LEONARDO AND MODERN SCIENCE 79 



muted. The humanists had paved the way, for the discovery of 

 the classics had sharpened the critical sense of man, but the revo- 

 lution itself could only be accomplished by the experimental 

 philosophers. It is clear that the spirit of individuality, which is so 

 often claimed to be the chief characteristic of this movement, is 

 only one aspect of the experimental attitude. 



It may seem strange that this technical basis of the Renaissance 

 has been constantly overlooked, but that is simply due to the fact 

 that our historians are literary people, having no interest what- 

 ever in craftsmanship. Even in art it is the idea and the ultimate 

 result, not the process and the technique which engross their 

 attention. Many of them look upon any kind of handicraft as 

 something menial. Of course, this narrow view makes it impos- 

 sible for them to grasp the essential unity of thought and tech- 

 nique, or of science and art. The scope of abstract thinking is very 

 limited; if it be not constantly rejuvenated by contact with nature 

 our mind soon turns in a circle and works in a vacuum. The fun- 

 damental vice of the schoolmen was their inability to avow that, 

 however rich experimental premises may be, their contents are 

 limited/ — and there is no magic by means of which it is possible 

 to extract from them more than they contain. 



The fact that Leonardo's main contribution is the introduction, 

 not of a system, but rather of a method, a point of view, caused 

 his influence to be restricted to the few people who were not im- 

 pervious to it. Of course, at almost any period of the past there 

 have been some people — only a very few — who did not need any 

 initiation to understand the experimental point of view, because 

 their souls were naturally oriented in the right way. These men 

 form, so to say, one great intellectual family: Aristotle, Archi- 

 medes, Ptolemy, Galen, Roger Bacon, Leonardo, Stevin, Gilbert, 

 Galileo, Huygens, Newton. . . . They hardly need any incentive; 

 they are all right anyhow. However, Leonardo's influence was even 

 more restricted than theirs, because he could never prevail upon 

 himself to publish the results of his experiments and meditations. 



