64 Introduction 



it is thus expensive in time and money. Such honest work brings us 

 nearer to the goal — slowly, very slowly, "pedetemptim"; careless, dis- 

 honest work is much faster but it leads nowhere; it is apparently cheap, 

 yet wasteful. It leads downward, not upward. The results of it (books 

 or articles) are hopeless mixtures of good and evil, truth and. error, 

 wherein the good and true can no longer be separated from the wrong. 

 Though I have spent thirty-five years of my life doing naught but 

 studying the history of science, I am only beginning to know it. Study- 

 ing and teaching the history of science is a full-time job. If adminis- 

 trators cannot afford to intrust the teaching to specialists and to give the 

 latter full-time for it, it would be better for all concerned to abandon it. 

 No teaching at all is much cheaper and far less dangerous than bad 

 teaching. 



Whom will the teacher reach? Who will come to him? Most of 

 my students are scientific or pre-medical students, but a few are at- 

 tracted from the other departments. As always happens, many will 

 select such courses with little reason and without profit, but to others, 

 a very small minority, these lectures will remain a source of inspiration, 

 perhaps the deepest of their college life. The profession of historian 

 of science hardly exists, and hence it would not be fair to encourage 

 students, except a very few, to prepare themselves for it. However, the 

 study of the history of science will help to qualify good men or women 

 for many other para-scientific professions. I mean by that, the literary, 

 historical, philosophical, or even administrative, professions connected 

 with scientific investigations or with scientific teaching, scientific libra- 

 ries and museums, the editing of scientific periodicals or the writing of 

 scientific books. These para-scientific professions are already numerous, 

 and they require every day more men and better men. 



The responsibilities of the historian of science are greater than they 

 appear on the surface. To write or teach a good account of the devel- 

 opment of science is necessary but not sufficient, or rather it is only a 

 means to an end. The end is to help the integration of scientific teach- 

 ing in all its forms and the integration of our spiritual life. 



The teacher of the history of science has the opportunity of showing 

 the interrelation of the branches of science, the profound unity of science 

 behind its infinite variety. In particular, he may show bewildered 

 students how all the courses which they have taken are related to each 

 other and all the things they have learned hang together; such teaching 

 may be for them the best viaticum, a reassurance; the feeling of the 

 unity of science will strengthen their own integrity. 



His opportunity, or call it his duty, is even greater, for he must teach 

 the unity not only of science but also of mankind. Men are united by 

 their highest purposes, such as the search for truth. There obtains, 

 therefore, between them a profound unity, in spite of endless differences 



