SCIENCE AND CULTURE 27 



the condition of all progress and the supreme 

 goal to which all our efforts ought to be 

 directed? 



Nothing is truer than the affirmation re- 

 peated incessantly among us, about the educa- 

 tive value of the sciences, provided the nature 

 and the service of science are correctly un- 

 derstood. True science is not a system of 

 compartments, built once for all, where all the 

 objects found in nature must come by consent 

 or by force to be arranged in order. Science 

 is the very mind of man, exerting itself to un- 

 derstand things and, to succeed in that, as far 

 as possible moulding itself, accommodating 

 itself, enlarging itself, diversifying itself in 

 order to pass in its vision beneath the super- 

 ficial and uniform aspect of beings and to pen- 

 etrate to some extent their infinite and subtle 

 individuality. 



That is why the science which is truly edu- 

 cative is not the science which assumes to be 

 complete, finished and infallible in its logical 

 simplicity. It is the science which works, 

 which seeks, feels its way, criticises itself, cor- 

 rects itself, considers itself always provisional 



