iv MODERN SCIENCE 347 



it letter by letter ; prior also to things, which awkwardly 

 try to imitate it. It would only have to be diverted an 

 instant from itself in order to step out of its eternity 

 and thereby coincide with all this knowledge and all 

 these things. Its immutability is therefore, indeed, the 

 cause of the universal becoming. 



Such was the point of view of ancient philosophy 

 in regard to change and duration. That modern philo 

 sophy has repeatedly, but especially in its beginnings, 

 had the wish to depart from it, seems to us unquestion 

 able. But an irresistible attraction brings the intellect 

 back to its natural movement, and the metaphysic of 

 the moderns to the general conclusions of the Greek 

 metaphysic. We must try to make this point clear, 

 in order to show by what invisible threads our 

 mechanistic philosophy remains bound to the ancient 

 philosophy of Ideas, and how also it responds to the 

 requirements, above all practical, of our understanding. 



Modern, like ancient, science proceeds according to 

 the cinematographical method. It cannot do otherwise ; 

 all science is subject to this law. For it is of the 



essence of science to handle signs^ which^ it substi- 

 tutes for the objects themselves. These signs un 

 doubtedly differ from those of language by their 

 greater precision and their higher efficacy ; they are none 

 the less tied down to the general condition of the sign, 

 which is to denote a fixed aspect of the reality under an 

 arrested form. In order_ to think jmoveJfneng&quot;lL &quot;~con- 



stantly renewed effort of the mind is necessarv^ Signs 



are made to dispense us with this ^ffortby substituting. ,_ 

 for the moving continuity of things, an artificial recon- 

 nfrnfti^n which is iti pgnivalent in practice and has trie 

 advantage of -being e^si}y hfliDrf 1 ^ &quot;foi* !* &quot; leave 



