LEONARDO AND MODERN SCIENCE 81 



quackery. One would be a poor man, however, who would not 

 recognize at once in Leonardo's aphorisms a genuine religious 

 feeling, that is, a deep sense of brotherhood and unity. His gen- 

 erosity, his spirit of detachment, even his melancholy, are un- 

 mistakable signs of true nobility. (He often makes me think of 

 Pascal.) He was very lonely, of course, from his own choice, be- 

 cause he needed time and quietness, but also because, being so 

 utterly different, it is easy to conceive that many did not like him. 

 I find it hard to believe that he was very genial, in spite of what 

 Vasari says. Being surrounded by people whose moral standards 

 were rather low or, if these were higher, who were apt to lose their 

 balance and to become hysterical because of their lack of knowl- 

 edge, Leonardo's solitude could but increase, and to protect his 

 equanimity he was obliged to envelop himself in a triple veil of 

 patience, kindness, and irony. 



Leonardo's greatest contribution was his method, his attitude; 

 his masterpiece was his life. I have heard people foolishly regret 

 that his insatiable curiosity had diverted him from his work as a 

 painter. In the spiritual sphere it is only quality that matters. If 

 he had painted more and roamed less along untrodden paths, his 

 paintings perhaps would not have taught us more than do those 

 of his Milanese disciples. While, even as they stand now, scarce 

 and partly destroyed, they deliver to us a message which is so un- 

 compromisingly high that even to-day but few understand it. Let 

 us listen to it; it is worth while. This message is as pertinent and 

 as urgent to-day as it was more than four hundred years ago. And 

 should it not have become more convincing because of all the dis- 

 coveries which have been made in the meanwhile? Do I dream, or 

 do I actually hear, across these four centuries, Leonardo whisper: 

 To know is to love. Our first duty is to know. These people who 

 always call me a painter annoy me. Of course, I was a painter, 

 but I was also an engineer, a mechanic. N4y life was one long 

 struggle with nature, to unravel her secrets and tame her wild 

 forces to the purpose of man. They laughed at me because I was 



