has been the result and what the lessons of the application of the
power and machinery of the European State to Africa?" He examines
very carefully and critically the history of the organisation of the
British, French, and German Colonies in North and East Africa, as well
as the Belgian Congo. The results both for Europe and for the natives
he finds on the whole to be evil. The future, if we are to continue the
old policy of economic imperialism, offers no better prospect. There
is hope in the League of Nations, but for the mandatory system, as
proposed, Mr. Woolf has no enthusiasm. To make the League effective and
beneficent its forms and duties must be restated and clearly defined.
The book is one which ought to be read by all who are interested not
merely in African affairs but in the Colonial policies of the European
Powers.
ANTHROPOLOGY
ARCHAIC ENGLAND. By HAROLD BAYLEY. London: Chapman & Hall. 1919. Medium
8vo. pp. 894. 25_s._ net.
The publishers' announcement informs us that "Mr. Harold Bayley by
his graduated studies in Elizabethan Literature, Symbolism, and the
Renaissance has established his position as an original and interesting
thinker." Again, on its paper wrapper the present work is styled,
"this profound and far-reaching contribution to English Archæology."
If a pill were to be puffed in this way the inference might be drawn
that the interested party did not belong to the medical profession.
By parity of reasoning one conjectured before opening the book that
Mr. Bayley was not versed in the gentle tradition of the archæological
fraternity. But to read the introduction almost disarms the critic.
Mr. Bayley cannot, he confesses, afford to emulate the Oxford tutor,
described in a novel of Mr. Stephen McKenna, who set himself to write
a history of the Third French Republic, and thirty years later had
satisfactorily concluded his introductory chapter on the origin of
Kingship. He complains that his literary hobbies have necessarily to
be indulged more or less furtively in restaurants and railway-trains.
Nevertheless he tries "to keep on as good terms as may be with
the exacting Muses of History, Mythology, Archæology, Philosophy,
Religion, Romance, Symbolism, Numismatics, Folklore, and Etymology."
Thus circumstances have forced him to become a literary "hustler";
and, since self-advertisement is germane to the hustling temper, and
moreover in this case is quite undisguised and naïve, it may almost be
forgiven.
Not that Mr. Bayley wants to be forgiven. It would seem that the
hustling and the hard-hitting tendencies are naturally akin. For
the philologists have attacked him on account of another book.
Consequently, in this book he pulverises the philologists one and
all; there is nothing left of them. Nor do the anthropologists come
off any better. Even sex does not protect them. Miss Jane Harrison,
for instance, was rash enough to say that gods evolve from choral
dances and similar ceremonies, herein but following the common opinion
that in the development of religion ritual is prior to dogma. Mr.
Bayley will have none of it. "The theory here assumed," he exclaims,
"grossly defies the elementary laws of logic, for every act of ritual
must essentially have been preceded by a thought: Act is the outcome
and offspring of Thought: Idea was never the idiot-child of Act. The
assumption that the first idea of God evolved from the personation
of the Sun God in a mystery play or harvest dance is not really or
fundamentally a mental tracking of that God right home, but rather an
inane confession that the idea of God cannot be traced further backward
than the ritual of ancient festivals." How can a reviewer proceed to
deal with Mr. Bayley's views without trepidation? _Fænum habet in
cornu._
"To me," says Mr. Bayley, "the divinities of antiquity are not mere
dolls to be patted superciliously on the head and then remitted to
the dustbin. Our own ideals of to-day are but the idols or dolls
of to-morrow, and even a golliwog if it has comforted a child is
entitled to sympathetic treatment." It would have certainly been more
sympathetic if Miss Harrison had called Apollo or Dionysus a gollywog,
and let it go at that. Mr. Bayley goes on to moralise--and the passage
illustrates at once his discursive manner and the methods of the
symbolistic philology--as follows: "The words _doll_, _idol_, _ideal_,
and _idyll_, which are all one and the same, are probably due to the
island of Idea, which was one of the ancient names of Crete. Not only
was Crete known as Idæa, but was also entitled Doliche, which may be
spelled to-day Idyllic.... We shall also see as we proceed that the
mystic philosophy known to history as the Gnosis was in all probability
the philosophy taught in prehistoric times at Gnossus, the far-famed
capital of Crete. From Gnossus, whence the Greeks drew all their
laws and sciences, came probably the Greek word _gnossis_, meaning
_knowledge_." Why "probably"?
But to proceed to Mr. Bayley's main contention. He would have
us take less pride in any connection we may have had with the
Anglo-Saxons--were they not Huns?--and, contrariwise, think more of
our far more worthy ancestors the ancient Britons. Theirs was a wisdom
ultimately derived from the culture-lands of the East. Are not the
identities between Welsh and Hebrew "close and pressing." Is it not
the fact that "entire sentences of archaic Hebraisms are similarly
to be found in the now obsolete Cornish language." Unfortunately the
Phœnicians have left no literature. The Greeks have, however, and we
are thus able to connect Achill in Ireland with Achilles, and so on.
Similarly philology proves the truth of the tale that Brutus with his
Trojans landed at Totnes and thence marched to Troynovant or New Troy,
now known as London. Not that the Trojans on their arrival found it any
easier than it is now to obtain decent lodgings in London. For _tre_
(which is obviously Troy) means in Cornish dwelling, and in French
_trou_ means hole. So the earliest Troys "were maybe caves," though
they ultimately became towers or _tors_; witness the number of the
same in the West of England. It is likewise obvious that Troy, Tyre,
and Etruria are from the same root. So it follows that "the men of
Tarshish, Tyre, Troy, or Etruria, towed, trekked, travelled, tramped,
traded, and trafficked far and wide." Indeed, it might almost seem
that the language in which these culture-heroes were wont to express
themselves consisted entirely in the word Troy and its derivatives. But
no. Britain was called Albion, and "Albion suggests Albania." Moreover,
"by the present-day Turk the Albanians are termed Arnaouts. Whether
this name has any connection with _argonauts_ is immaterial." So it
evidently is, seeing that "many shiploads of young argonauts from one
or another Troy reached the coast of Cornwall." But the proof of this
is the fact that so many of the Cornish names begin with _tre_. So even
the Albanians called themselves Troy for short.
There are nearly nine hundred pages composed in this vein, and if
the reader wants more he can find it there. Mr. Bayley will not bore
him; he wields a facile pen. Again, he has read all manner of books,
good bad and indifferent, and may provide useful material for anyone
whose critical faculty is sufficiently alert. But Troy and the rest of
it--can this punning philology be seriously meant? Mr. Bayley would
connect our word pun "with the Hebrew _pun_, meaning _dubious_." No
doubt pundit comes from the same root; and, if so, Mr. Bayley is
welcome to the title.
SCIENCE
IONS, ELECTRONS, AND IONISING RADIATIONS. By J. A. CROWTHER. Arnold.
12_s._ 6_d._ net.
In spite of the subject of his book, Dr. Crowther's index is free from
the names of Wien, Lenard, Elster and Geitel, and Stark, to mention a
few omissions which are somewhat surprising. It is true that subsequent
reading shows that one of these names is casually mentioned, but
the pages on positive rays, for instance, are happily free from all
reference to the hated Hun and his works--and, in consequence, are
somewhat misleading. In the first flush we attributed these omissions
to Dr. Crowther's intense patriotism, but further investigation, and a
rough classification of other peculiarities, has convinced us that the
misfortune of these men lies not in being German, but in not having
worked at Cambridge. If the book before us had as a sub-title, "Being
the Work of Cambridge Physicists," a source of misunderstanding would
be removed. It consists of an account of the work of the Cavendish
school, enriched by free borrowings from Sir J. J. Thomson's famous
_Conduction of Electricity through Gases_, with occasional references
to the work of "outsiders," not usually acknowledged by name. The
chapter on Photo-electricity will illustrate to those familiar with
the subject the peculiarities to which we allude. We doubt if many
physicists will be disposed to admit the author's claim that the book
furnishes "a reasonably complete account of the present state of the
subject."
ENGINES OF THE HUMAN BODY. By ARTHUR KEITH, F.R.S. Williams & Norgate.
12_s._ 6_d._ net.
It is a commonplace to talk of the machinery of the body, but it is not
widely realised how close are the analogies which can be drawn between
every detail of our physical structure and some feature or process of
modern mechanical engineering. Professor Keith, realising how very much
more most of us know of the working of an engine which comparatively
few of us possess, an internal combustion engine, than of the working
of the engines which we all possess in our muscles, has written a
most informing and entertaining book, in which the mechanism and
functions of our bones, muscles, heart, lungs, joints, brain, and other
structures are considered in terms of their engineering analogies. It
is hard to imagine a clearer or more charming exposition of elementary
physiology. The book is based on a course of Christmas Lectures given
at the Royal Institution, lectures primarily intended, as every one
knows, for children. While there is little in the book which cannot
be understood by any intelligent boy--that we do not add "or girl" is
due to no reactionary denial of the full equality of the sexes, but
to a belief that, at present, girls take less interest in, and so are
less conversant with, the working of motor-car engines than boys--few
grown-ups, even medical men, will read it without lively interest or
without learning much. There is hardly any function or structure in
our bodies for which Professor Keith does not find a counterpart in
iron or steel--the internal texture of a bone is likened to Fairbairn's
crane, a diagram of a force pump compared part by part with the diagram
of the left ventricular pump of the heart. The varying length of heel
found in different races is considered from the point of view of its
mechanical usefulness in different circumstances, the superiority of
the ape type of arm to the human type for the tasks which confront an
ape is made clear in a few words. A short historical sketch of what
Harvey was taught concerning the blood, contrasted with the wonderful
new knowledge which he himself discovered, and the road by which he
arrived at it, affords an admirable example of scientific method.
These are citations at random; the whole book is full of commendable
things. The bearings of recent research, such as the work of Haldane on
Respiration, Cannon on Adrenalin, Starling on Hormones, are skilfully
indicated in simple language. We congratulate Professor Keith on the
production of a book of popular science which in clearness, depth of
knowledge, and charm of style challenges comparison with the books
which his great predecessor, Faraday, founded on his "Christmas
Lectures."
PROBLEMS OF COSMOGONY AND STELLAR DYNAMICS. By J. H. JEANS. Cambridge
University Press. 21_s._ net.
We welcome the appearance of this book, which is the essay to which
the Adams Prize was adjudged in the year 1917. With the exception of
Poincaré's well-known _Leçons sur les Hypothéses Cosmogoniques_ there
is, we think, no other book of recent date dealing authoritatively
with the attractive subject of cosmogony, and in certain respects Mr.
Jeans's book is a considerable advance on Poincaré's. The treatment is
more systematic, and the author's own extensive contributions to the
subject add to its value.
The introductory chapter gives a survey of the scientific problem of
the origin of the universe, and points out the various uniformities
which we have to explain. It also includes a brief historical sketch
of the various theories of cosmogony put forward, from the famous
nebular hypothesis of Kant and Laplace up to modern times. This
chapter and the concluding chapter, on the Origin and Evolution of
the Solar System, are accessible to the non-mathematical reader, and
enable him to put himself in touch with the latest observations and
speculations on these fascinating themes. The remainder of the book
is highly mathematical, yet the author has presented his analysis so
skilfully that a moderate knowledge of the calculus and dynamical
principles suffice for the following of all the deductions. The general
dynamics and criteria of stability and instability are first developed,
and then the classical configurations of equilibrium of a rotating
homogeneous mass--Maclaurin's spheroids and Jacobi's ellipsoids--are
handled. Further systematic investigation leads up to the study of the
oft-attacked, formidable problem of pear-shaped figures of equilibrium,
which occupied the attention of Poincaré, G. Darwin, and Liapounoff. So
far there has been question of stable configurations of equilibrium:
the author now passes to the dynamical problems presented when there
is no stable equilibrium, remarking that "a statical problem may or
may not admit of solution, but a dynamical problem must always have
a solution." Poincaré's "cataclysm" is for him merely a passage from
a statical to a dynamical investigation. Soon, after summarising the
results for a mass of fluid which is incompressible and homogeneous, he
proceeds to consider the case when neither of these conditions pertain.
Here we are presented chiefly with the important advances made by Mr.
Jeans himself. The evolution of rotating nebulæ and of star clusters,
of double and of multiple stars (particular attention being given to
the process of fission and the subsequent motion), come up in turn for
consideration, and from these gigantic voyages through space we return,
at the end of the book, to our relatively minute solar system and its
evolution. The book is illustrated with beautiful reproductions of
photographs of nebulæ, taken at the Mount Wilson Observatory, and is in
every way worthy of its author and its Press.
ARCHIVES OF RADIOLOGY AND ELECTROTHERAPY FOR DECEMBER. Heinemann.
The December number of the _Archives of Radiology and Electrotherapy_
contains an interesting article on the work of the British
Association of Radiology and Physiotherapy. One of the first fruits
of its activities is that, at its instigation, the University of
Cambridge has decided to institute a Diploma in Medical Radiology and
Electrology. A knowledge of the properties of the various radiations
of electrical origin on nature, of direct and alternating currents,
and of electrotechnics in general, is of such importance in modern
medicine that we heartily welcome the institution of a Diploma which
will guarantee that its possessor has a thorough knowledge of the new
and special technique required for the various electric treatments of
to-day. The syllabus of subjects and the regulations governing the
award, which provide, among other things, that the candidate must
hold a recognised medical qualification, are published in full in
the number of the _Archives_ under notice. A study of the syllabus
of the course of studies provided at Cambridge emphasises the range
of physical phenomena, which have a therapeutic value--radiant heat,
X-rays, the rays from radioactive substances, electrolysis, direct
and high frequency currents, and static electricity, to name some of
the most important. Obviously it is time for adequate provision to be
made for instructing the medical man in the theory and manipulation
of the machines and devices peculiar to this side of his art, since
the average M.D. has not a very deep knowledge of physics. The only
suggestion we would offer is that some attempt might be made to
simplify or standardise the nomenclature of the subject. A glance at
this short notice will show the variety of titles given to the new
therapeutics, and of these the word "electrology," for instance, is
given in Webster as "obsolete or rare." Surely there are sufficient
terms already without reviving it.
BOOK-PRODUCTION NOTES
By J. H. MASON
"Modern" type is the name by which the design that came into general
use in this country between 1800 and 1808 is designated. (It is
the type face still used in Blue Books.) To quote Luckombe in his
_Printer's Grammar_, of 1808, "The great improvement which has taken
place of late years in the form of printing types has completely
superseded the Elzevir shape introduced from Holland by the celebrated
Caslon. Everyone must observe, with increasing admiration, the numerous
and elegant founts of every size which have with rapid succession been
lately presented to the public." And then follow specimens from the
Fry Type Foundry, the "Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia,
mostra?" so affected by the older founders that it almost became a
proverb for "type specimen."
Well, modern opinion has gone strongly back to Luckombe, and with good
reason. The only definite quality--not very definite either--which
calls forth his admiration is the elegance of the design. I think we
may concede this without damaging the case for the old-style types. The
letters are well drawn, carefully and finely drawn, and show a good
sense of proportion and of colour contrast in the thicks and thins
and hair-lines in the size shown, called the Luckombe "French Canon,"
equivalent to forty-eight point (about two-thirds of an inch). But is
elegant drawing the desirable point in type? It is not. It tends to
keep the single letters distinct units instead of their coalescing
into word, phrase, or even sentence units. For the mind of the reader
is partly formed by the mind of the writer, by his own experience in
the manipulation of the pen, and feels for the onward flow of the pen
in the letter design. And this is found at its best in the Italian
writing that developed the Caroline minuscule and formed the model for
the early Venetian types. The letter takes its character from the pen
in the hands of a master of his instrument, and the ink and paper or
vellum play their part--it is not deliberately drawn and passed on,
but arrives in the continuous flow that strives to keep _pari flumine_
with the stream of thought. The serifs or finishing strokes, _e.g._,
of the capital C or T in "modern," are perpendicular palings that shut
off relations with their neighbours; in old style they reach towards
their neighbours, as though to join hands with them. The onward flow is
felt in the curves, _e.g._, of the small m of old-style type, but in
modern it stands almost coldly self-centred, the elegance strikes us as
primness. The fine lines too are unsuitable for letterpress printing
as they are easily damaged and then the type becomes unsightly. In
engraver's lettering on copperplates, of course, this does not happen,
as the fine line is printed from a sunken scratch, not a knife-like
edge in relief. The engraver as a rule only used small groups of words,
not pages of continuous text. (I do not forget Pine--his Horace dates
1733--but of him another time.) I cannot help thinking that modern
type is the outcome of a mistaken standard, that of the engraver; as
if the finish of delicate gold-smithing were adopted for carving in
sandstone. To the engraver the hair-line is perfectly simple, to the
typefounder it is a _tour-de-force_. The old-style design continued the
manuscript tradition of form, with only such changes as the process of
typefounding involved, such as the elimination of ligatures or tied
letters. It continued in use till the end of the eighteenth century,
when "elegance" displaced it. In forty years (a short time compared
with the three-and-a-half centuries of old style) old style was revived
in the Chiswick Press _Juvenal_ and _Lady Willoughby's Diary_, and was
enthusiastically received. New versions of the old-style design were
cut, and it has continued in favour ever since.
A LETTER FROM FRANCE
THE YOUNG REVIEWS
_Paris, February, 1920._
When among us a reader of literary tastes wishes to obtain a bird's-eye
view of the literature of the moment, to see it mapped out with
all its currents, he thinks of the reviews. I mean by that not the
old-established reviews, which after all are no more than magazines of
the first class, but the living, active, combative reviews, which are
the organs of groups, of literary and intellectual parties.
While the old reviews, in France as in England or in Germany,
continued faithfully during the war to provide their usual articles on
contemporary affairs, all the young French reviews found themselves cut
off, the greater part of their staffs having been mobilised. Since the
war they have reappeared, new reviews have been born, and important
additions are announced for the spring. But, taken as a whole, the
complexion of the world of the new reviews shows an aspect sufficiently
different from what it had before the war and above all from what it
had twenty years ago.
* * * * *
The _Nouvelle Revue Française_ has begun publication again since June
1st. The members of its pre-war staff meet again intact, because for
the most part they belonged to a generation which reached, or had just
passed, its fortieth year in 1914. The most important among them, the
figure round whom the group was first assembled, was André Gide, and,
like Gide, most of them had gone through the Symbolist Movement between
1890 and 1900. But they were no longer at the age of enthusiastic and
violent prejudices; they cared much for analysis and intelligence and
sought above all to see clear. Hence came their taste for psychological
detail and for the literature of introspection, of which Jean
Schlumberger produced poignant examples and which made the _Nouvelle
Revue Française_ the natural country of Marcel Proust. Hence also,
and above all, the importance of its critical work, and that state of
attentive and impartial clairvoyance which it has constantly striven
to preserve. This clairvoyance did not exclude ardour or passion; the
influence of Péguy, still more that of Claudel, was obvious in the
fiery intellect of Jacques Rivière, now the editor of the review.
Unlike other reviews with an æsthetic bent, the _Nouvelle Revue
Française_ did not confine itself to the defence and the illustration
of some definite artistic method. It welcomed, like the _Mercure_
and the _Revue Blanche_ of old days, everything which seemed to
it interesting, original, and bearing the marks of authentic art.
Obviously, for it, the centre of the artistic landscape was filled
by the most illustrious of the whilom Symbolists, those who devoted
themselves in solitude to build according to those mysterious ideal
diagrams, drawn by Mallarmé upon a heroic and legendary sand: Gide,
Claudel, Valéry. But the review became the home also of Charles Louis
Philippe, that master of sorrowful tenderness and rending pity--of
Pierre Hamp, who, in his stories of industrial life, has drawn the
world of labour with a power frequently humorous and sometimes as
original as Constantin Meunier's; of Jules Romains, the picturesque and
powerful creator of "Unanimist" prose and poetry.