PREFACE 



THE fortunate organization of higher studies in 

 the University of Neuchatel l has, for many 

 years, given M. Arnold Reymond the oppor- 

 tunity of teaching the history of science in a course 

 followed both by the students of the Faculte des Lettres 

 and those of the Faculte des Sciences. That portion of 

 this course which relates to antiquity is the subject of 

 the present publication. Its merits are so apparent 

 and so real that it would be superfluous to insist upon 

 them. 



From the first pages of the book it can be seen with 

 what skill M. Reymond has extricated himself from 

 the learned controversies which the historian must 

 have mastered in order to arrive at truths so deeply 

 hidden to-day ; with what honesty in his references, 

 with what certainty in his choice of details, he retains, 

 in the most simple and clear manner, whatever can 

 effectively give the reader food for thought and help 

 him to revive in all its depth and integrity that ancient 

 Western civilization, the perspective of which is often 

 spoiled and distorted by a purely literary tradition. 



Many great names in the realm of science are also 

 great names in philosophy. However, there is ground 

 for distinction between work of a purely scientific order 

 and speculations having a universal bearing. M. 

 Reymond has striven to define the distinction and to 

 keep as much as possible within the philosophic limit, 

 so that his book, far from covering the same ground as 



1 And now at the University of Lausanne. 



V 



