131 THE LIFE OF SCIENCE 



ground, and because of this do not like to look backward. It is a 

 vicious circle : why should they look that way if there is nothing 

 for them to see? Their history of science does not even go as far 

 back as the seventeenth century; they are prone to believe that 

 almost everything worthwhile was done in the nineteenth or in 

 the twentieth century. Now in this they are most certainly wrong. 

 The most astounding results were obtained in the most recent 

 times, simply because they were the latest; but these results were 

 made possible only by all antecedent efforts; they would have 

 been utterly impossible without them. All the preparatory work 

 left undone by our ancestors would have to be done by us now 

 or by our children later. The results of the present are more com- 

 plex, and more valuable than those of the past, in fact they have 

 superseded the latter; but there is every reason to suppose that 

 in their turn they will be superseded by those of the future. At 

 all times there have been "moderns" who could not help thinking 

 that their ways as compared with those of the "ancients" were 

 almost final. One of the main functions of the history of science 

 is to correct such mistakes and to give us, who are the "moderns" 

 of today, a less conceited view of our share in the total of human 

 evolution. Of course this age of ours is a very wonderful one, and, 

 for us who are living in it, is undoubtedly for that very reason the 

 most wonderful of all; but we must bear in mind that such 

 privileged ages have succeeded one another as the generations 

 themselves. Even as young lovers have sincerely felt in their ex- 

 altation that the world was never more beautiful than as they saw 

 it, even so each great discovery which enabled scientists to pene- 

 trate somewhat deeper below appearances and to push the barriers 

 of ignorance and darkness a little further away, may have given 

 them the illusion that they had finally reached the heart of the 

 mystery and that they were the first to understand the universe 

 thoroughly. 



There is also a very good practical and philosophical motive 

 for devoting at least as much attention to the more distant 

 achievements as to the later ones, and that is, that the former, 



