178 THE LIFE OF SCIENCE 



sider the matter from the technical and practical point of view; 

 in the second, we consider it from the purely human one. There 

 is no conflict, for the generalization and abstraction are made by 

 men and for men; both points of view are not opposite or ex- 

 clusive; on the contrary they complete one another. The second 

 is essentially that of the historian of science. It is not only legiti- 

 mate but necessary if we wish to integrate science into our cul- 

 ture and not use it only as an instrument foreign to it. 



Historians of science like other specialists are so busy, so 

 deeply immersed in their own activity, that they have no time to 

 think about it, to consider it as it were from the outside, and they 

 run the risk of adding new misunderstandings : namely, these two 

 capital ones : the exaggerated value accorded to scientific progress 

 on the one hand, and the underestimation of progress in other 

 fields. 



Let us examine the second first, for it is perhaps the more com- 

 mon as well as the more blatant. The reality of social progress is 

 not only underestimated but often called into question. Are we 

 better — morally and socially — than our ancestors; is the body 

 politic of which we are units healthier? There are plenty of rea- 

 sons to make us doubt it. The organization of good activities may 

 be steadily improving, but the organization of vicious ones is also 

 improving, and one may well wonder: which side is gaining? 



Virtues and vices are as old as mankind but their forms and 

 combinations vary: are the modern forms better or worse? Is any 

 advance in the right direction tangible enough, and other than 

 precarious? Our suspicions and fears cannot be quelled for very 

 long. Consider war : though the number of wars may be steadily 

 decreasing (is it really?) their size is increasing. Where is the 

 gain? If there be social progress it is exceedingly slow, interrupted 

 by many vicissitudes, and jeopardized by many retrogressions. 

 However, is our impatience justified? Beginning with ancient 

 Egypt and Mesopotamia we have some sixty centuries of re- 

 corded experience: this may seem very much; it is in reality very 



