24 THE LIFE OF SCIENCE 



VII 



The mention of the mystery brings us close to the heart of our 

 subject, for it is there on its threshold that art and knowledge and 

 faith meet and kneel together. This will appear more clearly when 

 we have examined how far art and science diverge in the ordinary 

 routine of life. After having completed that examination, briefly 

 as we must, we shall retrace our steps and peep once more into the 

 sanctuary. 



The outstanding difference between art and science is that the 

 latter is progressive while the former is not. Scientific activities 

 are the only ones which are cumulative and progressive. Thus 

 reading the history of science gives us the exhilarating feeling of 

 climbing a mountain; we may go downward sometime for a short 

 run, or we may turn around its slopes, but the general direction is 

 upward, and the top of the mountain is lost in the clouds. Every 

 scientist is enabled to start off from the highest level reached by 

 his predecessors, and if he have it in him, to go higher still. The 

 history of art, on the contrary, is like a glacial landscape, a plain 

 wherein many hills are unevenly scattered. You may climb one of 

 those hills and reach the summit, — but then you cannot continue 

 without going down to the level land; then up again, and so on. 



When I began my ascension of the topless mountain, I used to 

 gloat over that. Progress, here it was indeed and nowhere else. 

 Unfortunately, there is the devil to pay for it. Because of the pro- 

 gressive nature of science, its achievements are evanescent. Each 

 one is bound to be superseded, sooner or later, by a better one 

 and then it loses its practical value and becomes like a neglected 

 tool in a museum showcase. On the other hand, because of art's 

 very unprogressiveness, works of art are eternally young. It is very 

 difficult to read an old scientific treatise, for in order to under- 

 stand it properly, one must know equally well the old science and 

 the new, and everything before and between. It is painful to read 

 Newton, but the plays of Shakespeare are as timely and pleasur- 

 able to-day as they ever were. <( A thing of beauty is a joy forever/' 



