The Century of Hope by Francis Sydney MarvinReview by: George SartonIsis, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Sep., 1919), pp. 425-427Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/223900 .

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effet, les personnes qui, dans l'age mur, songent a reparer par des lectures choisies les lacunes d'une education purement humanitaire. Les Extraits des grands ecrivains scientifiques, sous la forme qui a ete

adoptee dans cette edition et dans l'esprit qui a constamment inspir6 leur choix, repondent dans une large mesure a ce besoin.

E. TURRIERE.

Marvin, F. S. - The Century of Hope. A sketch of Western progress from 1815 to the Great War, vII + 352 p. Oxford, At the Clarendon

Press, 1919.

FRANCIS SYDNEY MIARVIN became widely known in 1913, when the

Oxford University Press first published his Living Past(i). In this little book he offered us a sketch of Western civilization from the earliest times up to our own. The clue which MARVIN followed was no new discovery, but he used it in such a masterly way that he almost made it his own. Let him tell us himself how he hit upon it:

,, It first came clearly into view with KANT and the philosophers of the eighteenth century. Take KANT'S theory of universal history as the growth of a world community, reconciling the freedom of individuals and of individual states with the accomplishment of a common aim for mankind as a whole. Add to this the rising power of science as a collective and binding force which the

century since KANT has made supreme. You have then one strong clear clue

which, with the necessary qualifications, seems to offer in the field of history something of the guidance and system which Newtonian gravitation gave to celestial mechanics in the seventeenth century. The growth of a common

humanity; this is the primary object to keep in view. But it will prove vague and inconclusive unless we add to it a content in the growth of organized knowledge, applied to social ends ( (2).

MARVIN has clung to this clue ever since. When he organized in 1915, then again in 1916, courses of lectures at the Woodbrooke settlement, near Birmingham, it was the same idea which inspired him. Indeed, this conception of history has sunk so deep into his heart that it is with him almost a religion. I share implicitly his faith in human

progress and his conviction that the task of the historian is chiefly to evidence this progress in the past, to show the germs of further

(1) F. S. MARVIN. The Living Past, 1913; The leadership of the world, Oxford pamphlet 42; The Unity of Western Civilization, 1915; Progress and

History. 1916; The Century of Bope, 1919. All books published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford.

(i) The Lioing Past, 1st ed,, p. vi.

effet, les personnes qui, dans l'age mur, songent a reparer par des lectures choisies les lacunes d'une education purement humanitaire. Les Extraits des grands ecrivains scientifiques, sous la forme qui a ete

adoptee dans cette edition et dans l'esprit qui a constamment inspir6 leur choix, repondent dans une large mesure a ce besoin.

E. TURRIERE.

Marvin, F. S. - The Century of Hope. A sketch of Western progress from 1815 to the Great War, vII + 352 p. Oxford, At the Clarendon

Press, 1919.

FRANCIS SYDNEY MIARVIN became widely known in 1913, when the

Oxford University Press first published his Living Past(i). In this little book he offered us a sketch of Western civilization from the earliest times up to our own. The clue which MARVIN followed was no new discovery, but he used it in such a masterly way that he almost made it his own. Let him tell us himself how he hit upon it:

,, It first came clearly into view with KANT and the philosophers of the eighteenth century. Take KANT'S theory of universal history as the growth of a world community, reconciling the freedom of individuals and of individual states with the accomplishment of a common aim for mankind as a whole. Add to this the rising power of science as a collective and binding force which the

century since KANT has made supreme. You have then one strong clear clue

which, with the necessary qualifications, seems to offer in the field of history something of the guidance and system which Newtonian gravitation gave to celestial mechanics in the seventeenth century. The growth of a common

humanity; this is the primary object to keep in view. But it will prove vague and inconclusive unless we add to it a content in the growth of organized knowledge, applied to social ends ( (2).

MARVIN has clung to this clue ever since. When he organized in 1915, then again in 1916, courses of lectures at the Woodbrooke settlement, near Birmingham, it was the same idea which inspired him. Indeed, this conception of history has sunk so deep into his heart that it is with him almost a religion. I share implicitly his faith in human

progress and his conviction that the task of the historian is chiefly to evidence this progress in the past, to show the germs of further

(1) F. S. MARVIN. The Living Past, 1913; The leadership of the world, Oxford pamphlet 42; The Unity of Western Civilization, 1915; Progress and

History. 1916; The Century of Bope, 1919. All books published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford.

(i) The Lioing Past, 1st ed,, p. vi.

28 28

ANALYSES ANALYSES 425 425

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progress in the present and so to help us to see our way into the future. The accomplishment of this task implies of course, a sound and long scientific training. - The two volumes entitled The Unity of Western Civilization and Progrsess and History contain the lectures delivered by MARVIN and many other historians and philosophers at the Woodbrooke settlement. Their purpose was to lay emphasis (( on those common and ineradicable elements in the civilization of the West which tend to form a real commonwealth of nations and will survive even the most shattering of conflicts )).

MARVIN'S latest book is simply the extension of the same inquiry to the multitudinous events of the last hundred years. He calls it The Century of Hope, because of the gigantic strides which have been made since 1800 in the various directions of human endeavour. This undertaking was considerably more difficult than the one realized in the Living Past, for life in the nineteenth century is extremely complex, and its intricacy is the more bewildering that we are nearer to it.

In the appreciation of this book, we must not forget that it is a work of science insofar as the correctness of each statement and the faith- fulness of the whole picture are concerned, but that it is to a far greater degree, a work of art. It is a work of art, because it is based on a choice, and a very restricted one at that. Now, no two men will ever completely agree on what should be included in such a brief sur- vey. It is a human foible to look in such an anthology not for the things that one does not know, but rather for those that one knows well. If the reader discovers that his own pet heroes have been omit- ted, his confidence is readily undermined. However, I will not reproach MARVIN for the names which he has left out, because I would rather say that his choice has not been sufficiently restricted. It is a fact that human attention can be concentrated only on a small number of objects at a time. It is for this reason that the hasty promenades through our museums often leave the visitors with such a vacuity of the soul. The hasty readers of MARVIN'S book will likely feel some- thing like that, and it will not be entirely their fault. Indeed, some fragments of it - chiefly those relating to science - are so crowded that the result is neither a philosophical synthesis, nor an encyclo- paedia article, but an unpleasant cross between the two. If MARVIN wishes this sketch to have the same permanence as his former one, he will have to prune and simplify it considerably.

This is true especially of the three chapters devoted to science (V, VI, X). I do not say that an attempt to outline the essentials of nine- teenth century science in the narrow compass of 75 small pages is necessarily foolish, but simply that such an extreme condensation of

426 ISIS. II. 1919

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ANALYSES ANALYSES

the most intricate subject would require a far greater mastery of the latter than the author seems to command. I might add that the aver- age educated man is so innocent of science, that he cannot be trusted to read between the lines and to take a hint as naturally as he would if one were speaking of literature or politics. Such a condensed sum- mary is then not simply useless but even dangerous. That is chiefly the case with chapter X, which I can but regard as a brilliant and worthless piece of virtuosity.

Chapters V and VI, chiefly the latter, are better. But here also the superabundant material suggests an incomplete assimilation, and the laxity of terms and ideas is a constant source of danger to the innocent reader. To quote an example, on page 123 one reads that " all the later discoveries in electricity - the identity of magnetism and electri- city, the cells of VOLTA, the dynamos of FARADAY - were turned to

account by experimenters, who finally produced a working [telegraph- ing] machine about the year 1836 ". Now magnetism and electricity were not more identical at that time than they are now, and to speak of " dynamo" with regard to FARADAY'S fundamental discovery is to misuse intolerably a technical word. There was no real dynamo until the Sixties, and GRAMME'S ring which marks the beginning of the elec- tro-technical era appeared only about 1870. Furthermore, no dynamo was necessary for the invention of telegraphy.

To sum up,- but for the scientific chapters which could be consider- ably improved,-The Century of Hope is an excellent book. I wish that many may follow MARVIN'S clue, share his hope and join forces with him so that the future may be one of even greater hope. But they must not cease to stand on the solid ground of experience. He who does not deceive himself, but faces the facts and speaks the truth, can hope without fear, for his dreams will come true. GEORGE SARTON.

Silvio Magrini. - I fenonzeni magnetici nelle varie teorie elettro-

mag'netiche. Note storico-critiche. Un vol. in-8? di pagg. 166. Bologna, ZANICHELLI, 1912. [2 L.]

E un volumetto assai ben fatto, di carattere strettamente rigoroso e scientifico, che esamina con cura le varie teorie elettro-magnetiche che sono state escogitate per spiegare i fenomeni magnetici. I capitoli nel quale esso e diviso sono: I1 magnetismo al sorgere dell' elettro. magnetismo. - AMPERE : ( La natura elettrica del magnetismo )). -

POISSON: (( L'azione magnetica a distanza. )) - FARADAY : (( I1 magne- tismo del mezzo )). - MAXWELL: ( La continuita del campo magnetico )); e( II lavoro di magnetizzazione )); (( Le verifiche sperimentali )); ( Sulla natura elettrocinetica del magnetismo )).

the most intricate subject would require a far greater mastery of the latter than the author seems to command. I might add that the aver- age educated man is so innocent of science, that he cannot be trusted to read between the lines and to take a hint as naturally as he would if one were speaking of literature or politics. Such a condensed sum- mary is then not simply useless but even dangerous. That is chiefly the case with chapter X, which I can but regard as a brilliant and worthless piece of virtuosity.

Chapters V and VI, chiefly the latter, are better. But here also the superabundant material suggests an incomplete assimilation, and the laxity of terms and ideas is a constant source of danger to the innocent reader. To quote an example, on page 123 one reads that " all the later discoveries in electricity - the identity of magnetism and electri- city, the cells of VOLTA, the dynamos of FARADAY - were turned to

account by experimenters, who finally produced a working [telegraph- ing] machine about the year 1836 ". Now magnetism and electricity were not more identical at that time than they are now, and to speak of " dynamo" with regard to FARADAY'S fundamental discovery is to misuse intolerably a technical word. There was no real dynamo until the Sixties, and GRAMME'S ring which marks the beginning of the elec- tro-technical era appeared only about 1870. Furthermore, no dynamo was necessary for the invention of telegraphy.

To sum up,- but for the scientific chapters which could be consider- ably improved,-The Century of Hope is an excellent book. I wish that many may follow MARVIN'S clue, share his hope and join forces with him so that the future may be one of even greater hope. But they must not cease to stand on the solid ground of experience. He who does not deceive himself, but faces the facts and speaks the truth, can hope without fear, for his dreams will come true. GEORGE SARTON.

Silvio Magrini. - I fenonzeni magnetici nelle varie teorie elettro-

mag'netiche. Note storico-critiche. Un vol. in-8? di pagg. 166. Bologna, ZANICHELLI, 1912. [2 L.]

E un volumetto assai ben fatto, di carattere strettamente rigoroso e scientifico, che esamina con cura le varie teorie elettro-magnetiche che sono state escogitate per spiegare i fenomeni magnetici. I capitoli nel quale esso e diviso sono: I1 magnetismo al sorgere dell' elettro. magnetismo. - AMPERE : ( La natura elettrica del magnetismo )). -

POISSON: (( L'azione magnetica a distanza. )) - FARADAY : (( I1 magne- tismo del mezzo )). - MAXWELL: ( La continuita del campo magnetico )); e( II lavoro di magnetizzazione )); (( Le verifiche sperimentali )); ( Sulla natura elettrocinetica del magnetismo )).

427 427

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