Abstract
(1) THOSE who are closely engaged in scientific work are too preoccupied to worry about the future of civilisation. Most of them, if they consider the subject at all, assume that, with science in the ascendant, the future is secure. The books before us, however, take a different view, and raise many important questions. Spengler's theory is well known, namely, that civilisations have their periods of growth, maturity, and decay, and that our European type of culture has passed the summit. Whether or no the reader can accept everything that he finds here will make little difference to the fascination that the book will exercise upon him. Whatever else he may or may not be, Spengler is never dull: his generalisations, his handling of facts—many of them as unfamiliar as they are interesting—his aperçus, make his pages almost as entrancing, at least for the moment, as Gibbon's. Not that he has Gibbon's greatness—perhaps his keen and lively glance is more like Voltaires. Students of science should read Spengler, if only as a moral discipline; he will suggest to their minds some profound doubts.
(1) The Decline of the West.
By Oswald Spengler. Authorised translation with notes by Charles Francis Atkinson. Vol. 2: Perspectives of World-History. Pp. xi + 507 + xxxii. (London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd., 1928.) 21s. net.
(2) Kaliki: or the Future of Civilisation.
By S. Radhakrishnan. (To-day and To-morrow Series.) Pp. 96. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd.; New York: E. P. Dutton and Co., 1929.) 2s. 6d. net.
(3) Nomades: essai sur l'âme juive.
Par Kadmi-Cohen. Pp. xii + 221. (Paris: Félix Alcan, 1929.) 12 francs.
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H., J. (1) The Decline of the West (2) Kaliki: or the Future of Civilisation (3) Nomades: essai sur l'âme juive. Nature 124, 174–175 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/124174a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/124174a0
