XIV PREFACE 



light, namely as a physical relationship. There is now less 

 than ever any doubt that a Galileo, Galvani and a Volta, 

 a Newton, Black, Cavendish, Dalton, Davy, Faraday, and 

 Darwin, a Fresnel and Carnot, are related to a Kepler, a 

 Scheele, a Robert Mayer, and a Bunsen, and also to a 

 Pythagoras and Archimedes, in the manner stated in the 

 present book. 



Let anyone who has a sense for portraits examine the 

 plates of this volume; they will tell him the same story as is 

 told in the text from the life and work of the men, only in 

 an even more subtle manner than I have been able to put it. 

 If we take the portraits of the most wide ranging creators of 

 new knowledge - which are to be found among those we 

 have named - I think we shall find from their examination 

 a spiritual profit, an introduction to a world of clearer and 

 more natural thinking, which is far from the life of to-day and 

 from what to-day is often acclaimed as science; a world from 

 which these investigators unselfishly brought forth, as the 

 text tells us, all that forms the foundation of our present 

 progress in knowledge and technical power. At the same 

 time there can be little doubt that these men of science 

 would find little satisfaction in the achievements of our so- 

 called civilisation, so far as they do not really make our life 

 better, but that they would rather seek for progress in 

 morals and true culture, which might have come about as 

 the result of their manner of thought and their scientific 

 achievements. Such advances might yet develop, if these 

 men should come to be understood by us as regards their 

 way of thinking and working, and exert their rightful 

 influence, to a greater extent than has hitherto been the 

 case. I hope that I shall have been successful in contri- 

 buting towards this end. 



The publisher, Mr. T. F. Lehmann, Munich, is to be 

 thanked for much help; he has given me every assistance, 

 particularly in the production of the portraits. 



