31 MAY 1946, Page 15

' IN MEMORY OF EDDINGTON

Sia,—Your readers will need no reminder of the loss the world sustained through the death last year of Arthur Stanley Eddington, for more than thirty years Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge. On Edding- ion's outstanding scientific achievements it would be superfluous to enlarge ; his reputation in his own field was world-wide, and in this country his work was recognised by the award of the Order of Merit. But what most impels his friends to desire some permanent memorial of him was his remarkable combination of the scientific and the spiritual outlook. In his books he developed a view of life which would allow for and do justice to both. The present is often -described as a scientific age ; it is not conspicuously a spiritual age. No greater service could be done to it than by perpetuating in some way dr double message which Eddington's life typified. As some contribution to that it is proposed to raise a fund for the endowment of an Eddington memorial lectureship dealing with the wider implications of science and especially with its bearing upon ethics and religion. The lectures will be delivered usually, but not always, in Cambridge, and will be published. The Royal Society, Eddington's College (Trinity) and the Society of Friends (of which Eddington was a life-long member) have agreed to appoint trustees for the fund. A capital sum of some £2,500 is required, and we believe that many of your readers, will be glad to help, in raising that amount. Donations should be sent to the honorary secretary of the memorial fund, Dr. W. H. Thorpe, Jesus College, Cambridge.—Yours &c., E. W. BIRMINGHAM, WILSON HARRIS, H. SPENCER- JONES, C. E. RAVEN, G. M. TREVELYAN.