tute the atoms of all bodies. It has been calculated that the intra-atomic energy which might be liberated from a pound of coal, if we could find any way of setting it free, and harnessing it to a motor, would do as much work as the burning of one hundred and fifty tons of coal. Up to the present, indeed, no means of liberating this energy has been discovered. We only know of its existence because a few elements, like radium, set it free spontaneously, and they are so scarce and costly to free from their ores that their use for industrial purposes is unthinkable.

The real problem is to discover some kind of atomic detonator which will start the electrons of a cheap and common substance like wood, or water, giving out this internal energy at such an orderly rate that we can utilize it to drive our machinery. The achievement of such a discovery is perhaps the strongest and most assured hope which post-war science has to offer to a waiting and over-burdened world. It may be, after all, that the problem is insoluble; but the best authorities seem to hold that it might be solved within a very few years, if men devoted to its study a tithe of the ingenuity and money which were lavished in the last five years on the simpler problem of wholesale destruction.

In regard to the less recondite probems of the material world we should imagine that the hopes of science are running very high. The chief of these problems falls under three heads, familiar to those who have had some experience of army work- transport, supply and sanitation. Science applied to these matters has a reasonable hope of making vast improvements within the next generation-electric-driven passenger expresses running at two miles a minute; goods trains on special lines with proper arrangements for loading which will enable the companies to pay

dividends again while reducing their rates; a network of glass or rubber motor roads covering the whole of Europe with a regular service of fiveton lorries and fast cars; great submarine liners which are independent of wind or weather, and cargo boats which will dwarf the Olympic or the Mauretania; above all, the development of aircraft for peaceful purposes on a scale comparable to that achieved in five years by the needs of war, till the Atlantic is bridged within a day, and Sydney is brought as near London as Edinburg was a century ago, while the motor cycle is superseded by the cheap and handy aeroplane for Sunday jaunts and week-end excursions.

As regards the supply of food and clothing, the hopes of science are almost limitless. We are only on the threshold of the marvels which may be produced by a scientific treatment of agriculture. The introduction of machinery, the development of new forms of animal and vegetable life, the abolition of noxious insects, the modification of soils by manure, and of climates by forestry and irrigation, are still in their infancy. Science has even gone so far as conceive an age in which some future race of men 'instead of sitting down to dinner, will attach themselves to something akin to an electric lamp socket and draw thence from the public mains the supply of pure physical energy required for the day's work'but that is not so much a hope as a devout imagination, based, perhaps, on the popular but misleading conception of the 'scientist' as a lean and arid individual who takes no interest in his meals.

Lastly, we have the great field of health problems, where the hopes of science again run high. Is it too much to say that we are within measurable distance of the abolition of preventable diseases, the stamping out of syphilis

som. Science is not unwilling to hope that some day we may get into touch with these wonderful people by means of wireless messages, and to indulge in speculations as to the sort of message that could be sent between two races so ignorant of one another's language and mode of thought. It must be something simple and universal, like 'two and two make four,' to begin with.

Professor Einstein's recondite work, which there are very few to understand, seems again to encourage a hope that we shall one day find ourselves in touch with the Fourth Dimension, in which the idealist thinks he may find the explanation of so many mysteries. Lastly, does science hold out any hope of penetrating the most attractive of all mysteries and establishing communication with the departed spirits of our friends? We fear that the time has not yet come for this achievement to be placed among the hopes of science, but what would mankind not give to be assured of the contrary?

And there we dwell, to feast and quaff The wine of hell and only know The worship of the Golden Calf.

In Pleasure's wilderness we spend What Thou dost grant, and should it fail,

Look to the Lord of Sloth to send,

Gift-free, the manna and the quail.

No shepherd for Thy faithless flock, With power to guide, to guard, to bless,

No Moses' hand to smite the rock
Of satisfying righteousness.

Yet, we have bled and freely shed
The purple tribute of our veins.
For Thee we fought! Have we not
bought

Some little respite from our pains?

Imperfect, Lord, our sacrifice!

Still, when in wrath Thou passest

o'er,

Look down upon the blood that lies Fresh on the lintel of our door.

IN THE FOREST

BY V. H. FRIEDLAENDER

My heart, amazed, is like a bird
That has escaped a cage;

Through the long grasses I have heard
Immortal perseflage;

A wind of healing blows
Over a sun-gold pool;

Down beechen transepts green and cool
Peace like a river flows.

Here in the still and ancient ways,
The changing, changeless trees,
Is hid some secret of new days,
New faiths, hopes, charities. . . .
And though toward songs half heard
Too feebly still I fly,
The house of my captivity

Is empty of a bird!