164 | ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1944 
tomorrow, the ideals, the aims, the methods, and the integrity of the 
scientific approach to facts and to problems. 
We do not forget the dictum of Rabelais, “Science without con- 
science is damnation.” Wartime drives this home with bitter and 
tragic intensity. But we may say with great assurance that science 
with conscience has an essential part to play in procuring and main- 
taining world conditions in which peace can endure. 
All who have the ideal of world citizenship at heart, all who have 
the far vision of things that have been and of things that may be, 
and the realistic grasp of things that are, must cooperate in the great 
task of bringing into the affairs of mankind upon this earth some 
semblance of the order, beauty, and harmony of the universe of 
stars. Toward this end, both directly and indirectly, astronomy and 
astronomers can play a part; and it may prove to be a part which 
no one else can play for them because they, the astronomers, are the 
people with the fullest understanding of the cosmic background. 
