Diligent Student Research Articles

Principles and problems in physical chemistry for biochemists (3rd ed.)

Principles and problems in physical chemistry for biochemists (3rd ed.)

Theory and practice in the rhetoric of I. A. Richards

The early works of I. A. Richards, while not committed to hard-line verificationism, nonetheless seem persuaded of the central tenet of logical positivism, that the only truth strictly so-called is the truth disclosed by the methods of empirical science. This minimal positivism, coupled with a non-physicalist form of behaviorism, is evident in books like Science and Poetry (1926) and Principles of Literary Criticism (1925). However, if Richards was a positivist, he was a positivist who wanted to save poetry from positivism. Primitive positivists like A. J. Ayer impenitently regarded poetic discourse as meaningless. Since they are neither analytic nor available for empirical testing, the statements found in poems are really pseudo-statements, expressions of feeling and no more. Richards, who loved poetry, feared that people would cease to read it or write it if they were convinced that it was nothing but emotional gush. And so, in his early books, he developed an affectivism in which poetry, by helping us order our conflicting impulses, acquires a value distinct from the value of science. On this view, poetry is not a means of expressing and communicating propositional truth-only science does that-but a device for constructive behavior-modification by means of language. Meanwhile, from the very beginning of his career, Richards had been a diligent student of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was convinced that the works of Coleridge contained many important insights into the nature and effects of poetry which, in order to be made generally accessible and secure wider appreciation, needed only to be disentangled from the metaphysics of romantic idealism in which they were embedded. Quotations from Coleridge appeared with great frequency in his own writing and teaching. Kathleen Coburn predicted that sooner or later Richards would have to write a book on Coleridge, and eventually her prophecy was fulfilled. Setting out to rewrite Coleridge in the language of empiricism, Richards produced Coleridge on Imagination (1934), which suggested to some of his readers that Richards had not converted Coleridge to empiricism but that Coleridge had made Richards an idealist, if not a metaphysical then at least a linguistic idealist. It is the Richards thus baptized in the Alphean flood who speaks in the lectures on The Philosophy of Rhetoric (1936) delivered two years after the publication of the Coleridge book.' From first to last, in all his writings and through all his changes of mind, Richards insisted that he was a pragmatist. And indeed, in every project he undertakes, from Basic English to literary theory, he is unfailingly preoccupied with the practice of reading and the possibilities of communication. If behaviorism and romanticism are just the low-mimetic (preterite) and high-mimetic (elite) forms of pragmatism, respectively, then Richards' progress from the former to

Education and Society in Late Imperial China, 1600-1900 (review)

Reviews 93 Benjamin A. Elman and Alexander Woodside, editors. Education and Society in Late Imperial China, 1600-1900. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University ofCalifornia Press, 1994. xvi, 575 pp. Hardcover $65.00. Traditional Chinese education is not an easy topic, because it is so intertwined with the problem of state ideological control. Even the institutional history of Chinese education is difficult, because not only the immense diversity ofpractices throughout a vast region over time defies simple presentation, but the official records on government schools, which are encumbered with a complex, archaic symbolism and a kaleidoscope ofbureaucratic names, are also frustrating for even the most diligent student. Moreover, the record ofdie education ofa nation is basically diat nation's history. Any serious student cannot pretend not to understand this most fundamental point about a nation's self-image and character, and how it comes to be the way it is. In a remarkable way, this collection ofessays has succeeded in dealing with almost all of these problem areas and has presented us, with admirable lucidity, an account ofhow late imperial China viewed itselfand how, on the eve of "modern " education, China sought to redefine itself within its social and political parameters . But above all, this book provides a definitive answer to the question of how the Manchu state interacted with the Chinese gentry community in the sphere ofeducation and how the civil service examination system was related to die educational experiences ofindividual scholars. With the publication of this book, we are now better able to perceive the positive roles played by a local society in a despotic state. This revised picture gives ample evidence of the editors' vision and originality. It is also an important corrective to the conventional view that has dominated our interpretation of Confucian education in the past halfcentury . The editors, in their introduction, make it clear that this book seeks to substantiate with historical evidence the contention that the Neo-Confucian education diat began in the Sung was by no means "debilitating" and "rigid" (p. 2), and that, instead, Neo-Confucian education contributed to the success of present-day East Asia. Even if one does not agree with this pronouncement, one still can find much to learn in this volume. Four basic issues were given special attention during the conference upon which this volume is based: the relationship of the late imperial state to education ; the totality of the civil service examination experience (i.e., how important it© 1995 by University was tQ educauon and whether it served to define scholarship [orthodoxy]); how of awai? resseducation created national and individual identity; and, finally, how education affected the accumulation and use ofknowledge. 94 China Review International: Vol. 2, No. 1, Spring 1995 Any reader of this volume will be immediately impressed by die fact that the state seemed to be nearly omnipresent in Chinese education, although for an experienced Chinese historian, this volume actually suggests the active participation ofthe local, and somewhat independent, gentry leaders in the creation and management of education at all levels. The editors' afterword clearly confirms this (p. 527). The pictures presented by several authors show that there was a high degree oflocal activism, and hence elite autonomy. I only wish that someone had taken into consideration die alien nature of the Manchu regime and offered an explanation for this special Ch'ing dynasty phenomenon. I believe that its alien identity was a major factor behind die comparatively tolerant attitude adopted by Ch'ing rulers toward die Chinese gentry—and, for that matter, European missionaries , at least in the first half ofthe dynasty. Hints at local activism are found in Kent Guy's excellent study on Fang Pao's attempt to use the civil service examination to influence scholarly pursuits. The examination itselfwould seem to be only a gauge of changing scholarly orientation , a point Elman demonstrates with force by examining hitherto littie-studied examination essays that unmistakably reflected the intellectual trends developing almost independendy, outside state control. Similarly, the autonomy of the elite comes out clearly in Angela Leung's study on charitable schools and in Barry Keenan's study ofa post-T'ai-p'ing academy, in which he points to...

Danger - Economists at Work: The joke that can damage your children's welfare

I must admit at the outset that I only studied economics for a year. At the end of the undergraduate year, I sat an exam on the subject and passed. It was, as I recall it, a close-run thing however.A number of us had already provoked the exam adjudicators by turning up late. Students were allowed into the exam hall up to twenty minutes after the exams had started, and this being the late 1960s, it was very cool to affect nonchalance by entering ten minutes or so late after everyone else had settled down. Such a late arrival not only gave the required appearance of casual unconcern, but also caused considerable disruption, especially if the latecomer was seated in the middle of a row of scibblers. Working one's way down the line of desks, loudly muttering ‘Excuse me’, ‘So sorry’, ‘Excuse me’, and so on was guaranteed to arouse the ire of diligent student and conscientious adjudicator alike.

Undergraduate Use of Four Library Collections: Format and Age of Materials

Anyone who has tried to review studies relating to use of academic libraries may argue that a great deal of research exists on college students and how they use their libraries. Studies of reading habits and library use among college students have been appearing for more than fifty years, and the diligent student can compile an impressive bibliography of these studies. In spite of all we have learned about student interaction with library resources, there is still much we do not know.

Perspectives on Actuarial Education

The education of actuarial students has been a problem for the profession almost since its inception. Despite considerable efforts to seek improvements, difficulties have repeatedly arisen in the examinations, the syllabus and the teaching.Over the past five years the profession has identified four major areas of concern:—The average time to qualification of those who complete the exams is too long.—The proportion of entrants who never qualify is too high.—It is becoming difficult to recruit enough students to produce the required number of qualified actuaries 4–10 years later.—There are insufficient actuaries available to fulfil the tutoring and examining duties required by the education service.The first three of these points can be illustrated by considering a single cohort. In 1980, 289 students enrolled in the Institute. Only 5% of these had completed the exams within 4 years, and only 14% within 5 years. It is unlikely that more than about 30% of this cohort will ever qualify. Incidentally, much of the careers literature available to these students indicated that a diligent (but not extraordinary) student could expect to qualify in 3 or 4 years.

Faulkner's "Requiem for a Nun": A Critical Study by Noel Polk (review)

118Reviews and a weak father may, in some cases, add up to a troubled child. No matter what Westbrook says, and he is fair and objective, the pictures that emerge of Clarence, of Grace, and of their relationship are not happy ones. Westbrook is certainly right that they "were two fine human beings," yet they were probably two fine human beings who should not have married each other. The same might be said of many marriages (Eugene O'Neill's parents, for example). Then again, these parents provided the crucible from which some very fine art came, and Westbrook does a nice job examining "The Doctor and The Doctor's Wife" and "Soldier's Home." There are some small points on which individual readers may disagree with Millicent Bell's "A Farewell to Arms: Pseudobiography and Personal Metaphor," but the final effect of the entire essay is that of a rich and suggestive—if dark—understanding of the novel and its author. As well, there are some small places in Carol H. Smith, "Women and the Loss of Eden in Hemingway's Mythology" that will not reconcile easily with Bell's article, but Smith's piece, employing a women's study approach to Hemingway's fiction, is interesting , especially on the character of Brett Ashley. Following Smith's essay in the volume, Malcolm Cowley's observation about how closely two Nobel laureates read each other's work is developed in Peter L. Hays, "Exchange between Rivals: Faulkner's Influence on The Old Man and the Sea," which explores the influence of "The Bear" on the Hemingway novel. The final essay in the fourth section is James D. Brasch's "Invention from Knowledge : The Hemingway-Cowley Correspondence," and it is by far the best piece in the section and one of the best in the entire volume. Brasch is dealing with a lively and important correspondence—and relationship—and he knows how to handle and present the material. Moreover, the essay is important not only for its extrinsic and obvious interest but because it may contain the clearest expression of Hemingway's aesthetics or modus operandi, what Hemingway was trying to do with his writing, particularly The Old Man and the Sea, and what he felt was necessary for him, or any writer, to create enduring, worthwhile fiction—the ability to "make" from knowledge. One of the consistent features of this book is that each of the scholarly essays in it makes it clear that its author has been through the manuscripts and letters which have become available since the last published scholarly collection. Without question, this is the best gathering of essays on Hemingway to appear since Richard Astro and Jackson J. Benson, eds., Hemingway in Our Time (Corvallis: Oregon State Univ. Press, 1974). It may be among the best collections of original pieces bound in one cover on any single twentiethcentury American writer of fiction. St. Bonaventure UniversityJames J. Martine Polk, Noel. Faulkner's "Requiem for a Nun ": A Critical Study. Bloomington : Indiana Univ. Press, 1981. 273 pp. Cloth: $17.50. Noel Polk's study of Requiem for a Nun reveals a good critical mind and a writer of graceful, clear prose. It is an interesting book. Its major achievement is that it forces one to reread Faulkner's novel. Polk marshals his arguments and presents them so ingeniously that one begins to question one's own memory. A rereading of Requiem, however, makes clear that the major flaw in Polk's study is its creativity. Though obviously a great admirer of Faulkner and a diligent student of his works, Polk is not satisfied with the novel Faulkner wrote. Studies in American Fiction119 In Polk's version of Requiem the focus of the moral drama is shifted away from Temple. She is seen not as a victim of her own past and her own sins but as a victim of the misguided and excessive idealism of Nancy Mannigoe and Gavin Stevens, the one the symbol of the church, the other of the state. "Both institutions," Polk writes, "are concerned with order, security, peace. Both strive to make this a better world, the church by encouraging, and the state by...

Leonard Colebrook, 1883-1967

Leonard Colebrook was born in Guildford, Surrey, on 2 March 1883, the fifth child and third son of May Colebrook and Mary Gower). His father, himself one of a family of seventeen children, became a man of some importance in Guildford, and took a prominent part in social service there; by his first wife he had seven children, and by his second (Mary Gower) six—three boys and three girls. The last child of the marriage was Dora, who also became a bacteriologist. Apart from these facts, Colebrook records nothing significant about his ancestry. He was first educated at the Grammar School, Guildford (1891-1896); from 1896 to 1899 he attended the Westbourne High School, Bournemouth, and from 1899 to 1900 Christ’s College, Blackheath, Kent. He commenced his pre-medical studies in 1900 at the London Hospital Medical College; thence he won an Entrance Scholarship to St Mary’s Hospital, where, having acquired (according to Sir Zachary Cope) a reputation as a quiet diligent student, he graduated M.B., B.S.(Lond.) in 1906, in the minimum possible time. By his own account the teachers that most influenced him were: in chemistry, Dr McCandy of the London Hospital Medical College; in surgery, Mr Augustus Pepper of St Mary’s Hospital, whose house surgeon he was from 1906 to 1907; and, above all, in pathology and bacteriology, Sir Almroth Wright of St Mary’s Hospital Medical School. He had originally, no doubt as one result of a strict nonconformist upbringing, intended to be a medical missionary, but only a year after he qualified he was appointed Assistant to Sir Almroth Wright in the Inoculation Department of St Mary’s Hospital Medical School, where he remained until the outbreak of war in 1914. When beds were allocated to Sir Almroth in which he could give treatment by vaccine therapy, Colebrook was the first resident medical officer appointed to these special wards. He worked in the Department on vaccine therapy from 1907 to 1910, and on vaccine therapy and tuberculosis from 1910 to 1912; in 1912 he worked on pneumonia in Rand miners in Johannesburg with Sir Almroth Wright. The rest of his time before the first World War was spent on work on the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis with artificial pneumothorax.

Education in Dante's Florence

IN the years between Dante's birth in 1265 and his exile in 1302, Florence was already a metropolis, one of the largest and most powerful cities in Europe. Its merchants travelled the world, and its new wealth was producing military expansion and social upheaval. The fierce independence of its political spirit had repercusions far beyond the limits of Tuscany and even of Italy. It stood moreover at the beginning of a period of supreme accomplishment in literature and the arts. Much can be learned of this city from its physical remains, from its literary records, and from the mass of documents preserved in the Archivio dello Stato. The possibilities of reconstruction open to the diligent student are indicated most vividly by Davidsohn's great history. Yet some important aspects of Dugento Florence remain obscure. One of the most notable is the subject of education. When Davidsohn, for example, discusses it, he draws his data largely from the fourteenth century. This is tempting, in view of the greater abundance of information for the later period. Moreover, the chronicler Giovanni Villani offers a precious bird's-eye view of lay instruction around 1339, when literacy was extraordinarily widespread. He tells us that approximately ten per cent of the population 8,000-10,000 boys and girls out of some 90,000 inhabitants were being taught to read. The boys could then choose either a commercial or a literary education. Approximately one-fourth of them (1,000-1,200) went on to six schools to study mathematics and the use of the abacus. Approximately one-eighth (550-600) attended four Latin schools to study grammar and logic.' But Villani does not tell us when these schools were established, or what teachers taught in them. A document of 1316, however, mentions three categories of masters, those of grammar, those of the abacus, and those elementary teachers who instructed children in reading and writing.2 From this gild must have come the personnel which staffed the ten schools described by Villani. There were also at this time lay schools of rhetoric, like that of Bruno Casini, who, dying in 1348, left behind a treatise on the art of oratory.3 Canon law may have been taught before in the cathedral school of S Giovanni, and some civil law in notarial schools,4 but one of the main purposes of the sadly disorganized attempts of the city in 1321 and subsequent years to found a university was to make

Spanish Verb Forms by Conversion

The considerable degree to which words are inflected in the Spanish language is unquestionably a major source of difficulty to an appreciable number of English-speaking students. A conversion of the English sentence, The diligent European student of English does not prefer to converse in his own language to the American foreign language student to another sentence in which all possible changes in number are made, does not result morphologically in something appreciably different from the original sentence. On the other hand, the student of Spanish, working with the same material and following the same instructions finds himself confronted with a formidable exercise in morphology. Furthermore, if a variety of tenses is required, his difficulties are compounded accordingly. El estudiante diligente europeo de ingles no prefiere conversar en su propio idioma con el estudiante americano de lenguas extranjeras. Los estudiantes diligentes europeos de ingles no prefieren conversar en sus propios idiomas con los estudiantes americanos de lenguas extranjeras. From the standpoint of morphology the present tense involves a complexity of ideas, the necessity to account for the g in tengo, vengo and pongo; the zc sequence in conozco and in many other analogous verb forms; the y in doy, voy and estoy; the y in huyo as opposed to the i in huimos; the i in digo and mido as opposed to the e in decimos and medimos and many other elements too numerous to mention. Furthermore, the command forms, all in the present time zone, not only involve a large variety of inflections but also demand a more than superficial grasp of subjunctive morphology. Compare the involved Spanish system of commanding others with the relatively simple French procedures. In French, ckantez is, morphologically speaking, nothing more than vous chantez, minus vous. The command chantons is nous chantons, minus nous and the command chante is tu chantes, minus tu and the s of chantes. In other conjugations even the s is retained, as, for example, finis la leqon, apprends la leqon, dis-moi oit est ton pare, etc. To be sure, there are some deviations from the above patterns but, taken as a whole, the French system does not begin to compare in complexity with that of Spanish.

Brief Notices

BRIEF NOTICES Themes of the Bible. By JACQUES GuiLLET, S. J. Translated by Albert J. LaMothe Jr. Notre Dame, Ind.: Fides Publishers Association, 1960. Pp. 279, $6.95. First published in 1951, Fr. Guillet's semantic history of key themes from first appearance to full blossom in the New Testament was received well by Biblical theologians. The translation is adequate. However, transliteration of Hebrew words follows French rather than English phonetics, 'e. g., ,mickpat, p. -47 and passim, instead of miskpat. Too, direct translation of Guillet's French Biblical texts in toto would have been preferable to the use of English versions in: such a semantic work. The author's -interpretations are, at times, quite personal, yet he shows close acquaintance with the other attempts at Biblical Theology. He does not pretend to present an exhaustive treatment of Biblical Theology, but his selection of themes is a happy one. The step by step development of such concepts as .grace, justice, loving-kindness and truth; sin and death; the devil and damnation; the breath or spirit of Yahweh affords the diligent student at least a basic grasp of the divine evolution of these important themes. Along with many other Biblical scholars, Fr. Guillet overstates the case for the Hebrew· pre-logical, non-conceptual, concrete rather than abstract use of words and ideas. Such betrays his and their misunderstanding of what he would call an abstract, and, therefore, lifeless, use of universals. Actually, his method shows that he is trying to introduce some type of universal predication into a systemization of matter-based concepts. He, therefore, is continually using the process of abstraction proper to the human intellect. If the process of abstraction is essentially a lifeless or a lethal thing, then, so is intellection, be it Hebrew and poetic, or Western and scientific. Unless Biblical theologians discover that there are many modalities to human abstraction, they will continue to ride their chargers against the wind-mill of " deadly essentialism." Whatever be the reasons for it, the price of the book is rather high. Perhaps a paperback edition would be more practicable for those who are interested in or have need of the matters of Biblical Theology. Dominican, HO'U8e uf Studies, Was/Wngtoo, D.C. 815 J. E. FALLoN, O.P. 316 BRIEF NOTICES Cosmologia. By RoBERT M.As1. Rome: Desclee & Cie., 1961. Pp. 582. This manual developed from the lectures of the author in the Lateran University and at the Propaganda. In the work of revising and preparing his material for publication, the author was assisted by Henry Nicoletti of the Lateran. It is intended for university students, but it has been composed in a manner that makes it adaptable for seminaries; certain historical parts and particular questions can be omitted at the discretion of the teacher. The objective is to present the natural philosophy of Aristotle and St. Thomas, brought up to date in accord with modem developments of philosophy and science. The scholastic method is followed, but with refreshing modem features. There is an adequate historical introduction to the various topics, opinions about each question are often expressed in the very words of their originators, and the author's own conclusions emerge naturally and logically. These conclusions are stated as summary theses at the end of each topic, rather than as propositions laid down at the beginning. Thus the impression of invention, rather than of dogmatism, is given. One of the valuable features of the book is the generous bibliographies given after each chapter; these are placed in chronological order, so that at a glance the reader can find the most recent treatments of a topic. After a short survey of Aristotelian physical method and of the rise of the new physics with Galileo, Boyle, Newton and Huygens, the author claims that the unified Aristotelian physics has been divided into two distinct sciences because of the new experimental method, which creates a new formal object (pp. 12, 13). Natural philosophy is said to consider the ultimate causes of the corporeal world (" causas scilicet metaphysicas ") and the intelligibility of corporeal being, whereas science considers the proximate and experimental causes. The object of science is " corpus prout est ens experimentabile." (p...

Hvorfor kom N. F. S. Grundtvig ikke i Viborg Latinskole?

Why did N. F. S. Grundtvig not go to the Grammar School in Viborg? By F. Paludan-Miiller. N. F. S. Grundtvig had three elder brothers, who all became clergymen like himself. These brothers were: 1) Otto Grundtvig (1772—1833), who entered the University in 1789 from Herlufsholm boarding-school in South Sjaelland and afterwards was a clergyman on the island of Falster and subsequently in the vicinity of Copenhagen; 2) Jacob Ulrich Hansen Grundtvig (1775—1800), who entered the University from Viborg Grammar School in 1795 and died as a clergyman in the Danish colony on the Guinea Coast; 3) Niels Christian Bang Grundtvig (1777—1803), who also entered the University from Viborg, in 1796, and also died as a clergyman on the Guinea Coast. Both these elder brothers who were nearest in age to N. F. S. Gr. were prepared as private pupils for some years by Pastor L. Feld before they were sent to the Grammar School in Viborg. N. F. S. Grundtvig, too, was taught as a private pupil, from his ninth to his fifteenth year, by Pastor Feld (who at that time was a clergyman at Thyregod in the middle of Jutland). Strangely enough, he was afterwards sent to the Latin School in Aarhus, and not to Viborg as one would naturally have expected. The reason for this may perhaps be found in the behaviour of his elder brothers as students at Viborg Grammar School, for its records show that their careers at the school were not very successful. Jacob was a stubborn character and not a very diligent student. In 1794 he and another boy attacked some of their fellow-pupils during a game of ball, and he was subsequently reprimanded in front of the whole school, and very nearly sent down. But he promised to turn over a new leaf, and remained at the school, which he left in 1795 after doing badly in his final examination. Niels also showed a lack of diligence, and, in consequence of this, was a »private pupil« during his last two years at school, which at that time meant, among other things, that the school took no responsibility for him as a student. However, he did very well in his final examination in 1796. — Presumably it was these circumstances which caused the family to decide to send the youngest brother (N. F. S. Grundtvig) to Aarhus.

Teaching the Future

C ASSANDRA foretold the fall of Troy, Jeremiah prophesied the doom of Jerusalem. Similarly, Benedetto Croce reminds us that, in mediaeval historiography, we find the idea of a history of things future, an idea continued in the Renaissance by the paradoxical Francesco Patrizzi. The oracles of Nostradamus, Patrizzi's contemporary, have recently become a best seller because of the alleged prophecies they contain about the frightful happenings of our days. Throughout history, in times of crisis prophets and seers have abounded who, stirring the masses, have gained a passionate following. In the more quiet periods succeeding the times of trouble, preoccupation with the future was not a mass phenomenon. It remained for artists and poets to paint their visions while, here and there, chiliastic preachers and utopian revolutionaries dreamed of the millenium that was soon to be born. Since the dawn of conscience in the days of the Egyptian prophets, the future has been both the sacred preserve of the genius and the happy hunting ground of the charlatan. Theirs was the monopoly of the beyond of space and time. Prophetic voices of all varieties, however, were bound to be stilled by the onrushing tide of the scientific age. To the diligent student of things exact and the pedantic teacher of events past and present, any attempt to delve into the future seemed a ridiculous undertaking worthy only of contempt. It so happened that the culmination of modern scientific development coincided with the era of social stability of the past century, encouraging scientists to restrict their investigations to the past of man and the invariably recurring present of nature. In a relatively static age, basic social change is too slow to enter into the consciousness of its contemporaries. In their eyes, past, present, and future are basically identical, each constituting but a link in the endless chain of repetitious events which makes up the whole of human development. To people living in a period of crisis such as ours, however, the future appears to be basically different from the past. In such historical moments, the present is felt to have little reality of its own, representing, so to speak, merely a turning point between the past that is irretrievably lost and a future that is radically new. Then the history of the past is not only reinterpreted in the light of the present, but the future throws its

William James and American Ideals

William James was born in 1842 and lived till 1910. In those sixty-eight years American thought and literature, as the expression and symbol of changing ideas, passed through more than one significant crisis. The history of such a period of time can be pieced together by the diligent student, the facts and the dates can be arranged faultlessly, the writers can be successively named, appraised, and interred; but the history as an experience and the life of those days as it was actually lived, will escape any but the rarest genius. For that reason biography has some distinct advantages over general history: it can exhibit events as experience and achieve a special kind of unity by looking at things continually from one centre. To do this with success the biographer must be content to ignore whatever falls outside the actual experience of his chosen subject, and above all else he must choose a life sufficiently radiant and complex to make the whole picture significant. All thinkers, and especially those who cultivate what James called the specially obstinate way of thinking, namely philosophy, are notoriously bad subjects for the biographer: as a rule a few remarks about birth, death, and marriage (if any) precede the inevitable confession that the rest of the life must be identified with the published works.

Book Reviews

THIS book contains carefully drawn up instructions for preparing test pieces, and for making the various tests, besides showing clearly how to proceed with the necessary calculations. Tests are given for raw materials, fired ceramic products, glazes, frits, enamels, and glasses. Apart from a very few rather loose statements—fortunately of minor importance—the explanations are clear, though generally brief; and the diligent student who makes good use of the examples given for exercise should find himself adequately equipped for dealing readily with most ceramic industrial problems involving calculations.

IV.—A New Pleistocene Fauna from Tokyo, with a General Statement on the Pleistocene Deposits of Tokyo, Japan

Just before my departure from Tokyo to Europe, in 1908, my attention was called, by the kindness of MR. Gordon Yamakawa, to a fossil fauna from a cutting along the Yamanote line of the circum-Tokyo railway, near the Tabata station. It was seven years ago, when the railway line was still in process of construction, that Mr. Yamakawa formed a collection of fossils, consisting exclusively of molluscan remains. Of special interest is the abundant occurrence of Tellina venulosa, Schrenk, in the shell-sand, and as its presence is really of exceptional interest in the environs of Tokyo we visited the place together soon afterwards. The present brief account is contributed partly for the purpose of recording the observations of this diligent young student of fossils, whose lamentable and too early death took place last autumn, during my absence in Europe, and partly with the intention of interesting others in the further study of the Pleistocene and Pliocene geology of Tokyo, which though apparently quite simple, contains many interesting and unsettled geological questions.

XII. Nasir-i-Khusraw, Poet, Traveller, and Propagandist.

Every Persian scholar must, I suppose, have meditated at some time or other on the extraordinary disproportion between the vast number of Persian poets whose names are familiar to him, and whose lives are enshrined in the Biographies of ‘Awfí, Dawlatsháh, Taqiyyu'd-Dín Káshí, Luṭf ‘Alí Beg, and other tadhkira-writers, and the small number whose works are read, even in the East, save by the very curious or diligent student. So far as the West is concerned, it may be said, I think, that of only four, Firdawsí, Sa‘dí, ‘Umar Khayyám, and Ḥáfi, does any clear and definite idea exist amongst educated Europeans not specially interested in Oriental literature. Of these four, thanks primarily to Edward FitzGerald, ‘Umar Khayyám is certainly the most popular in the West, especially in Europe and America; though ‘Awfí, writing exactly a century after his death, totally ignores him, and Dawlatsháh only mentions him incidentally in the course of another biography; while even his personal friend and admirer, Niámí-i-‘Arúḍí of Samarqand, places him in his Chahár Maqála not in the section which he devotes to poets, but in that which deals with astronomers. Ḥáfi, accessible to non-Orientalists in England in at least three good metrical translations, those of Hermann Bicknell, Miss Gertrude Bell, and Mr. Walter Leaf, and in Germany in the complete versified translation of Rosenzweig-Schwannau, certainly comes next in point of popularity.