56 THE LIFE OF SCIENCE 



fertile. It is the most powerful factor of human progress. As Mach 

 has perfectly put it : cc Science has undertaken to replace wavering 

 and unconscious adaptation by a methodical adaptation, quicker 

 and decidedly conscious/' It is the historian's duty to evidence all 

 the scientific facts and ideas that make for peace and civilization; 

 in this way he will make science's cultural function more secure. 



The international significance of the history of science has not 

 been better grasped thus far, for the simple reason that very few 

 historical studies have been inspired by a real international spirit. 

 For one thing, universal histories have been almost exclusively 

 devoted to the achievements of the Indo-Aryan race. Everything in 

 them gravitates round the development of Europe. Of course this 

 point of view is absolutely false. The history of mankind is too 

 obviously incomplete if it does not include, on the same level as 

 the Western experience, the immense experience of the East. We 

 badly need the knowledge and wisdom of Asia. They have found 

 other solutions to our own problems (the fundamental problems 

 cannot but be the same) and it is of the greatest importance to 

 consider these solutions, and to consider them with humility. They 

 have very often been nearer to truth and beauty than we. Besides, 

 although the development of the Far Eastern countries has been 

 to a great extent independent of our own, there have been far 

 more exchanges, especially in ancient times, than is generally be- 

 lieved, and it is of paramount importance to investigate these 

 matters. 



The progress of mankind is not simply an economic develop- 

 ment; it is much more an intellectual unfolding, as Henry Thomas 

 Buckle has shown with so much force. The whole course of civili- 

 zation is marked by the triumph of the mental laws over the 

 physical — a triumph of man over nature. But to my mind, Buckle 

 has even gone too far in this direction. I am not ready to concede 

 his claim that the changes in every civilized people are dependent 

 solely on three things: (1) The amount of knowledge of the 

 ablest men; (2) The direction of this knowledge; (3) Its diffusion. 



