of the great Minoan 
Mother. 
Some elements of the old culture were taken over 
on the soil of Hellas. Others which had been crushed 
out in their old centres survived in the more Eastern 
shores and islands formerly dominated by Minoan 
civilisation, and were carried back by Phoenician or 
Ionian intermediaries to their old homes. In spite of 
the overthrow which about the twelfth century before 
our era fell on the old Minoan dominion and the on- 
rush of the new conquerors from the North, much 
of the old tradition still survived to form the base for 
the fabric of the later civilisation of Greece. Once 
more, through the darkness, the lighted torch was 
carried on, the first glimmering flame of which had 
been painfully kindled by the old cave-dwellers in that 
earlier Palzolithic world. 
The Roman Empire, which in turn appropriated the 
heritage that Greece had received from Minoan Crete, 
placed civilisation on a broader basis by welding to- 
gether heterogeneous ingredients and promoting a cos- 
mopolitan ideal. If even the primeval culture of the 
Reindeer age embraced more than one race and ab- 
sorbed extraneous elements from many sides, how 
much more is that the case with our own, which grew 
out of the Greco-Roman! Civilisation in its higher 
form to-day, though highly complex, forms essentially 
a unitary mass. It has no longer to be sought out in 
separate luminous centres, shining like planets through 
the surrounding night. Still less is it the property 
of one privileged country or people. Many as are the 
tongues of mortal men, its votaries, like the Immor- 
tals, speak a single language. Throughout the whole 
vast area illumined by its quickening rays, its 
workers are interdependent, and pledged to a common 
cause. 
We, indeed, who are met here to-day to promote in 
a special way the cause of truth and knowledge, have 
never had a more austere duty set before us. I know 
that our ranks are thinned. How many of those who 
would otherwise be engaged in progressive research 
have been called away for their country’s service! 
Wow many who could least be spared were called to 
return no more! Scientific intercourse is broken, and 
its cosmopolitan character is obscured by the death 
struggle in which whole continents are locked. The 
concentration, moreover, of the nation and of its 
Government on immediate ends has distracted it from 
the urgent reforms called for by the very evils that 
are the root cause of many of the greatest difficulties 
it has had to overcome. It is a lamentable fact that 
beyond any nation of the West the bulk of our people 
remains sunk, not in comparative ignorance only— 
for that is less difficult to overcome—but in intellectual 
apathy. The dull incuria of the parents is reflected in 
the children, and the desire for the acquirement of 
NO. 2445, VoL. 98] 
NATURE 17 
iknowledge in our schools and colleges is appreciably 
less than elsewhere. So, too, with the scientific side 
of education, it is not so much the actual amount of 
science taught that is in question—insufficient as that 
is—as the instillation of the scientific spirit itself—the 
perception of method, the sacred thirst for investiga- 
tion, 
But can we yet despair of the educational future of 
a people that has risen to the full height of the great 
emergency with which they were confronted? Can we 
doubt that, out of the crucible of fiery trial, a New 
England is already in the moulding? . 
We must all bow before the hard necessity of the 
moment. Of much we cannot judge. Great patience 
is demanded. But let us, who still have the oppor- 
tunity of doing so, at least prepare for the even more 
serious struggle that must ensue against the enemy in 
our midst, that gnaws our vitals. We have to deal 
with ignorance, apathy, the non-scientific mental atti- 
tude, the absorption of popular interest in sports and 
amusements. 
And what, meanwhile, is the attitude of those in 
power—of our Government, still more of our per- 
manent officials? A cheap epigram is worn thread- 
bare in order to justify the ingrained distrust of expert, 
in other words of scientific, advice on the part of our 
public offices. We hear, indeed, of ‘‘Commissions ”’ 
and ‘Inquiries,’ but the inveterate attitude of our 
rulers towards the higher interests that we are here 
to promote is too clearly shown by a single episode. 
It is those higher interests that are the first to be 
thrown to the wolves. All are agreed that special 
treasures should be stored in positions of safety, but 
at a time when it might have been thought desirable 
to keep open every avenue of popular instruction and 
of intelligent diversion, the galleries of our National 
Museum at Bloomsbury were entirely closed for the 
sake of the paltriest saving—three minutes, it was cal- 
culated, of the cost of the war to the British Treasury! 
That some, indeed, were left open elsewhere was not 
so much due to the enlightened sympathy of our poli- 
ticians, as to their alarmed interests in view of the 
volume of intelligent protest. Our friends and neigh- 
bours across the Channel, under incomparably greater 
stress, have acted in a very different spirit. 
It will be a hard struggle for the friends of science 
and education, and the air is thick with mephitic 
vapours. Perhaps the worst economy to which we | 
are to-day reduced by our former lack of preparedness 
is the economy of truth. Heaven knows!—it may 
be a necessary penalty. But its results are evil. Vital 
facts that concern our national well-being, others that 
even affect the cause of a lasting peace, are constantly 
suppressed by official action. The negative character 
of the process at work which conceals its operation 
from the masses makes it the more insidious. We 
live in a murky atmosphere amidst the suggestion of 
the false, and there seems to be a real danger that 
the recognition of truth as itself a tower of strength 
may suffer an eclipse. 
It is at such a time and under these adverse 
conditions that we, whose object it is to promote the 
advancement of science, are called upon to act. It is 
for us to see to it that the lighted torch handed down 
to us from the ages shall be passed on with a still 
brighter flame. Let us champion the cause of educa- 
tion, in the best sense of the word, as having regard 
to its spiritual as well as its scientific side. Let us go 
forward with our own tasks, unflinchingly seeking for 
the truth, confident that, in the eternal dispensation, 
each successive generation of seekers may approach 
nearer to the goal. 
MAGNA EST VERITAS, ET PRZEVALEBIT. 
