With the Faculty
IN ORDER TO CLIMB the ziggurats at Babylon and Nineveh—as well as to see South Pacific in New York—John B. Stearns '16, Professor of Greek and Latin, who is on sabbatical leave this semester, left Hanover early in February for the first lap in a colorful journey.
Having never been in Iraq or Iran and "not enough in Syria or Turkey," Professor Stearns, who teaches a course in the Origins of the Classical Tradition in Art, planned to start out for these countries in a leisurely fashion, by way of Marseilles, Naples, Pompeii, and Alexandria. At Beirut, however, his pace will accelerate to a breath-taking extent. Going inland, he hopes to visit such cities as Ba'albeck, Palmyra, Ras Shamra, Djebeil, Tyre, and Sidon, in such countries as Lebanon, Syria and Hashemite Jordan. From Syria he will fly to Baghdad, and remain there for a few weeks,—not to rest but to climb the ziggurats mentioned above. He then hopes to visit Persepolis in Iran, and several ancient sites on the coast of Asia Minor, among them, Ephesus, Miletus, Halicarnassus and Troy.
A movie camera and a camera with a good supply of color film—for slides to be used in Professor Stearns' courses—will be invaluable adjuncts to this Arabian Nights itinerary. Knowing him to be an inveterate collector of native costumes from remote and interesting parts of the world, Professor Stearns' friends expect that he will return with a great deal more luggage than he started out with.
HERBERT W. HILL, Professor of History, and New Hampshire's Democratic candidate for the Governorship in 1948, has been appointed by President Truman to the U.S. Assay Commission. Professor Hill's appointment to the 14- member board is an honorary one, usually awarded by the President as public recognition to leading Democrats throughout the country.
Serving also on the commission are representatives of the Federal Bureau of Standards and the Federal Bench, who are named annually to test the weight and quality of United States coins.
Professor Hill attended the first meeting of the Commission at the Philadelphia Mint on February 8. He is the first New Hampshire man in recent years to be so honored.
To PHILOSOPHERS the Pyramids have always represented the riddles underlying philosophy itself—of human life, time, and eternity. Eugen Rosenstock Huessy, Professor of Social Philosophy, who goes to Egypt for his sabbatical leave this semester, is fulfilling a dream he has had for 45 years. He hopes to find there verification for the basis of a theory which he has been in the process of developing over a period of years. It is his belief that the Pyramids were built in the pattern of a certain triangular light phenomenon which is visible only in the skies of tropical climates. Since Professor Huessy has a sound knowledge of hieroglyphics—he translated his first Egyptian text at the age of 15—he will have access to records unavailable to most scholars. From studies he has already made he believes that he may find additional evidence which will throw light on some of the ancient Egyptian religions, and provide clues to the origins of the early calendar.
The conception of unity as applied to countries and religious belief stems from Egypt, as well as the ideas of an omnipresent God. A study of nationalism and monotheism in relation to these early conceptions is a further development which Professor Huessy hopes to include in his research. He will spend most of his time in Luxor.
WING-TSIT CHAN, Professor of Chinese Culture, has been invited to deliver the Machette Foundation lectures on Chinese philosophy at Wesleyan University this month. Professor Chan follows another philosopher connected with Dartmouth—William E. Hocking, Visiting Fellow in Philosophy—who gave the Foundation lectures last year at this time.
Professor Chan has also been honored by the invitation to present, under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies, a series of six lectures on "Religious Trends in Revolutionary China." Beginning last fall and continuing through next July, these talks are being given before audiences at Columbia, Cornell, Smith, Oberlin, and other colleges and universities. Those to be delivered at the University of Chicago will be done under the Haskell Foundation. The lectures will later be published by the Columbia University Press.
Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for 1948-49, Professor Chan spent last year in China. It is his belief that in spite of present difficulties, channels to the Chinese people can be maintained through missionaries, educators, and others friendly to China. In a recent address before the Foreign Policy Association in Minneapolis, he advocated early U. S. recognition of the Communist Government as a means for keeping these channels open.
JOHN G. GAZLEY, Professor of History, represented Dartmouth at a conference of teachers of International Relations, at Charlottesville, Va., January 26- 28. This conference, sponsored by the Brookings Institution, provided delegates with an opportunity for exchanging views and experiences in the field of International Relations instruction.
This summer Professor Gazley will again be a consultant for the Mount Holyoke Institute on the United Nations, which is sponsored by leading colleges and international organizations. At both the 1948 and 1949 sessions he acted as discussion leader. He is the faculty adviser for the Dartmouth College International Relations Club, one of the most active undergraduate groups on the campus.
ANTICIPATING a busy vacation, John B. Stearns '16, Professor of Greek and Latin, plans to visit ancient sites in Beirut, Baghdad, Troy, Tyre, and other famous places of interest to classicists.
THE RIDDLE OF THE PYRAMIDS has always intrigued Prof. Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, who has gone to Egypt on sabbatical leave to try to verify a theory he has developed over the years.
