NEW CONCEPTIONS IN SCIENCE 



ually the good and the evil altogether subside, are neu- 

 tralized by subsequent generations, absorbed by the in- 

 cessant movement of future ages. But the discoveries of 

 great men never leave us; they are immortal, they contain 

 those eternal truths which survive the shock of empires, 

 outlive the struggles of rival creeds, and witness the decay 

 of successive religions. All these have their different 

 measures and their different standards; one set of opinions 

 for one age, another set for another. The discoveries of 

 genius alone remain ; it is to them that we owe all that we 

 now have ; they are for all ages and all times ; they are es- 

 sentially cumulative, and giving birth to the additions 

 which they subsequently receive, they thus influence the 

 most distant posterity, and after the lapse of centuries 

 produce more effect than at the moment of their promul- 

 gation." l 



Not, then, to the Caesars and Alexanders; not to 

 the bandits and plunderers who have reddened his- 

 tory ; neither to the dreaming messiahs whose hallu- 

 cinations have filled men's minds with empty fan- 

 cies not to these should rise our pantheons ; but 

 rather to those who, in the pursuit of science and 

 of truth, have added to the intellectual wealth of 

 mankind. 



For they are the true gods, the real gods. Eos 

 sahitemus, et secuti laboremus! 



buckle, History of Civilization, vol. i. 



