246 
NATURE 
[FEBRUARY 24, 1923 

ground that the nation would be assured of value for its 
money. In the present distressing condition of the 
national finances, the president of the Board of Educa- 
tion may be searching for some empirical solution of 
our educational troubles which he could commend for 
the same reason. 
If the straight issue be joined between intellectual 
freedom and bureaucratic control, we have no doubt that 
in the present temper of the public and of the teaching 
profession, the decision would be emphatically against 
bureaucratic control. 
ferences, the point of view of the teachers on this 
question was expressed without reservation or am- 
biguity. The fact is the war has produced a marked 
mistrust of “ regimentation ” in any form, mistrust of 
both its methods and its results. English people, in 
accord with their history and traditions, will show 
great caution in adopting any form of organisation 
which may tend to thwart the free growth and play 
of personality and the full exercise of political freedom. 
By ensuring the ninety-nine parts of education which 
is diligent and orderly routine, we must not stifle the 
hundredth part, which is art. 
This, however, is not to say that the problem of the 
relation of the State to education does not exist. On 
the contrary, the question of State control is en- 
countered not only in education but also in other pro- 
fessions such as medicine and the promotion of scientific 
research, and, more urgently perhaps, in the extensive 
field of industry. Any advance in dealing with the 
question in one aspect must affect others and orientate 
the national mind towards a general solution. We 
plead, therefore, that the best creative thought of our 
teachers, men of science, and statesmen should be 
dedicated to the question of defining the true function 
of the State in various departments of our national life. 
Without attempting to explore the question in all its 
implications, we would suggest that if in any particular 
case State control or nationalisation is found to be the 
best solution of existing difficulties or the best policy 
for the future, its form should be adapted to special 
conditions. In teaching and scientific research par- 
ticularly, spiritual values must be conserved, mechanical 
methods avoided, and the workers themselves as the 
real experts must be assured a fair share of direction 
and control. Some amount of “ intellectual regimenta- 
tion ’”’ may be necessary in the fight against ignorance 
and vice and in attacking complicated scientific prob- 
lems. But from neither the teacher nor the scientific 
worker will the best results be obtained if their direc- 
tion and control come from an authority which they 
may regard as external, ignorant, unsympathetic, and 
autocratic. In submitting these observations, we are 
in no sense attacking the policy of the Labour Party 
NO. 2782, VOL. 111] 
> 
In the recent educational con- | 

or any other political party. An eminent politician 
has suggested that we are all socialists nowadays. 
This is true in the sense that our work is directed in 
an increasing measure to the good of the community. 
The question of State control is one of method and 
machinery rather than of ideal, and should be studied 
in a cold scientific light, withott personal or political 
prejudices or vituperation. 

Formalism and Mysticism. 
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. By Ludwig Wittgen- 
stein. (International Library of Psychology, Philo- 
sophy and Scientific Method.) Pp. 189. (London: 
Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd.; New York: Harcourt, 
Brace and Co., Inc., 1922.) 1os. 6d. net. 
EADERS of Mr. Bertrand Russell’s philosophical 
R works know that one of his pupils before the out- 
break of the war, an Austrian, Mr. Ludwig Wittgenstein, 
caused him to change his views in some important 
particulars. Curiosity can now be satisfied. The 
“Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus ’’ which Mr. Ogden 
has included in his new library of philosophy is a remark- 
able and strikingly original work. It is published in 
German and English in parallel pages. It is difficult 
to appreciate the reason for this, seeing that the 
author is evidently familiar with our language and 
has himself carefully revised the proofs of the trans- 
lation. Also we should have liked to have the 
Tractatus without Mr. Russell’s Introduction, not, we 
hasten to add, on account of any fault or shortcoming 
in that introduction, which is highly appreciative and 
in part a defence of himself, in part explanatory of 
the author, but for the reason that good wine needs 
no bush and that Mr. Russell’s bush has the unfortunate 
effect of dulling the palate instead of whetting the 
appetite. In his penultimate sentence Mr. Russell says : 
“To have constructed a theory of logic which is not 
at any point obviously wrong is to have achieved a 
work of extraordinary difficulty and importance.” We 
agree, but how uninspiring when compared with Mr. 
Wittgenstein’s own statement of aim: “ What can 
be said at all can be said clearly, and whereof one cannot 
speak, thereof one must be silent.” 
In fact, when we come to the root of the matter 
there seems to’ be little in common between pupil and 
teacher. When we read Mr. Russell’s works we 
feel indeed that what we can know of the universe is 
little enough in comparison with what we can never 
know, but yet he recognises no limit to the logical 
classification of its constituent entities. Indeed he 
seems to aim at an exhaustive inventory, at least of 
classes. Mr. Wittgenstein, on the other hand, makes 
us feel with Spinoza that our knowledge is limited to 

