FOR half a century I have resisted temptations to lecture in America — if for no other reason than the insufficiency of my voice. But the microphone is a great leveller and here I am at last on terms of practical equality with your most audible speakers and very glad indeed of this belated opportunity of talking to you. I want to talk to you about an idea which seems to me to be a very important one indeed. I want to interest you in it, and if possible find out what you think of it. I call that idea for reasons I shall try to make clear as I proceed, The New Encyclopaedism, and the gist2 of it is that the time is ripe for a very extensive revision and modernisation of the intellectual organisation3 of the world. Can I put it more plainly than that? Perhaps I can.
Our world is changing and it is changing with an ever-increasing violence. An old world dies about us. A new world struggles into existence. But it is not developing the brain and the sensitiveness and delicacy4 necessary for its new life. That is the essence of what I have to say.
To put my argument squarely on its feet I must begin by telling you things that you know quite as well or better than I do. I will just remind you of them. It is, so to speak, a matter of current observation that in the past century and a half there has been an enormous increase in the speed and facility of communications between men in every part of the world. Two hundred years ago Oliver Goldsmith said that if every time a man fired a gun in England, someone was killed in China, we should never hear of it and no one would bother very much about it. All that is changed. We should hear about that murdered Chinaman almost at once. Today we can go all round the world in the time it took a man to travel from New York to Washington in 1800, we can speak to any one anywhere so soon as the proper connections have been made and in a little while we shall be able to look one another in the face from the ends of the earth. In a very few years now we shall be able to fly in the stratosphere across the Atlantic in a few hours with a cargo5 of passengers, or bombs or other commodities. There has in fact been a complete revolution in our relation to distances. And the practical consequences of these immense approximations are only beginning to be realised. Everybody knows these facts now, but round about 1900 we were only beginning to take notice of this abolition6 of distance. Even in 1919 the good gentlemen who settled the world for ever at Versailles had not observed this strange new thing in human affairs. They had not observed that it was no longer possible to live in little horse-and-foot communities because of this change of scale. We know better now. Now the consequences of this change of scale force themselves upon our attention everywhere. Often in the rudest fashion. Our interests and our activities interpenetrate more and more. We are all consciously or unconsciously adapting ourselves to a single common world. For a time North America and the great sprawl7 of Russia and Siberia are for obvious reasons feeling less restriction8 than let us say japan or Germany, but, as my glancing allusion9 to the stratosphere was intended to remind you, this relative isolation10 of yours is also a diminishing isolation. The Abolition of Distance is making novel political and economic arrangements more and more imperative12 if the populations of the earth are not to grind against each other to their mutual13 destruction.
That imperative expansion of the scale of the community in which we have to live is the first truism I want to recall to you and bring into the foreground of our discussion. The second truism is the immense increase in our available power that has been going on. I do not know if any precise estimate of the physical energy at the disposal of mankind now and at any previous age, has ever been made, but the disproportion between what we have and what our great-grand-parents had, is stupendous and continually increasing. I am told that two or three power stations in the United States are today pouring out more energy night and day than could be produced by the sustained muscular effort of the entire United States population, and that the Roman empire at its mightiest14 could not — even by one vast unanimous thrust, not a single soul doing anything but push and push — have kept the street and road transport of New York State moving as it moves today. You are almost sick of being told it, in this form or that, over and over again. But we all know about this sort of thing. Man was slower and feebler beyond comparison a century or so ago than he is today. He has become a new animal incredibly swift and strong — except in his head. We all know — in theory at least — how this increase of power affects the nature of war. None of our new powers in this world of increasing power, have been so rapidly applied15 as our powers of mutual injury. A child of five with a bomb no bigger than my hand, can kill as many men in a moment as any paladin of antiquity16 hacking17 and hewing18 and bashing through a long and tiring battle. Both these two realities, these two portentous19 realities, the change of scale in human affairs and the monstrous20 increase of destructive power, haunt every intelligent mind today. One needs an exceptional stupidity even to question the urgency we are under to establish some effective World Pax, before gathering21 disaster overwhelms us. The problem of reshaping human affairs on a world-scale, this World problem, is drawing together an ever-increasing multitude of minds. It is becoming the common solicitude22 of all sane23 and civilised men. We must do it — or knock ourselves to pieces. I think it would be profitable if a group of history students were to trace how this World Problem has dawned upon the popular mind from, let us say, 1900 up to the present time. To begin with it was hardly felt to be important. Our apprehension24 of what it really amounts to has grown in breadth and subtlety25 during all these past seven-and-thirty years. We have been learning hard in the past third of a century. And particularly since 1919. In 1900 the general sense of the historical process, of what was going on in the world, was altogether shallower than ours today. People were extraordinarily26 ignorant of the operating causes of political events. It was quite possible then for them to agree that it was not at all a nice or desirable thing I and that it ought to be put an end to, and to imagine that setting up a nice little international court at the Hague to which states could bring their grievances28 and get a decision without going to the trouble and expense of hostilities29 would end this obsolescent30 scandal. Then we should have peace for ever — and everything else would go on as before. But now even the boy picking cotton or working the elevator, knows that nothing will go as before. The fear of change has reached them. You will remember that Mr. Andrew Carnegie set aside quite a respectable fraction of his savings31 to buy us world peace for ever and have done with it. The Great War was an enlightening disappointment to this earlier school of peacemakers, and it released a relatively32 immense flow of thought about the World Problem. But even at Versailles the people most immediately powerful, were still evidently under the impression that world peace was simply a legal and political business. They thought the Great War had happened, but they were busy politicians, and had not remarked that vastly greater things were happening. They did not realise even that elementary point about the unsuitable size of contemporary states to which I have recalled your attention. Still less did they think about the new economic stresses that were revolutionising every material circumstance of litre. They saw the issue as a simple aiirair upon the lines of old-fashioned history. So far as their ideas went it was just Carthage and Rome over again. The central Powers were naughty naughty nations and had to be punished. Their greatest novelty was the League of Nations, which indeed was all very well as a gesture and an experiment but which as an irremovable and irreplaceable reality in the path of world adjustment has proved anything but a blessing34. It had been a brilliant idea in the reign35 of Francis I of France. Still we have to recognise that in 1919 the Geneva League was about as far as anyone’s realisation of the gravity of the World Problem had gone. It is our common quality to be wise after the event and still quite unprepared for the next change ahead. It is an almost universal human failing to believe that now we know everything, that nothing more than we know can be known about human relations, and that in our limitless wisdom we can fix up our descendants for evermore, by constitutions, treaties, boundaries and leagues. So my poor generation built this insufficient36 League. For a time a number of well-meaning people did consider that the League of Nations settled the World Problem for good and all, and that they need not bother their heads about it any more. There were we felt, no further grounds for anxiety, and we all sat down within our nice little national boundaries to resume business . according to the old ways, securing each of us the largest possible share of the good things the new Era of Peace and Prosperity was to bring — at least to the good countries to whom victory had been accorded. Wlten later the history of our own times comes to be written, I imagine this period between 1919 and 1929 will be called the Fatuous37 Twenties.
We all know better now. Now that we are living in what no doubt the historian will some day call the Frightened Thirties. Versailles was no settlement. There is still no settlement. The World Problem still pursues us. And it seems now vastly nearer, uglier and more formidable than it ever did before. It emerges through all our settlements like a dangerous rhinoceros39 coming through a reed fence. Our mood changes now from one in which off-hand legal solutions were acceptable, to an almost feverish40 abundance of mental activity. From saying “There is the Hague Court and what more do you want?” or “There is the League of Nations, what more can you want?” or “There is the British Peace Ballot41 and please don’t bother me further,” we are beginning to apprehend42 something of the full complexity43 and vastness of the situation that faces mankind, that is to say all of us, as a living species. Our minds are beginning to grasp the vastness of these grim imperatives44. That change of scale, that enhancement of power has altered the fundamental conditions of human life — of all our lives. The traditions of the old world, the comparatively easy traditions in which we have grown up and in which we have shaped our lives, are bankrupt. They are outworn. They are outgrown45. They are too decayed for much more patching. They are as untrustworthy and dangerous as a very old car whose engine has become explosive, which has lost its brake lining46 and has a loose steering-wheel. What I am saying now is gradually becoming as plain in men’s minds as the roundness of the earth. New World or nothing. We have to make a new world for ourselves or we shall sufier and perish amidst the downfall of the decaying old. This is a business of fundamentals in which we are all called upon to take part, and through which the lives of all of us are bound to be changed essentially47 and irrevocably.
With this realisation of the true immensity and penetration48 of the World Problem we are passing out of the period of panaceas49 — of simple solutions. As We grow wiser we realise more and more that the World Problem is not a thing like a locked door for which it is only necessary to End a single key. It is infinitely50 more complex. It is a battle all along the line and every man is a combatant or a deserter. Popular discussion is thick with competing simple remedies, these one-thing-needful proposals, each of which has its factor of truth and each of which in itself is entirely51 inadequate52. Consider some of them. Arbitration53, League of Nations, I have spoken of World Socialism. The Socialist54 very rightly points out the evils and destructive stresses that arise from the free play of the acquisitive impulse in production and business affairs, but his solution, which is to take the control of things out of the hands of the acquisitive in order to put it into the hands of the inexperienced, plainly leaves the bulk of the world’s troubles unsolved. The Communist and Fascist55 have theorised about and experimented with the seizure56 and concentration of Power, but they produce no sound schemes for its beneficial use. Seizing power by itself is a gangster57’s game. You can do nothing with power except plunder58 and destroy — unless you know exactly what to do with it. People tell us that Christianity, the Spirit of Christianity, holds a key to all our difficulties. Christianity, they say, has never yet been tried. We have all heard that. The trouble is that Christianity in all its various forms never does try. Ask it to work out practical problems and it immediately floats off into other-worldliness. Plainly there is much that is wrong in our property-money arrangements, but there again prescriptions59 for a certain juggling60 with currency and credit, seem unlikely in themselves to solve the World Problem. A multitude of such suggestions are bandied about with increasing passion. In comparison with any preceding age, we are in a state of extreme mental fermentation. This is, I suggest, an inevitable61 phase in the development of our apprehension of the real magnitude and complexity of the World Problem which faces us. Except for the faddists and fanatics62 we all feel a sort of despairing inadequacy63 amidst this wild storm of suggestions and rash beginnings. We want to know more, we want digested facts to go upon. Our minds are not equipped for the job.
And shaking a finger at you to mark the point we have reached, I repeat, our minds are not equipped for the job.
We are ships in uncharted seas. We are big-game hunters without weapons of precision.
This present uproar64 of incomplete ideas was as inevitable as the Imperialist Optimism of 1900, the Futile65 Amazement66 of the Great War, and the self-complacency of the Fatuous Twenties. These were all phases, necessary phases, in the march of our race through disillusionment to understanding. After the phase of panaceas there comes now, I hope, a phase of intelligent co-ordination of creative movements, a balanced treatment of our complex difficulties. We are going to think again. We are all beginning to realise that the World Problem, the universal world problem of adapting our life to its new scale and its new powers, has to be approached on a broad front, along many paths and in many fashions. In my opening remarks I stressed our spreading realisation of the possibility of a great catastrophe67 in world affairs. One immediate33 consequence of our full realisation of what this World Problem before us means is dismay. We lose heart. We feel that anyhow we cannot adjust that much. We throw up the sponge. We say, let us go on as long as possible anyhow, and after us, let what will happen. A considerable and a growing number of people are persuaded that a drift towards a monstrously68 destructive war cycle which may practically obliterate69 our present civilisation70 is inevitable. I have, I suppose, puzzled over such possibilities rather more than most people. I do not agree with that inevitability71 of another real war. But I agree with its possibility. I think such a collapse72 so possible that I have played with it imaginatively in a book or so and a film. It is so much a possibility that it is wholesome73 to bear it constantly in mind. But all the same I do not believe that world disaster is unavoidable. It is extraordinarily difficult to estimate the relative strength of the driving forces in human affairs today. We are not dealing74 with measurable quantities. We are easily the prey75 of our moods, and our latest vivid impression is sure to count for far too much. Values in my own mind, I find, shift about from hour to hour. I guess it is about the same with most of you. Just as in a battle, so here, our moods are factors in the situation. When we feel depressed76, the world is going to the devil and we meet defeat half-way; when we are elated, the world is all right and we win. And I think that most of us are inclined to overestimate77 the menace of violence, the threats of nationalist aggression78 and the suppression of free discussion in many parts of the world at the present time. I admit the darkness and grimness on the face of things. Indisputably vehement79 State-ism now dominates affairs over large regions of the civilised world. Everywhere liberty is threatened or outraged80. Here again, I merely repeat, what the whole intelligent world is saying.
Well. . . . I do not want to seem smug amidst such immunities82 as we English- speaking people still enjoy, nevertheless I must confess I think it possible to overrate the intensity83 and staying power of this present nationalist phase. I think that the present vehemence84 of nationalism in the world may be due not to the strength of these tyrannies but to their weakness. This change of scale, this increment85 of power that has come into human affairs, has strained every boundary, every institution and every tradition in the world. It is an age of confusion, an age of gangster opportunity. After the gangsters86 the Vigilantes. Both the dying old and the vamped-up new are on the defensive87. They build up their barriers and increase their repression88 because they feel the broad flood of change towards a vastly greater new order is rising. Every old government, every hasty new government that has leapt into power, is made crazy by the threat of a wider and greater order, and its struggle to survive becomes desperate. It tries still to carry onto deny that it is an experiment — even if it survives crippled and monstrous. The dogmatic Russian Revolution has not held power for a score of years and yet it, too, is now as much on the defensive as any other upstart dictatorship. A lot of what looks to us now like triumphant89 reaction may in the end prove to be no more than doomed90, dwarfed91 and decaying dogmas and traditions at bay. None of the utterances92 of these militant93 figures that most threaten the peace of the world today have the serene94 assurance of men conscious that they are creating something that marches with the ruling forces of life. For the most part they are shouts — screams — of defiance95. They scold and rant27 and threaten. That is the rebel note and not the note of mastery. We hear very much about the suppression of thought in the world. is there really — even at the present time — in spite of all this current violence, any real diminution96 of creative thought in the world — as compared with 1500 or 1850 — or 1900, or 1914 or 1924? You have to remember that the suppression of free discussion in such countries as Germany, Italy and Russia does not mean an end to original thought in these countries. Thought, like gunpowder97, may be all the more effective for being confined. I know that beneath the surface Germany is thinking intensely, and Russia is thinking more clearly if less discursively98 than ever before. Maybe we overestimate the value of that idle and safe, slack, do-as-you-please discussion that we English-speaking folk enjoy under our democratic regime. The concentration camps of today may prove after all to be the austere99 training grounds of a new freedom.
Let us glance for a moment at the chief forces that are driving against all that would keep the world in its ancient tradition of small national governments, warring and planning perpetually against each other, of a perpetual struggle not only of nations but individuals for a mere81 cramped100 possessiveness.
Consider now the drives towards release, abundance, one World Pax, one world control of violence, that are going on today. They seem to me very much like those forces that drove the United States to the Pacific coast and prevented the break-up of the union. No doubt, many a heart failed in the covered waggons101 as they toiled104 westward105, face to face with the Red Indian and every sort of lawless violence. Yet the drive persisted and prevailed. The Vigilantes prepared the way for the reign of law. The railway, the telegraph and so on followed the covered waggon102 and knitted this new-scale community of America together. In the middle nineteenth century all Europe thought that the United States must break up into a lawless confusion. The railway, the printing press, saved that. The greater unity1 conquered because of its immense appeal to common-sense in the face of the new conditions. And because it was able to appeal to common sense through these media.
The United States could spread gigantically and keep a common mind. And today I believe in many ways, in a variety of fashions and using many weapons and devices, the Vigilantes of World Peace, under the stimulus106 of still wider necessities, are finding themselves and each other and getting together to ride. That is to say their minds are getting together. One great line of development must be towards a Common Control of the Air. The great spans of the Atlantic and Pacific may prevent this from beginning as a world-wide Air Control, but that, I think, is just a passing phase of the problem. I submit to you that a state of affairs in which vast populations are under an ever- increasing threat of aerial bombardment with explosives, incendiary bombs and poison gas at barely an hour’s notice, is intolerable to human reason. Maybe there will be terrible wars first. Quite possibly not. It may after all prove unnecessary to have very many great cities destroyed and very many millions of people burnt, suffocated107, blown limb from limb, before men see what stares them in the face and accept the obvious. Men are, after all, partly reasonable creatures, they have at least spasmodic moral impulses. There is already in action — a movement — for World Air Control. But you can’t have a thing like that by itself. Who or what will control the air?
This is a political question. None of us quite know the answer, but the answer has to be found, and hundreds of thousands of the best brains on earth are busy at the riddle108 of that adjustment. We can rule out any of the pat, ready-made answers of yesterday, League of Nations or what not. None the less that implacable necessity for World Air Control insists upon something, something with at least the authority of a World Federal Government in these matters, and that trails with it, you will find, a revelation of other vast collateral109 necessities. I cannot now develop these at any great length. But in the end I believe we are led to the conviction that the elemental forces of human progress, the stars in their courses, are fighting to evoke110 at least this much world community as involves a control of communications throughout the whole world, a common federal protection of everyone in the world from private, sectarian or national violence, a common federal protection of the natural resources of the planet from national, class or individual appropriation111, and a world system of money and credit. The obstinacy112 of man is great, but the forces that grip him are greater and in the end, after I know not what wars, struggles and afflictions, this is the road along which he will go. He has to see it first — and then he will do it. I am sure of the ultimate necessity of this federal world state — and at the backs of your minds at least, I believe most of you are too — as I am sure that, whatever clouds may obscure it, the sun will rise to-morrow.
And now having recapitulated113 and brought together this general conception of human progress towards unity which is forming in most of our minds, as an answer to the ever-more insistent114 World Problem, I propose to devote the rest of my time with you to the discussion of one particular aspect of this march towards a world community, the necessity it brings with it, for a correlated educational expansion. This has not so far been given anything like the attention it may demand in the near future. We have been gradually brought to the pitch of imagining and framing our preliminary ideas of a federal world control of such things as communications, health, money, economic adjustments, and the suppression of crime. In all these material things we have begun to foresee the possibility of a world-wide network being woven between all men about the earth. So much of the World Peace has been brought into the range of — what shall I call it? — the general imagination. But I do not think we have yet given sufficient attention to the prior necessity, of linking together its mental organisations into a much closer accord than obtains at the present time. All these ideas of unifying115 mankind’s affairs depend ultimately for their realisation on mankind having a unified116 mind for the job. The want of such effective mental unification is the key to most of our present frustrations117. While men’s minds are still confused, their social and political relations will remain in confusion, however great the forces that are grinding them against each other and however tragic118 and monstrous the consequences.
Now I know of no general history of human education and discussion in existence. We have nowadays — in what is called the New History-books which trace for us in rough outline the growth in size and complexity of organised human communities. But so far no one has attempted to trace the stages through which teaching has developed, how schools began, how discussions grew, how knowledge was acquired and spread, how the human intelligence kept pace with its broadening responsibilities. We know that in the small tribal119 community and even in the city states of, for example, Greece, there was hardly any need for reading or writing. The youngsters were instructed and initiated120 by their elders. They could walk all over the small territory of their community and see and hear, how it was fed, guarded, governed. The bright young men gathered for oral instruction in the Porch or the Academy. With the growth of communities into states and kingdoms we know that the medicine man was replaced by an organised priesthood, we know that scribes appeared, written records. There must have been schools for the priests and scribes, but we know very little about it. We know something of the effect of the early writings, the Bible particularly, in consolidating122 and preserving the Jewish tradition — giving it such a start off that for a long time it dominated the subsequent development of the Gentile world, and we know that the survival and spread of Christianity is largely due to its resort to written records to supplement that oral teaching of disciples123 with which it began. But the growing thirst for medical, theological and general knowledge that appeared in the Middle Ages and which led to those remarkable124 gatherings125 of hungry minds, the Universities, has still to be explained and described. That appearance and that swarming126 of scholars would make an extraordinary ¤ story. After the lecture room, the book; after that the newspaper, universal education, the cinema, the radio. No one has yet appeared to make an orderly, story of the developments of information and instruction that have occurred in the past hundred years. Age by age the World’s Knowledge Apparatus127 has grown up. Unpremeditated. Without a plan. But enlarging due possible areas of political co-operation at every stage in its growth.
It is a very interesting thing indeed to ask oneself certain questions. How did I come to know what I know about the world and myself? What ought I to know? What would I like to know that I don’t know? If I want to know about this or that, where can I get the clearest, best and latest information? And where did these other people about me get their ideas about things?
Which are sometimes so different from mine. Why do we differ so widely? Surely about a great number of things upon which we differ there is in existence exact knowledge? So that we ought not to differ in these things. This is true not merely about small matters in dispute but about vitally important things concerning our business, our money, our political outlook, our health, the general conduct of our lives. We are guessing when we might know. The facts are there, but we don’t know them completely. We are inadequately128 informed. We blunder about in our ignorance and this great ruthless world in which we live, beats upon us and punishes our ignorance like a sin. Not only in our mass-ruled democracies but in the countries where dogmas and dictators rule, tremendous decisions are constantly being made affecting human happiness, root and branch, in complete disregard of realities that are known.
You see we are beginning to realise not only that the formal political structures of the world and many of the methods of our economic life are out of date and out of scale, but also another thing that hampers129 us hopelessly in every endeavour we make to adjust life to its new conditions — our World Knowledge Apparatus is not up to our necessities. We are neither collecting, arranging nor digesting what knowledge we have at all adequately, and our schools, our instruments of distribution are old-fashioned and ineffective.
We are not being told enough, we are not being told properly, and that is one main reason why we are all at sixes and sevens in our collective life.
The other day my university, the University of London, celebrated130 its centenary. For some minor131 reason I was asked to assist at these celebrations. And to do so I had to assume some very remarkable garments — most remarkable if you consider that London University was founded in the year 1836 when gentlemen wore tight trousers with straps132, elegantly waisted coats and bell-shaped top hats. Did I dress up like that? No. I found myself retreating from the age of the aeroplane to the age of the horse and mule133 outfit134 of the Canterbury Pilgrims. I found myself wearing a hood121 and gown and carrying a Beret rather like those worn by prosperous citizens of the days of Edward IV, when the University of London was as little anticipated as the continent of America. My modern head peeped out at the top of this get-up and my modern trousers at the bottom. Properly I ought to have been wearing a square beard or have been clean-shaven, but I was forgiven that much. And from all parts of the world representatives of innumerable universities had come with beautifully illuminated135 addresses to congratulate our Chancellor136 and ourselves on our hundred years of sham137 mediaevalism. They came from the ends of the earth, they came up the aisle138 in an endless process; one ancient name followed another, now it was Tokyo, now Athens, now Upsala, now Cape139 Town, now the Sorbonne, now Glasgow, now Johns Hopkins, on they came and on and bowed and handed their addresses and passed aside. It was a marvellous, a dazzling array of beautifully coloured robes. It was also a marvellous collection of men and women. I watched the grave and dignified140 faces of some of the finest minds in the world. Together they presented, they embodied141 or they were there to represent, the whole body of human knowledge. There it was in effect parading before me. And nine out of ten of them were dressed up in some colourful imitation of a costume worn centuries before their foundations came into existence. It was picturesque142, it was imposing143 — but it was just a little odd of them.
My thoughts drifted away to certain political gatherings I had seen and heard; faces of an altogether inferior type, leather-lunged adventurers bawling144 and gesticulating, raucous145 little men screaming plausible146 nonsense to ignorant crowds, supporters herded147 like sheep and saluting148 like trained monkeys, and the incongruity149 of the contrast came to me — you know how things come to you suddenly at times — so that I almost laughed aloud. Because, when it comes to the direction of human affairs, all these universities, all these nice refined people in their lovely gowns, all this visible body of human knowledge and wisdom, has far less influence upon the conduct of human affairs, than, let us say, an intractable newspaper proprietor150, an unscrupulous group of financiers or the leader of a recalcitrant151 minority.
Some weeks previously152 I had taken part in a little private conference of scientific men in London. They were very distinguished153 men indeed, and they were distressed154 beyond measure at the way in which one scientific invention after another was turned to the injury of human life. What was to be done? What could be done? Our discussion was inconclusive, but it had quickened my sense of the reality of the situation. I put these three separate impressions together before you: First, these anxious scientific specialists, then the unchallenged power and mischief156 of these bawling war-making politicians and their crowds at the present time, and finally, capping the whole, these hundreds of all-too-decorated learned gentlemen, fine and delicate, bowing, presenting addresses (for the most part in Latin) and conferring further gowns and diplomas on one another. This last lot, I said, this third lot is after all — in spite of its elegant weakness, the organised brain of mankind so far as there is an organised brain of mankind — and it is not doing its proper work. Why? Why are our universities Boating above the general disorder157 of mankind like a beautiful sunset over a battlefield? Is it not high time that something was done about it? Certain ideas had been stirring in my mind for some time already, but this scene of archaic158 ceremony just lit up the situation for me. I realised that these mediaeval robes were in the highest degree symptomatic. They clothed an organisation essentially mediaeval, inadequate and out of date. We are living in 1937 and our universities, I suggest, are not half-way out of the fifteenth century. We have made hardly any changes in our conception of university organisation, education, graduation, for a century — for several centuries. The three- or four-years’ course of lectures, the bachelor who knows some, the master who knows most, the doctor who knows all, are ideas that have come down unimpaired from the Middle Ages. Nowadays no one should end his learning while he lives and these university degrees are preposterous159. It is true that we have multiplied universities greatly in the past hundred years, but we seem to have multiplied them altogether too much upon the old pattern. A new battleship, a new aeroplane, a new radio receiver is always an improvement upon its predecessor160. But a new university is just another imitation of all the old universities that have ever been. Educationally we are still for all practical purposes in the coach and horse and galley161 stage. The new university is just one more mental gilt-coach in which minds take a short ride and get out again. We have done nothing to co-ordinate the work of our universities in the world — or at least we have done very little. What are called the learned societies with correspondents all over the world have been the chief addition to the human knowledge organisation since the Renaissance162 and most of these societies took their shape and scale in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. All the new means of communicating ideas and demonstrating realities that modern invention has given us, have been seised upon by other hands and used for other purposes; these universities which should guide the thought of the world, making no protest. The showmen got the cinema and the governments or the adventurers got the radio. The university teacher and the schoolmaster went on teaching in the class-room and checking his results by a written examination. It is as if one attempted to satisfy the traffic needs of greater New York or London or Western Europe by a monstrous increase in horses and carts and nothing else. The universities go out to meet the tremendous challenges of our social and political life, like men who go out in armour163 with bows and arrows to meet a bombing aeroplane. They are pushed aside by men like Hitler, Mussolini creates academies in their despite, Stalin sends party commissars to regulate their researches. It is beyond dispute that there has been a great increase in the research work of universities; that pedantry164 and mere scholarship in spite of an obstinate165 defence have declined relatively to keen inquiry166, but the specialist is by his nature a preoccupied167 man. He can increase knowledge, but without a modern organisation backing him he cannot put it over. He can increase knowledge which ultimately is power, but he cannot at the same time control and spread this power that he creates. It has to be made generally available if it is not to be monopolised in the wrong hands.
There, I take it, is the gist of the problem of World Knowledge that has to be solved. A great new world is struggling into existence. But its struggle remains168 catastrophic until it can produce an adequate knowledge organisation. It is a giant birth and it is mentally defective169 and blind. An immense and ever-increasing wealth of knowledge is scattered170 about the world today, a wealth of knowledge and suggestion that — systematically171 ordered and generally disseminated172 — would probably give this giant vision and direction and suffice to solve all the mighty173 difficulties of our age, but that knowledge is still dispersed174, unorganised, impotent in the face of adventurous175 violence and mass excitement. In some way we want to modernise176 our World Knowledge Apparatus so that it may really bring what is thought and known within reach of all active and intelligent men. So that we shall know — with some certainty. So that l we shall not be all at sixes and sevens about matters that have already been thoroughly177 explored and worked out.
How is that likely to he done?
Not of course in a hurry. . . .
It would be very easy to do a number of stupid things about it — futile or even disastrous178 things. I can imagine quite a number of obvious preposterous mischievous179 experiments, a terrible sort of world university consolidation180, an improvised181 knowledge dictatorship. Heaven save us from that! We Want nothing that will in any sense override182 the autonomy of institutions or the independence of individual intellectual workers, We want nothing that will invade the precious time and attempt to control the resources of the gifted individual specialist. He is too much distracted by elementary teaching and college administration already. We do not want to magnify and stereotype183 universities. Most of them with their gowns and degrees, their slavish imitation of the past, are too stereotyped184 already. But here it is that the idea I Want to put before you comes in, this idea of a greater encyclopaedism — with a permanent organism and a definite form and aim. I put forward the development of this new encyclopaedism as a possible method, the only possible method I can imagine, of bringing the universities and research institutions of the world into effective co-operation and creating an intellectual authority sufficient to control and direct our collective life. I imagine it as a permanent institution — untrammelled by precedent185, a new institution — something added to the world network of universities, linking and co-ordinating them with one another and with the general intelligence of the world. Manifestly as my title for it shows, it arises out of the experience of the French Encyclopaedia186, but the form it is taking in the minds of those who have become interested in the idea, is of something vastly more elaborate, more institutional and far-reaching than Diderot’s row of volumes. The immense effect of Diderot’s effort in establishing the frame of the progressive world of the nineteenth century, is certainly the inspiration of this new idea. The great role played in stabilising and equipping the general intelligence of the nineteenth-century world by the French, the British and the German and other encyclopaedias187 that followed it, is what gives confidence and substance to this new conception. But what we want today to hold the modern mind together in common sanity188 is something far greater and infinitely more substantial than those earlier encyclopaedias. They served their purpose at the time, but they are not equal to our current needs. A World Encyclopaedia no longer presents itself to a modern imagination as a row of volumes printed and published once for all, but as a sort of mental clearing house for the mind, a depot189 where knowledge and ideas are received, sorted, summarised, digested, clarified and compared. It would be in continual correspondence with every university, every research institution, every competent discussion, every survey, every statistical190 bureau in the world. It would develop a directorate and a staff of men of its own type, specialised editors and summarists. They would be very important and distinguished men in the new world. This Encyclopaedic organisation need not be concentrated now in one place; it might have the form of a network. It would centralise mentally but perhaps not physically191. Quite possibly it might to a large extent be duplicated. It is its files and its conference rooms which would be the core of its being, the essential Encyclopaedia. It would constitute the material beginning of a real World Brain.
Then from this centre of reception and assembly, would proceed what we may call the Standard Encyclopaedia, the primary distributing element, the row of volumes. This would become the common backbone192 as it were of general human knowledge. It might take the form of twenty or thirty or forty volumes and it would go to libraries, colleges, schools, institutions, newspaper offices, ministries193 and so on all over the world. It would be undergoing continual revision. Its various volumes would be in process of replacement194, more or less frequently according to the permanence or impermanence of their contents. And from this Standard Encyclopaedia would be drawn195 a series of text-books and shorter reference encyclopaedias and encyclopaedic dictionaries For individual and casual use.
That crudely is the gist of what I am submitting to you. A double-faced organisation, a perpetual digest and conference on the one hand and a system of publication and distribution on the other. It would be a clearing house for universities and research institutions; it would play the role of a cerebral196 cortex to these essential ganglia. On the one hand this organisation should be in direct touch with all the original thought and research in the world; on the other it should extend its informing tentacles197 to every intelligent individual in the community — the new world community. In that little world of the eighteenth century, what we may call the mind of the community scarcely extended below the gentlefolk, the clergy198 and the professions. There was no primary education for the common man at all. He did not even read. He was a mere toiler199. It hardly mattered how little he knew — and the less he thought the better for social order. But machinery200 abolishes mere toil103 altogether. The new world has to consist of a world community — say of 2,000 million educated individuals — and the influence of the central encyclopaedic organisation, informing, suggesting, directing, unifying, has to extend to every rank of society and to every corner of the world. The new encyclopaedism is merely the central problem of world education.
Perhaps I should explain that when I speak in this connexion of universities, what I have in mind is primarily assemblies of learned men or men rehearsing their ripe scholarship or conducting original research with such advanced students and student helpers as have been attracted by them and are sharing their fresh and inspiring thoughts and methods. This is a return to the original university idea. The original universities were gatherings of eager people who wanted to know — and who clustered round the teachers who did seem to know. They gathered about these teachers because that was the only way in which they could get their learning. I am talking of that sort of university. That is the primary form of a university. I am not talking here of the collegiate side of a contemporary university, the superficial finishing school exercises of sportive young people mostly of the wealthier classes who don’t want to know — young people who mean very little and who have been sent to the university to make useful friendships and get pass-degrees that mean hardly anything at all. These mere finishing-school students are a modern addition, a transitory encumbrance201 of the halls of learning. I suppose that before very long much of this undergraduate life will merge38 with the general upward extension of educational facilities to all classes of the community. I assume that the tentacles of this Encyclopaedia we are anticipating, with its comprehensive and orderly supply of knowledge, would intervene beneficially between the specialised research and learning which is the living reality in the university and this really quite modern finishing-school side. The time is rapidly returning when men of outstanding mental quality will consent to teach only such students as show themselves capable of and willing to follow up their distinctive202 work. The mere graduating crowd with their games and their yells and so forth203, will go back to the mere teaching institutions where they properly belong. But I will not spend the few minutes remaining to me upon which is after all a side issue in this discussion. University organisation is not now my subject. I am talking of an essentially new organisation — an addition to the intellectual apparatus of the world. The more important thing now is to emphasise204 this need — a need the world is likely to realise more and more acutely in the coming years — for such a concentration, which will assemble, co-ordinate and distribute accumulated knowledge. It will link, supplement and no doubt modify profoundly, the universities, schools and other educational organisations we possess already, but it will not in itself be a part of them.
Let me make it perfectly205 clear that for the present it is desirable to leave this project of a World Encyclopaedic organisation vague — in all but its essential form and function. It might prove disastrous to have it crystallise out prematurely206. Such premature207 crystallisation of a thing needed by the world can produce, we now realise, a rigid208 obstructive reality, just like enough to our actual requirements to cripple every effort to replace it later by a more efficient organisation. Explicit209 constitutions for social and political institutions, are always dangerous things if these institutions are to live for any length of time. If a thing is really to live it should grow rather than be made. It should never be something cut and dried. It should be the survivor210 of a series of trials and fresh beginnings — and it should always be amenable211 to further amendment212.
So that while I believe that ultimately the knowledge systems of the world must be concentrated in this world brain, this permanent central Encyclopaedic organisation with a local habitat and a world-wide range — just as I believe that ultimately the advance of aviation must lead, however painfully and tortuously213 by way of World Air Control, to the political, economic and financial federation214 of the world — yet nevertheless I suggest that to begin with, the evocation215 of this World Encyclopaedia may begin at divergent points and will be all the better for beginning at divergent points.
Of the demand for it, and of the readiness for it in our world today, I have no sort of doubt. Ask the book· selling trade. Any books that give or even seem to give, any sort of conspectus of philosophy, of science, of general knowledge, have a sure abundant sale. We have the fullest encouragement for bolder and more strenuous216 efforts in the same direction. People want this assembling of knowledge and ideas. Our modern community is mind-starved and mind-hungry. It is justifiably217 uneasy and suspicious of the quality of what it gets. The hungry sheep look up and are not fed — at least they are not fed properly. They want to know, One of the next steps to take, it seems to me, is to concentrate this diffused218 demand, to set about the definite organisation of a sustained movement, of perhaps a special association or so, to bring a World Encyclopaedia into being. And while on the one hand we have this world-wide receptivity to work upon, on the other hand we have among the men of science in particular a very full realisation of the need for a more effective correlation219 of their work. It is not only that they cannot communicate their results to the world; they find great difficulty in communicating their results to one another. Among other collateral growths of the League of Nations is a certain Committee of Intellectual Co-operation which has now an official seat in Paris. Its existence shows that even as early as 1919, someone had realised the need for some such synthesis of mental activities as we are now discussing. But in timid, politic11 and scholarly hands the Committee of Intellectual Co-operation has so far achieved little more than a building, a secretary and a few salaries. The bare idea of a World Encyclopaedia in its present delicate state would give it heart failure. Still there it is, a sort of seed that has still to germinate220, waiting for some vitalising influence to stir it to action and growth. And going on at present, among scientific workers, library workers, bibliographers and so forth, there is a very considerable activity for an assembling and indexing of knowledge. An important World Congress of Documentation took place this August in Paris. I was there as an English delegate and I met representatives of forty countries — and my eyes were opened to the very considerable amount of such harvesting and storage that has already been done. From assembling to digesting is only a step — a considerable and difficult step but, none the less, an obvious step. In addition to these indexing activities there has recently been a great deal of experimentation221 with the microfilm. It seems possible that in the near future, we shall have microscopic222 libraries of record, in which a photograph of every important book and document in the world will be stowed away and made easily available for the inspection223 of the student. The British Museum library is making microfilms of the 4,000 books it possesses that were published before 1550 and parallel work is being done here in America. Cheap standardised projectors225 offer no difficulties. The bearing of this upon the material form of a World Encyclopaedia is obvious. The general public has still to realise how much has been done in this field and how many competent and disinterested226 men and women are giving themselves to this task. The time is close at hand when any student, in any part of the world, will be able to sit with his projector224 in his own study at his or her convenience to examine any book, any document, in an exact replica227.
Concurrently228 with this movement towards documentation, we may very possibly have a phase when publishers will be experimenting in the production of larger and better Encyclopaedias, all consciously or unconsciously attempting to realise the final world form. And satisfy a profitable demand. The book salesman from the days of Diderot onward229 has shown an extraordinary knack230 for lowering the quality of this sort of enterprise, but I did not see why groups of publishers throughout the world should not presently help very considerably231 in the beginning of a permanent Encyclopaedic foundation. But such questions of ways and means of distribution belong to a later stage of this great intellectual development which lies ahead of us. I merely glance at them here.
There are certain responses that I have observed crop up almost automatically in people’s minds when they are confronted with this project of a worldwide organisation of all that is thought and known. They will say that an Encyclopaedia must always be tendentious and within certain limits — but they are very wide limits — that must be true. A World Encyclopaedia will have by its very nature to be what is called liberal. An Encyclopaedia appealing to all mankind can admit no narrowing dogmas without at the same time admitting corrective criticism. It will have to be guarded editorially and with the utmost jealousy232 against the incessant233 invasion of narrowing propaganda. It will have a general flavour of what many people will call scepticism. Myth, however venerated234, it must treat as myth and not as a symbolical235 rendering236 of some higher truth or any such evasion237. Visions and projects and theories it must distinguish from bed-rock fact. It will necessarily press strongly against national delusions238 of grandeur239, and against all sectarian assumptions. It will necessarily be for and not indifferent to that world community of which it must become at last an essential part. If that is what you call bias240, bias the world Encyclopaedia will certainly have. It will have, and it cannot help but have, a bias for organisation, comparison, construction and creation. It is an essentially creative project. It has to be the dominant241 factor in directing the growth of a new world.
Well, there you have my anticipation242 of the primary institution which has to appear if that world-wide community towards which mankind, willy-nilly, is being impelled243, is ever to be effectively attained244. The only alternative I can see is social dissolution and either the evolution of a new, more powerful type of man, or the extinction245 of our species. I sketch246 roughly — it seems to be my particular role in life to do these broad sketches247 and outlines and then stand aside — but I do my best to make the picture plain and understandable. And for me at any rate this is no Utopian dream. It is a forecast, however inaccurate248 and insufficient, of an absolutely essential part of that world community to which I believe we are driving now. I do not believe there is any emergence249 for mankind from this age of disorder, distress155 and fear in which we are living, except by way of such a deliberate vast reorganisation of our intellectual life and our educational methods as I have outlined here. I have been talking of real intellectual forces and foreshadowing the emergence of a vital reality. I have been talking of something which may even be recognizably in active operation within a lifetime — or a lifetime or so, from now — this consciously and deliberately250 organised brain for all mankind. In a few score years there will be thousands of workers at this business of ordering and digesting knowledge where now you have one. There will be a teacher for every dozen children and schools as unlike the schools of to-day as a liner is unlike the Mayflower. There will not be an illiterate251 left in the world. There will hardly be an uninformed or misinformed person. And the brain of the whole mental network will be the Permanent World Encyclopaedia.
Well, I have designedly put much controversial matter before you, and I have not hesitated to put it in a provocative252 manner. You will, I know, understand that every new thing is apt to seem crude at first. Forgive my crudities. But my time has been short for what I had to say, and I have said it in the way that seemed most challenging and most likely to produce further discussion.
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1
unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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2
gist
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| n.要旨；梗概 | |
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organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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abolition
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| n.废除，取消 | |
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7
sprawl
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| vi.躺卧，扩张，蔓延；vt.使蔓延；n.躺卧，蔓延 | |
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restriction
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| n.限制，约束 | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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politic
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| adj.有智虑的；精明的；v.从政 | |
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imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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mightiest
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| adj.趾高气扬( mighty的最高级 )；巨大的；强有力的；浩瀚的 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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hacking
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| n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动 | |
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hewing
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| v.（用斧、刀等）砍、劈( hew的现在分词 )；砍成；劈出；开辟 | |
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portentous
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| adj.不祥的，可怕的，装腔作势的 | |
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monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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solicitude
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| n.焦虑 | |
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sane
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| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
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apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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subtlety
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| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
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extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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rant
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| v.咆哮；怒吼；n.大话；粗野的话 | |
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grievances
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| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
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hostilities
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| n.战争；敌意(hostility的复数)；敌对状态；战事 | |
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obsolescent
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| adj.过时的，难管束的 | |
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savings
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| n.存款，储蓄 | |
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relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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insufficient
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| adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的 | |
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fatuous
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| adj.愚昧的；昏庸的 | |
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merge
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| v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体 | |
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rhinoceros
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| n.犀牛 | |
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feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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ballot
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| n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票 | |
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apprehend
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| vt.理解，领悟，逮捕，拘捕，忧虑 | |
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complexity
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| n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物 | |
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imperatives
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| n.必要的事( imperative的名词复数 )；祈使语气；必须履行的责任 | |
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outgrown
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| 长[发展] 得超过（某物）的范围( outgrow的过去分词 )； 长[发展]得不能再要（某物）； 长得比…快； 生长速度超过 | |
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lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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penetration
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| n.穿透，穿人，渗透 | |
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panaceas
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| n.治百病的药，万灵药( panacea的名词复数 ) | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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arbitration
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| n.调停，仲裁 | |
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socialist
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| n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的 | |
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fascist
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| adj.法西斯主义的；法西斯党的；n.法西斯主义者，法西斯分子 | |
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seizure
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| n.没收；占有；抵押 | |
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gangster
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| n.匪徒，歹徒，暴徒 | |
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plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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prescriptions
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| 药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划 | |
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juggling
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| n. 欺骗, 杂耍(=jugglery) adj. 欺骗的, 欺诈的 动词juggle的现在分词 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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fanatics
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| 狂热者，入迷者( fanatic的名词复数 ) | |
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inadequacy
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| n.无法胜任，信心不足 | |
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uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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monstrously
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obliterate
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| v.擦去，涂抹，去掉...痕迹，消失，除去 | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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inevitability
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| n.必然性 | |
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collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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75
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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76
depressed
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| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
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77
overestimate
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| v.估计过高，过高评价 | |
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78
aggression
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| n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害 | |
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79
vehement
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| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
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80
outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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81
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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82
immunities
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| 免除，豁免( immunity的名词复数 )； 免疫力 | |
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83
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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84
vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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85
increment
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| n.增值，增价；提薪，增加工资 | |
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86
gangsters
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| 匪徒，歹徒( gangster的名词复数 ) | |
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87
defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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88
repression
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| n.镇压，抑制，抑压 | |
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89
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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90
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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91
dwarfed
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| vt.（使）显得矮小（dwarf的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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92
utterances
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| n.发声( utterance的名词复数 )；说话方式；语调；言论 | |
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93
militant
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| adj.激进的，好斗的；n.激进分子，斗士 | |
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94
serene
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|
| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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95
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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96
diminution
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| n.减少；变小 | |
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97
gunpowder
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| n.火药 | |
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98
discursively
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| adv.东拉西扯地，推论地 | |
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99
austere
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| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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100
cramped
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| a.狭窄的 | |
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101
waggons
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| 四轮的运货马车( waggon的名词复数 )； 铁路货车； 小手推车 | |
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102
waggon
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| n.运货马车，运货车；敞篷车箱 | |
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103
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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104
toiled
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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105
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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106
stimulus
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| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
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107
suffocated
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| （使某人）窒息而死( suffocate的过去式和过去分词 )； （将某人）闷死； 让人感觉闷热； 憋气 | |
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108
riddle
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|
| n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜 | |
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109
collateral
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|
| adj.平行的；旁系的；n.担保品 | |
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110
evoke
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| vt.唤起，引起，使人想起 | |
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111
appropriation
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| n.拨款，批准支出 | |
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112
obstinacy
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|
| n.顽固；（病痛等）难治 | |
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113
recapitulated
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|
| v.总结，扼要重述( recapitulate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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114
insistent
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| adj.迫切的，坚持的 | |
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115
unifying
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| 使联合( unify的现在分词 )； 使相同； 使一致； 统一 | |
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116
unified
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| (unify 的过去式和过去分词)； 统一的； 统一标准的； 一元化的 | |
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117
frustrations
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| 挫折( frustration的名词复数 )； 失败； 挫败； 失意 | |
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118
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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119
tribal
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| adj.部族的，种族的 | |
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120
initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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121
hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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122
consolidating
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| v.（使）巩固， （使）加强( consolidate的现在分词 )；（使）合并 | |
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123
disciples
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|
| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
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124
remarkable
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|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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125
gatherings
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| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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126
swarming
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|
| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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127
apparatus
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|
| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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128
inadequately
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|
| ad.不够地；不够好地 | |
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129
hampers
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的第三人称单数 ) | |
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130
celebrated
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|
| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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131
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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132
straps
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| n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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133
mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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134
outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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135
illuminated
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|
| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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136
chancellor
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| n.(英)大臣；法官；(德、奥)总理；大学校长 | |
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137
sham
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| n./adj.假冒(的)，虚伪(的) | |
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138
aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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139
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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140
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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141
embodied
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|
| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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142
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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143
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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144
bawling
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|
| v.大叫，大喊( bawl的现在分词 )；放声大哭；大声叫出；叫卖（货物） | |
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145
raucous
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|
| adj.(声音)沙哑的，粗糙的 | |
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146
plausible
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|
| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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147
herded
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| 群集，纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 )； 放牧； （使）向…移动 | |
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148
saluting
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的现在分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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149
incongruity
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| n.不协调，不一致 | |
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150
proprietor
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| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
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151
recalcitrant
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| adj.倔强的 | |
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152
previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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153
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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154
distressed
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| 痛苦的 | |
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155
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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156
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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157
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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158
archaic
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|
| adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的 | |
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159
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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160
predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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161
galley
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| n.（飞机或船上的）厨房单层甲板大帆船；军舰舰长用的大划艇； | |
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162
renaissance
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| n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴 | |
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163
armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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164
pedantry
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| n.迂腐，卖弄学问 | |
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165
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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166
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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167
preoccupied
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| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
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168
remains
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|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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169
defective
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| adj.有毛病的，有问题的，有瑕疵的 | |
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170
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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171
systematically
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| adv.有系统地 | |
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172
disseminated
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| 散布，传播( disseminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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173
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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174
dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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175
adventurous
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| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
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176
modernise
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| vt.使现代化 | |
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177
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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178
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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179
mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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180
consolidation
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| n.合并,巩固 | |
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181
improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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182
override
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| vt.不顾，不理睬，否决；压倒，优先于 | |
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183
stereotype
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| n.固定的形象，陈规，老套，旧框框 | |
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184
stereotyped
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| adj.(指形象、思想、人物等)模式化的 | |
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185
precedent
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| n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的 | |
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186
encyclopaedia
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| n.百科全书 | |
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187
encyclopaedias
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| n.百科全书，大全( encyclopaedia的名词复数 ) | |
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188
sanity
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| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
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189
depot
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| n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站 | |
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190
statistical
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| adj.统计的，统计学的 | |
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191
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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192
backbone
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| n.脊骨，脊柱，骨干；刚毅，骨气 | |
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193
ministries
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| （政府的）部( ministry的名词复数 )； 神职； 牧师职位； 神职任期 | |
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194
replacement
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| n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品 | |
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195
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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196
cerebral
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| adj.脑的，大脑的；有智力的，理智型的 | |
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197
tentacles
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| n.触手( tentacle的名词复数 )；触角；触须；触毛 | |
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198
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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199
toiler
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| 辛劳者，勤劳者 | |
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200
machinery
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|
| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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201
encumbrance
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|
| n.妨碍物，累赘 | |
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distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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emphasise
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| vt.加强...的语气，强调，着重 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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prematurely
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| adv.过早地，贸然地 | |
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premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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explicit
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| adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的 | |
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survivor
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| n.生存者，残存者，幸存者 | |
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amenable
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| adj.经得起检验的；顺从的；对负有义务的 | |
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amendment
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| n.改正，修正，改善，修正案 | |
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tortuously
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federation
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| n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会 | |
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evocation
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| n. 引起，唤起 n. <古> 召唤，招魂 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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justifiably
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| adv.无可非议地 | |
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diffused
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| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
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correlation
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| n.相互关系，相关，关连 | |
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germinate
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| v.发芽；发生；发展 | |
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experimentation
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| n.实验，试验，实验法 | |
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microscopic
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| adj.微小的，细微的，极小的，显微的 | |
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inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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projector
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| n.投影机，放映机，幻灯机 | |
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projectors
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| 电影放映机，幻灯机( projector的名词复数 ) | |
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disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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replica
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| n.复制品 | |
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concurrently
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| adv.同时地 | |
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onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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knack
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| n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法 | |
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considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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incessant
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| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
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venerated
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| 敬重（某人或某事物），崇敬( venerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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symbolical
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| a.象征性的 | |
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rendering
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| n.表现，描写 | |
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evasion
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| n.逃避，偷漏(税) | |
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delusions
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| n.欺骗( delusion的名词复数 )；谬见；错觉；妄想 | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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bias
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| n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见 | |
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dominant
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| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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impelled
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| v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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extinction
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| n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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inaccurate
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| adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的 | |
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emergence
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| n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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251
illiterate
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| adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲 | |
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provocative
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| adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的 | |
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