14 MAY 1948, Page 5

The lecture Sir Richard Livingstoni gave to the National Book

League this year makes a welcome appearance in the form of a half-crown booklet published by the Cambridge University Press. Its subject is University education and its attitude is critical—the attitude, of course, of a critic from within, for Sir Richard is President of Corpus, Oxford. His theme is the need for producing humanists in a day when the danger is of concentrating on utili- tarian scientists. The Barlow Committee recommended doubling the output of scientists but, conscious of the bias that would give to the universities, advised the doubling of arts students, too. But could this number of humanists find employment? Sir Richard gravely doubts it. His solution of the problem is to educate the scientists adequately in the humanities, particularly in philosophy and religion, with such writing as Plato's dialogues, the Bible, Homer, Virgil, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton and Tolstoy as basis. This demand for a reaction against a narrow specialisation could not be more timely, and all universities ought to give serious thought to it. The forces pulling in the opposite direction—particularly the desire for quick economic returns—are powerful, but if they are allowed to become dominant the result in the end will be disastrous.