he bases of the
science, have always pointed out that the river system is the essential
unit for investigation. From source to sea goes the line of evolution.
And yet even the peasant hamlet at the source depends, as [Page: 144]
Professor Geddes reminds us, on the hinterland of pasture, forest, and
chase; and the hunter is the germ of the soldier and the aristocrat. The
whole region contributes to the ultimate city, as the whole river to the
ultimate sea. The Professor says, justly enough, that we should try to
recover the elemental or naturalist point of view, even for the greatest
cities. He sees London as "fundamentally an agglomeration of villages
with their surviving patches of common around a mediaeval seaport." This
is accurate vision; but when he discerns "even in the utmost
magnificence of Paris, say, its Place de l'Etoile, its spread of
boulevards, but the hunter's tryst by the fallen tree, with its
radiating forest rides, each literally straight," I cannot help
suspecting the over-ingenuity of a prolific intellect. The view of
London as a growth from embryos, and the view of Paris as the outcome of
atavistic instinct, belong to different planes of scientific thinking.
That Haussmann in reconstructing Paris was merely an unconscious hunter
and woodlander, building as automatically as a bee, is a fantastic
hypothesis; since cities, if they are to be built on a plan at all,
cannot avoid some unifying geometrical pattern; and there are not very
many possibilities.... In the department of Eu-Politogenics we shall be
confronted with the problem of consciously overriding what evolution has
unconsciously evolved, and building towards a fairer future. No doubt
much of our creation will be imitation, and Professor Geddes is
particularly suggestive in bidding us, at least, to be aware which of
the tangled strands of influence we desire to follow; but a measure of
artistic free-will remains. With the development of a corporate
conscience we should be able to turn out far more satisfactory shells
than many that have blundered into being. "Garden City" is only a
particular application of the science of Civics....

Eu-Politogenics concerns itself, however, with more than the mere
configuration of our human shell. Its colour and the music it holds are
considerations no less important. But they are too important to touch at
the fag-end of an article. Professor Geddes must, however, be
congratulated on a stimulating paper, and