134 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES 



Let us turn now to Europe, where the population has approached 

 closer to a state of equilibrium under modern conditions than anywhere 

 else in the world. Do we find that the present groups depend on racial 

 or on national or on tribal characteristics ? Only in a very minor degree. 

 The ultimate pattern of the European population is ' Geocratic,' i.e. it is 

 almost wholly determined by Environmental Control. In Fig. 17 is shown 

 this population-pattern, and in the small insets A, B, and C, are shown 

 the climatic and structural correlations. The sparsely settled areas in the 

 north (Ai, A2, A3) are in the realm of King Frost, who has resisted all 

 invaders (Fig. 17, inset at A). In the south-east (B and E) are regions 

 ruled by King Drought. Of the remaining sparse areas, F is also too 

 dry for notable settlement, while G and G2 are Young Mountains (inset B). 

 The remainder of Europe has a good climate and is accordingly somewhat 

 densely populated. The densest areas of all (T, X, Y and Z) have their 

 populations determined by King Coal, i.e. by the presence of the coal 

 trough (Inset C), which in turn results from the geological environment 

 of 200 million years ago. 



To sum up, we can safely affirm that man's use of Nature's endowment 

 in various countries must be based on a scientific understanding of their 

 relative values. Systems of high protection and of autarchy run directly 

 contrary to this ' natural ' law ; and, as usual, if Man tries to direct his 

 industrial evolution in a way for which his environment is not suitable, 

 he himself is the sufferer. 



K. Culture in the Twentieth Century. 



As in all preceding ages education is still a battleground between 

 conservatives and liberals, or, in less polite terms, between reactionaries 

 and iconoclasts. Too often the reverend elders in charge of a nation's 

 education forget that their chief purpose should be to train the. young idea 

 rather than to protect the literature of a bygone age. It is a dangerous 

 task to attack vested interests, and in the field of culture, classical interests 

 are still powerful in school, college and university. Since most cultured 

 folk receive the main part of their education in the years from fourteen 

 to twenty-two it is vital to spend these precious eight years wisely. I do 

 not believe that the curriculum in many of the schools in the British 

 Empire — at any rate those with which I am familiar in Australia and 

 Canada — is wisely chosen. It is because I feel that the social sciences, 

 especially such topics as are discussed in this address, are far more im- 

 portant to the youth of this generation than almost any other branch of 

 culture that I raise the somewhat trite issue of Classics versus Modernism. 

 The youth of to-day has not time for both. • 



We have noted in our discussion that primitive ideas persist in marginal 

 areas. Perhaps it should not surprise us, therefore, that in the two 

 distant Dominions mentioned, classical teaching is given an undue place 

 in schools and colleges ! When St. Augustine reached Britain about 

 A.D. 600 with a mission to educate the barbarians, he first found it necessary 

 to establish grammar schools to teach the classical grammar. Not until 

 students knew Latin could they begin to study the mathematics, logic, 

 music, theology and the rudimentary science of the day. Undoubtedly 



