Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/604

 584 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

has been gradually made, not only for housing a hundred or more students and a little Bohemia of artists, literary and other professional people, but also for the rebuilding of the old town of Edinburgh bit by bit. Over five hundred thousand dollars have been expended in the improvement of nearly forty tene- ments and closes, with the consequence of both sanitary and aesthetic improvement, and without alteration of the organic character of this historical region. No portion of this sum has been obtained by gift or loan without interest ; but a moderate return, averaging 4 J^ per cent., has uniformly been paid upon the capital invested in Professor Geddes' lands. At length, in 1896, the Town and Gown Association was organized by the initiative of Professor Geddes, and larger schemes are developing. If the philosophy of education, according to Professor Geddes, is to imply the necessary connection of studies and activities, it is also to include the development of studies as the consequence of activities. The crystallization of all this effort in easily visi- ble form is to be seen in the Outlook Tower.

The Outlook Tower was originally a popular observatory. It commands even finer views of Edinburgh than are to be obtained from the castle, and for the best use of these it is sur- mounted by a camera obscura, originally constructed for purely commercial purposes, now the culmination of this new scientific institute. The ascent of the tower provides one with a cyclo- paedia, the descent, a laboratory.

Although constructed on the scientific method of proceeding from the known to the unknown, the near to the distant, if we begin with the ascent of the tower we should see first the final prod- uct of this method, graphic representations of the entire world. So, logically to follow the method, we must start from the top, but in ascending we may glance at the results. Professor Geddes says : " The intellectual tradition of Edinburgh is not only of education, but of publication ; not only of abstract phi- losophy, but also very largely of concrete encyclopaedias (Bri- tannica. Chambers', etc.); notably, also, of atlases, maps, and gazetteers. Unusually rich and complete in all the elements of a regional survey, it is also interested in world survey, and, if