Chapter VI: The Future of the Sciences

The preceding pages have very broadly indicated the way in which current physical researches may influence the scientific outlook on the problems of matter, life, and mind. The view has been put forward that we are on the eve of a profound scientific synthesis of which the main outlines are already determined. These general suggestions will now be made more precise in order to offer to anyone who is interested the opportunity of testing for himself some definite prophecies regarding the future of scientific thought. The forecast made here does not involve any supernatural reading of the future, but is based on tendencies already inherent in the different departments of science. For convenience it is expressed in the form of separate assertions concerning the future of physics, biology, and psychology.

1. Before 1940 a very remarkable simplification will be made in atomic theory, which will indicate that in quantum processes physics has ‘touched bottom’ and that--for the time being--we may consider that nature is not infinitely complex within the heart of the atom. The proof of this apparent if not absolute limit to the micro-structure of nature will take the form of the discovery of simple relationships between the fundamental constants of atomic structure, e, m, M, c, and h. (The electronic charge and mass, the mass of the hydrogen nucleus, the velocity of light, and Planck’s constant.) Such relations are already known but are considered to be of no significance since they are ruled out by the accepted theory of electrical dimensions.

Yet this dimensional system is not based on direct observation, and the importance of these relationships will soon be recognized in consequence of experiments aimed at a direct determination of an ‘electron velocity’, in a curved track. ‘Electron velocity’ as calculated from deflection experiments will be found not to be the same as the directly measurable cms. per sec., and in the case of straight electron tracks, the measured velocity may be found to be always that of light, though this does not mean much since the velocity of light in one direction has never been measured.

As the result of the study of individual radiation tracks, for instance in the reflection of electrons by crystals, and particularly of any _time_ measurements that can be made, a new system of physical conceptions will be built up appropriate to irreversible processes, which will be substituted for the Newtonian reversible system. The new scheme will probably be based on the conception of the atom, with its radiating electron tracks, as a natural clock which not only can be used to measure out equal time intervals, but also to yield an objective criterion of past and future. In order to make this idea, or at least one part of it, capable of empirical test the following hypothesis is put forward: The time-interval between any two point-events on any electron track is a simple function of the length and curvature of the part of the track between the two points. This hypothesis contradicts the current interpretation of electron theory on a point which has never yet been subjected to experimental test.

The conceptions which will be built up on electron velocity experiments will very quickly bring within one simple theory the facts of chemical combination and colloidal processes. For these depend upon irreversible effects connected with radiation and electrons, and will therefore be amenable to treatment by the new conceptions for the very reason which necessarily puts them beyond the scope of Newtonian laws.

2. As the result of the alteration in physical conceptions biology will soon cease to draw a definite line between inanimate and living systems. The normal characters of life will be recognized as appearing in steps as one passes up the series atom, molecule, colloid, protoplasm, cell, and through further stages to mammal and man. In each class of organism a central controlling process will be discovered and its laws formulated with some precision, in terms of irreversible electrochemical processes. The process which in each organism represents the co-ordinating factor and is the life of the organism considered as a unit may for instance be described in terms of a quantity which we shall call ‘f’. ‘f’ would be such that so long as ‘f’ keeps on increasing the organism is alive, while if ‘f’ stands still the organism dies. The rate of increase of ‘f’ indicates the tempo or intensity of the organism’s life. In a simple case ‘f’ might be directly related to the intake of oxygen or food, and just as respiration and assimilation are irreversible, so is the change in ‘f’. ‘f’ must go on increasing, or else cease to represent any quantity in nature; as soon as it ceases to increase the process to which it corresponds cannot be identified any longer.

The most important factors which influence the life-function ‘f’ (i.e. which affect the central controlling process in any organism) will be known before about 1950, with the result that local rebellions such as cancer will not only be controllable, but easily prevented. Harmless methods for increasing the rate of change of ‘f’, i.e. for increasing the _élan vital_ of the organism, will be discovered, so that, for instance, the duration of child-birth will be reduced to a natural minimum. If child-birth sometimes takes very long nowadays, this is presumably because the woman’s body is tired, exhausted, or partially poisoned by her mode of living, and by raising her vitality at the critical moment we may expect to be able to let the process go on at its natural speed. There must be some minimum time necessary for the act, since a vast number of complex organic processes have to complete themselves in a certain order, but probably this time is considerably shorter than that during which many women in this country have to suffer.

It is already known that the Mendelian _genes_ which determine heredity are related to the rates of development of special processes in the organism, and a control over the life-tempo, or rate of increase of ‘f’ in any organism or group of cells within an organism, will provide a new method of tackling the practical problem of heredity. It is possible that hereditary tendencies to specific weakness or disease will be overcome by accelerating or retarding the rate of development of the human system at some special moment between conception and maturity.

Rejuvenation will soon be safe and efficient, but not as a means for attempting immortality. It will be socially recognized as healthy and legitimate only when undertaken to compensate for premature ageing due to specific repressions, illness, or anxiety.

The elimination of known diseases by a genuine science of life does not mean that other diseases will spring up perhaps worse than before. A theoretical science of life will know the meaning of all disease, and will not prevent one in such a way as to give rise to another. Instead of making campaigns against influenza or any other one disease, it will determine the conditions in which no disease can survive, and thus gradually eliminate all the organic diseases which attack the body.

But this does not mean the attainment of a hygienic Utopia in which human life necessarily fulfils itself. A balance will be made to the disappearance of cancer and syphilis, not by the arising of other diseases but as a result of the consequent increase in the sensitiveness of the human brain.

The supremely difficult task of the next hundred years will be to keep the mind of the race healthy and stable through a period of critical sensitiveness. We are in a transition stage of violent instability, of intense cruelty coupled with compassion (America), of blended love of liberty and need of discipline, of emotional religions and of wars--but we must hope that it will lead to some mode of life with greater inherent stability.

3. Psychology is now occupied with the discovery that the human response to perceptions is not additive, i.e. that the effect made by a group of sounds or colours depends on the pattern in space and time in which they are arranged. (_Gestalt-theorie._) For instance, the effect made on a man by the individual notes of ‘God save the King’ when played in the wrong order is negligible, and bears no relation to his response when he hears the tune played in a cinema, and it reminds him of ‘patriotism’ and the War. So far no scientific method has been found of describing when a group of elements is to be treated as a ‘whole’ for the purposes of psychology, and this is where the greatest advances may be expected.

Most scientific conceptions have been based on the method of spatial analysis, i.e. the reduction, where possible, of a thing to its smallest spatial elements. Physics, biology, and psychology have all lacked the equipment to describe what makes the atom, organism, or the pattern function as a unit, and how we are to know if some group is a unit or not. The analytical method is fully developed, but we lack even the basis for a synthetic treatment. This leads some hard-headed scientists of the materialistic school who will ‘stand no nonsense’ to assert that there is no such thing as ‘synthesis’, that this is a mystical idea left over from primitive anthropomorphism. Yet to any mind that is guided not by prejudice but by a simple search for truth, the fact of synthesis is obvious, though not yet properly formulated.

Here modern physics can supply a clue. Analysis is the method required in a search for instantaneous spatial structure; the synthetic method which we need must deal with the temporal history and behaviour of systems. The fact that the human being reacts in the ways he does to a tune as a whole is evidence of something in his history, that he has heard the tune often under certain emotional surroundings. The unity of any synthesis, whole, or organism is not an instantaneous fact explicable in terms of structure, for we can recognize this unity only from a continued observation over a period of time.

Physics can invent one law to describe the approach of the two hydrogen atoms to form a molecule, and in doing so treats the two together as a unit. This suggests that the fact of organic unity is to be defined and formulated in terms of an irreversible law which governs the system as a whole. Thus a group of atoms, cells, or any other elements is to be called a unit when, and only when, one irreversible law can be found which expresses the behaviour of the different elements as contributing towards some common end, like the formation of the molecule in the case of the hydrogen atoms.

We can now draw a practical conclusion for the future of psychology, which is in great need of a moral principle to guide its treatment of disintegrated human personality. On the analogy of the two atoms, a human being is to be considered as a unity when his whole behaviour displays continuous co-ordination towards some end. But there is an important difference in the two cases: the atoms move towards an end which we know because it has already happened in history, whereas man’s development is creative, that is it proceeds towards an end we cannot know exactly before it comes into being. Thus the parent or psychologist need not trouble if he cannot understand what his child or subject is aiming towards: so long as some consistency and harmony of functioning is apparent, the ‘end’ can be left to nature to look after, because such harmony _means_ that the organism is tending towards some ultimate condition.

The psychologists of the future will therefore have to follow some principle such as this: their only legitimate aim is the maintenance and restoration of harmonious co-ordination of all the human functions, and no concern need be paid to ultimate intellectual or spiritual ideals. Of course if the person considered is apparently tending towards some degenerate condition, that is known to the onlooker because it is _not_ new but a repetition of what many human beings have done before, then this tendency can be altered. At least, it can be altered if the onlooker can use his intuition to discover signs of repressed conflict which show that the immediate tendency is not whole-natured, but based on the repression of some more profound aspiration or desire. Then by bringing this repressed aspiration back into consciousness the degenerate tendency may be arrested. But this control over the lives of others can only be effectively exercised by the intuitive discovery that their present tendencies are not whole-natured.

* * * * *

Prophecy can never be scientific, and forecasting in the realm of science is perhaps the most dangerous form of intellectual acrobatics. Science must be thorough, and all vague speculation is its enemy. But there are moments when a profound revision is necessary, and amidst the responsibilities and rich appeal of daily life no one will undertake this task who does not believe that it offers an adequate reward to science and to man. To-day prophecy can call attention to unjustified limitations inherent in current scientific thought, and encourage the students of matter and of life to get together and try to discover the single system of natural law which we must believe covers both realms. It may even help them to find crucial experiments by which to guide their search.

The reward is certainly great. The indifference to the destruction of life which has marked recent years is no cause either for surprise or for despair after an epoch of orthodox and insincere religion coupled with an abstract science of matter. One thing only can guide humanity to a saner and richer life: the recognition and valuation of life. This can be assisted by science and art both revealing life in all its significant forms. But the roots of art have been destroyed by the domination of a science which had not recognized the significance of life within the realm of natural law. For great art can only arise from a profound reverence for life, whereas to the scientific mood of this period life appeared as an arbitrary impulse in continual conflict with the laws of matter.

Physics is now studying light. The radiant influence of light nourishes life and within human body forms the fabric of consciousness. We are alive and conscious, but our consciousness is immature for we do not yet know the laws that govern our own lives and thoughts. Yet it is certain that light, life, and consciousness are bound together by some undiscovered law. This secret of nature’s alchemy is still hidden from us within our own bodies. By revealing it physics will create a new hope for man.

NOTES

[1] Whitehead, _Science and the Modern World_. Eddington comes near to the same idea in an essay in _Science, Religion, and Reality_, 1925. See also Weyl, _Was ist Materie?_ 1924, p. 84. It has also been expressed by others quite independently, though I do not know of other published references.

[2] E.g. the irreversible motion of an electron in the field of a bar magnet is rendered formally reversible by the assumption that the magnetic field is due to moving electrons. Yet this assumption is highly artificial since it postulates electronic movements that have never been observed. In other cases irreversibility is eliminated by the choice of special co-ordinate systems. Some physicists now hold the view that irreversibility may be inherent in atomic as it is in organic processes.

[3] _Internal Constitution of the Stars_, 1926, p. 56. Compare note on p. 44.

It may be convenient here to summarize the processes that give at any rate superficial evidence of their irreversibility: processes involving heat changes, or the radiation of light, or mass; the production of energy in a star, the motions of electrons in magnetic fields, certain types of atom-ion collision in mixed gases, processes dependent on retarded potentials, radioactivity, organic growth and evolution, and consciousness itself. Eddington deals only with the case of the emission and absorption of light, but suggests that the direction of time can only be deduced from statistical processes. This is the orthodox view, though it is very doubtful if it is valid now that the quantum processes are receiving formulation. In this connection, see note 4.

[4] Einstein. Berlin Akad., _Sitzungsberichte_, 1925, p. 418. But Einstein’s view must be revised in view of recent experimental results (e.g. Harnwell, _Phys. Rev._, vol. 29, 1927, pp. 683 and 831), if these have been correctly interpreted. See Born, _Zeitschr für Physik_, vol. 40, pp. 177-8; and Jordan, _Naturw._ 1927, p. 792.

[5] The idea that time may be an active factor in causation has the mathematical significance that ‘t’ (for the system in question) must appear explicitly in the formulation of the law, and not merely as the square of a time-differential found convenient for the correlation of a standard clock with a reversible process which is being observed. A law whose mathematical formulation involves ‘t’ measured from some moment in the history of the system, gives an entirely new meaning to ‘t’, though one consistent with the properties of the reversible Newtonian differential ‘dt’. Such a law may claim to express the fact of historic, irreversible, duration, a feature in nature which is neglected by laws involving only ‘dt’ squared.

[6] Einstein, _Annalen der Physik_, vol. 49, pp. 776-7, 1916.

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This series of books, by some of the most distinguished English thinkers, scientists, philosophers, doctors, critics, and artists, was at once recognized as a noteworthy event. Written from various points of view, one book frequently opposing the argument of another, they provide the reader with a stimulating survey of the most modern thought in many departments of life. Several volumes are devoted to the future trend of Civilization, conceived as a whole; while others deal with particular provinces. It is interesting to see in these neat little volumes, issued at a low price, the revival of a form of literature, the Pamphlet, which has been in disuse for many years.

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=Daedalus=, or Science and the Future. By J. B. S. HALDANE, Reader in
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=Callinicus=, a Defence of Chemical Warfare. By J. B. S. HALDANE.
_Second impression._

“Mr Haldane’s brilliant study.”--_Times Leading Article._ “A book
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=Icarus=, or the Future of Science. By BERTRAND RUSSELL, F.R.S.
_Fourth impression._

“Utter pessimism.”--_Observer._ “Mr Russell refuses to believe that
the progress of Science must be a boon to mankind.”--_Morning Post._
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=What I Believe.= By BERTRAND RUSSELL, F.R.S. _Third impression._

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=Tantalus=, or the Future of Man. By F. C. S. SCHILLER, D.SC., Fellow
of Corpus Christi College, Oxford. _Second impression._

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=Cassandra=, or the Future of the British Empire. By F. C. S.
SCHILLER, D.SC.

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=Quo Vadimus?= Glimpses of the Future. By E. E. FOURNIER D’ALBE, D.SC.
_Second Impression._

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=Thrasymachus=, the Future of Morals. By C. E. M. JOAD, author of “The
Babbitt Warren,” etc. _Second impression._

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=Lysistrata=, or Woman’s Future and Future Woman. By ANTHONY M.
LUDOVICI, author of “A Defence of Aristocracy,” etc. _Second
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=Hypatia=, or Woman and Knowledge. By MRS BERTRAND RUSSEL. With a
frontispiece. _Third impression._

An answer to _Lysistrata_. “A passionate vindication of the rights
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=Hephaestus=, the Soul of the Machine. By E. E. FOURNIER D’ALBE, D.SC.

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=The Passing of the Phantoms=: a Study of Evolutionary Psychology and
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With 4 Plates.

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=Thamyris=, or Is There a Future for Poetry? By R. C. TREVELYAN.

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=Proteus=, or the Future of Intelligence. By VERNON LEE, author of
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=Wireless Possibilities.= By Professor A. M. LOW. With 4 diagrams.

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=Euterpe=, or the Future of Art. By LIONEL R. MCCOLVIN, author of “The
Theory of Book-Selection.”

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=Nuntius=, or Advertising and its Future. By GILBERT RUSSELL.

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=Birth Control and the State=: a Plea and a Forecast. By C. P.
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=Ouroboros=, or the Mechanical Extension of Mankind. By GARET GARRETT.

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“Time, Taste, and Furniture.”

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=Plato’s American Republic.= By J. DOUGLAS WOODRUFF. _Fourth
impression._

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=Orpheus=, or the Music of the Future. By W. J. TURNER, author of
“Music and Life.” _Second impression._

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“The fruit of real knowledge and understanding.”--_New Statesman._

=Terpander=, or Music and the Future. By E. J. DENT, author of
“Mozart’s Operas.”

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found....”--_Musical News._ “Remarkably able and
stimulating.”--_Times Literary Supplement._ “There is hardly another
critic alive who could sum up contemporary tendencies so
neatly.”--_Spectator._

=Sibylla=, or the Revival of Prophecy. By C. A. MACE, University of
St. Andrew’s.

“An entertaining and instructive pamphlet.”--_Morning Post._ “Places
a nightmare before us very ably and wittily.”--_Spectator._
“Passages in it are excellent satire, but on the whole Mr Mace’s
speculations may be taken as a trustworthy guide ... to modern
scientific thought.”--_Birmingham Post._

=Lucullus=, or the Food of the Future. By OLGA HARTLEY and MRS C. F.
LEYEL, authors of “The Gentle Art of Cookery.”

“This is a clever and witty little volume in an entertaining series,
and it makes enchanting reading.”--_Times Literary Supplement._
“Opens with a brilliant picture of modern man, living in a
vacuum-cleaned, steam-heated, credit-furnished suburban mansion
‘with a wolf in the basement’--the wolf of hunger. This banquet of
epigrams.”--_Spectator._

=Procrustes=, or the Future of English Education. By M. ALDERTON PINK.

“Undoubtedly he makes out a very good case.”--_Daily Herald._ “This
interesting addition to the series.”--_Times Educational
Supplement._ “Intends to be challenging and succeeds in being so.
All fit readers will find it stimulating.”--_Northern Echo._

=The Future of Futurism.= By JOHN RODKER.

“Mr Rodker is up-to-the-minute, and he has accomplished a
considerable feat in writing on such a vague subject, 92 extremely
interesting pages.”--_T. S. Eliot_, in _Nation_. “There are a good
many things in this book which are of interest.”--_Times Literary
Supplement._

=Pomona=, or the Future of English. By BASIL DE SÉLINCOURT, author of
“The English Secret”, etc.

“The future of English is discussed fully and with fascinating
interest.”--_Morning Post._ “Full of wise thoughts and happy
words.”--_Times Literary Supplement._ “His later pages must stir
the blood of any man who loves his country and her poetry.”--_J. C.
Squire_, in _Observer_. “His finely-conceived essay.”--_Manchester
Guardian._

=Balbus=, or the Future of Architecture. By CHRISTIAN BARMAN.

“A really brilliant addition to this already distinguished series.
The reading of _Balbus_ will give much data for intelligent
prophecy, and incidentally, an hour or so of excellent
entertainment.”--_Spectator._ “Most readable and reasonable. We can
recommend it warmly.”--_New Statesman._ “This intriguing little
book.”--_Connoisseur._

=Apella=, or the Future of the Jews. By A QUARTERLY REVIEWER.

“Cogent, because of brevity and a magnificent prose style, this book
wins our quiet praise. It is a fine pamphlet, adding to the value
of the series, and should not be missed.”--_Spectator._ “A notable
addition to this excellent series. His arguments are a provocation
to fruitful thinking.”--_Morning Post._

=The Dance of Çiva=, or Life’s Unity and Rhythm. By COLLUM.

“It has substance and thought in it. The author is very much alive
and responsive to the movements of to-day.”--_Spectator._ “A very
interesting account of the work of Sir Jagadis Bose.”--_Oxford
Magazine._ “Has caught the spirit of the Eastern conception of world
movements.”--_Calcutta Statesman._

=Lars Porsena=, or the Future of Swearing and Improper Language. By
ROBERT GRAVES. _Third impression._

“Goes uncommonly well, and deserves to.”--_Observer._ “Not for
squeamish readers.”--_Spectator._ “No more amusingly unexpected
contribution has been made to this series. A deliciously ironical
affair.”--_Bystander._ “His highly entertaining essay is as full
as the current standard of printers and police will allow.”--_New
Statesman._ “Humour and style are beyond criticism.”--_Irish
Statesman._

=Socrates=, or the Emancipation of Mankind. By H. F. CARLILL.

“Devotes a specially lively section to the herd instinct.”--_Times._
“Clearly, and with a balance that is almost Aristotelian, he
reveals what modern psychology is going to accomplish.”--_New
Statesman._ “One of the most brilliant and important of a remarkable
series.”--_Westminster Gazette._

=Delphos=, or the Future of International Language. By E. SYLVIA
PANKHURST.

“Equal to anything yet produced in this brilliant series. Miss
Pankhurst states very clearly what all thinking people must soon
come to believe, that an international language would be one of the
greatest assets of civilization.”--_Spectator._ “A most readable
book, full of enthusiasm, an important contribution to this
subject.”--_International Language._

=Gallio=, or the Tyranny of Science. By J. W. N. SULLIVAN, author of
“A History of Mathematics.”

“So packed with ideas that it is not possible to give any adequate
_résumé_ of its contents.”--_Times Literary Supplement._ “His
remarkable monograph, his devastating summary of materialism, this
pocket _Novum Organum_.”--_Spectator._ “Possesses a real distinction
of thought and manner. It must be read.”--_New Statesman._

=Apollonius=, or the Future of Psychical Research. By E. N. BENNETT,
author of “Problems of Village Life,” etc.

“A sane, temperate and suggestive survey of a field of inquiry
which is slowly but surely pushing to the front.”--_Times Literary
Supplement._ “His exposition of the case for psychic research is
lucid and interesting.”--_Scotsman._ “Displays the right temper,
admirably conceived, skilfully executed.”--_Liverpool Post._

=Aeolus=, or the Future of the Flying Machine. By OLIVER STEWART.

“Both his wit and his expertness save him from the
nonsensical-fantastic. There is nothing vague or sloppy in these
imaginative forecasts.”--_Daily News._ “He is to be congratulated.
His book is small, but it is so delightfully funny that it is well
worth the price, and there really are sensible ideas behind the
jesting.”--_Aeroplane._

=Stentor=, or the Press of To-Day and To-Morrow. By DAVID OCKHAM.

“A valuable and exceedingly interesting commentary on a vital phase
of modern development.”--_Daily Herald._ “Vigorous and well-written,
eminently readable.”--_Yorkshire Post._ “He has said what one
expects any sensible person to say about the ‘trustification’ of the
Press.”--_Spectator._

=Rusticus=, or the Future of the Countryside. By MARTIN S. BRIGGS,
F.R.I.B.A.

“Few of the 50 volumes, provocative and brilliant as most of them
have been, capture our imagination as does this one.”--_Daily
Telegraph._ “The historical part is as brilliant a piece of packed
writing as could be desired.”--_Daily Herald._ “Serves a national
end. The book is in essence a pamphlet, though it has the form and
charm of a book.”--_Spectator._

=Janus=, or the Conquest of War. By WILLIAM MCDOUGALL, M.B., F.R.S.

“Among all the booklets of this brilliant series, none, I think is
so weighty and impressive as this. It contains thrice as much matter
as the other volumes and is profoundly serious.”--Dean Inge, in
_Evening Standard_. “A deeply interesting and fair-minded study of
the causes of war and the possibilities of their prevention. Every
word is sound.”--_Spectator._

=Vulcan=, or the Future of Labour. By CECIL CHISHOLM.

“Of absorbing interest.”--_Daily Herald._ “No one, perhaps, has ever
condensed so many hard facts into the appearance of agreeable
fiction, nor held the balance so nicely between technicalities and
flights of fancy, as the author of this excellent book in a
brilliant series. _Vulcan_ is a little book, but between its covers
knowledge and vision are pressed down and brimming
over.”--_Spectator._

=Hymen=, or the Future of Marriage. By NORMAN HAIRE.

This candid and unprejudiced survey inquires why the majority
of marriages to-day seem to be so unsatisfactory, and finds the
answer in the sexual ethic of our civilization which is ill adapted
to our social and economic needs. The problems of sex-morality,
sex-education, prostitution, in-breeding, birth-control,
trial-marriage, and polygamy are all touched upon.

=The Next Chapter=: the War against the Moon. By ANDRÉ MAUROIS, author
of ‘Ariel’, etc.

This imaginary chapter of world-history (1951-64) from the pen of
one of the most brilliant living French authors mixes satire and
fancy in just proportions. It tells how the press of the world is
controlled by five men, how world interest is focussed on an attack
on the moon, how thus the threat of world-war is averted. But when
the moon retaliates....

=Galatea=, or the Future of Darwinism. By W. RUSSELL BRAIN.

This non-technical but closely-reasoned book is a challenge to the
orthodox teaching on evolution known as Neo-Darwinism. The author
claims that, although Neo-Darwinian theories can possibly account
for the evolution of forms, they are quite inadequate to explain the
evolution of functions.

=Scheherazade=, or the Future of the English Novel. By JOHN CARRUTHERS.

A survey of contemporary fiction in England and America lends to the
conclusion that the literary and scientific influences of the last
fifty years have combined to make the novel of to-day predominantly
analytic. It has thus gained in psychological subtlety, but lost its
form. How this may be regained is put forward in the conclusion.

=Caledonia=, or the Future of the Scots. By G. M. THOMSON.

Exit the Scot! Under this heading the Scottish people are revealed
as a leaderless mob in whom national pride has been strangled. They
regard, unmoved, the spectacle of their monstrous slum-evil, the
decay of their industries, the devastation of their countryside.
This is the most compact and mordant indictment of Scottish policy
that has yet been written.

=Albyn=, or Scotland and the Future. By C. M. GRIEVE, author of
‘Contemporary Scottish Studies’, etc.

A vigorous answer, explicit and implicit, to _Caledonia_, tracing
the movements of a real Scottish revival, in music, art, literature,
and politics, and coming to the conclusion that there is a chance
even now for the regeneration of the Scottish people.

=Lares et Penates=, or the Future of the Home. By H. J. BIRNSTINGL.

All the many forces at work to-day are influencing the planning,
appearance, and equipment of the home. This is the main thesis of
this stimulating volume, which considers also the labour-saving
movement, the ‘ideal’ house, the influence of women, the servant
problem, and the relegation of aesthetic considerations to the
background. Disconcerting prognostications follow.

_NEARLY READY_

=Archon=, or the Future of Government. By HAMILTON FYFE.

A survey of the methods of government in the past leads the author
to a consideration of conditions in the world of to-day. He then
indicates the lines along which progress may develop.

=Hermes=, or the Future of Chemistry. By T. W. JONES, B.Sc., F.C.S.

Chemistry as the means of human emancipation is the subject of this
book. To-day chemistry is one of the master factors of our
existence; to-morrow it will dominate every phase of life, winning
for man the goal of all his endeavour, economic freedom. It may also
effect a startling change in man himself.

=The Future of Physics.= By L. L. WHYTE.

The last few years have been a critical period in the development
of physics. We stand on the eve of a new epoch. Physics, biology,
and psychology are converging towards a scientific synthesis of
unprecedented importance whose influence on thought and social
custom will be so profound as to mark a stage in human evolution.
This book interprets these events and should be read in connexion
with _Gallio_, by J. W. N. Sullivan, in this series.

=Ikonoclastes=, or the Future of Shakespeare. By HUBERT GRIFFITHS.

Taking as text the recent productions of classical plays in modern
dress, the author, a distinguished dramatic critic, suggests that
this is the proper way of reviving Shakespeare and other great
dramatists of the past, and that their successful revival in modern
dress may perhaps be taken as an indication of their value.

_IN PREPARATION_

=Bacchus=, or the Future of Wine. By P. MORTON SHAND.

=Mercurius=, or the World on Wings. By C. THOMPSON WALKER.

=The Future of Sport.= By G. S. SANDILANDS.

=The Future of India.= By T. EARLE WELBY.

=The Future of Films.= By ERNEST BETTS.

* * * * *

Transcriber’s note

Minor punctuation errors have been changed without notice.

Other spelling has been retained as originally published except for the changes below.

Page 92: “be effectively exercized” “be effectively exercised”
Page 105: “Mr Colvin has the” “Mr McColvin has the”
Page 113: “their montrous slum-evil” “their monstrous slum-evil”