ill be observed that these studies of contemporary workers are
supplemented with a chapter in which a hurried review is taken of the
field of cosmical, of physical, and of biological science, with
reference to a few of the problems that are still unsolved. As we have
noted the clearing up of mystery after mystery in the past, it may be
worth our while in conclusion thus to consider the hordes of mysteries
which the investigators of our own age are passing on to their
successors. For the unsolved problems of to-day beckon to the alluring
fields of to-morrow.

I. THE BRITISH MUSEUM

IN the year 1753 a remarkable lottery drawing took place in London.
It was authorized, through Parliament, by "his gracious Majesty" King
George the Second. Such notables as the archbishop of Canterbury and the
lord chancellor of the realm took official interest in its success. It
was advertised far and wide--as advertising went in those days--in the
_Gazette_, and it found a host of subscribers. Of the fifty thousand
tickets--each costing three pounds--more than four thousand were to
be of the class which the act of Parliament naively describes as
"fortunate tickets." The prizes aggregated a hundred thousand pounds.

To be sure, state lotteries were no unique feature in the England of
that day. They formed as common a method of raising revenue in the
island realm of King George II. as they still do in the alleged
continental portion of his realm, France, and in the land of his
nativity, Germany. Indeed, the particular lottery in question was to
be officered by the standing committee on lotteries, whose official
business was to "secure two and a half million pounds for his Majesty"
by this means. But the great lottery of 1754 had interest far beyond the
common run, for it aimed to meet a national need of an anomalous kind--a
purely intellectual need. The money which it was expected to bring was
to be used to purchase some collections of curiosities and of books that
had been offered the government, and to provide for their future care
and disposal as a public trust for the benefit and use of the people.
The lottery brought the desired money as a matter of course, for the
"fool's tax" is the one form of revenue that is paid without stint and
without grumbling. Almost fifty thousand pounds remained in the hands
of the archbishop of Canterbury and his fellow-trustees after the prizes
were paid. And with this sum the institution was founde