The Evolution of the Sciences 



electricity their ideas have been completely re- 

 modelled under the influence of Faraday and 

 Maxwell. To take a recent instance, our ideas 

 on radio-activity would not have developed so 

 quickly had it not been for the daring hypotheses 

 of Lodge, Rutherford and J. J. Thomson. 



I am pleased to think that this scientific 

 intercourse is profitable for all nations, and for 

 this reason I bring my modest contribution with 

 pleasure to this international exchange. I have 

 no intention to teach scientists anything. I 

 only wish to interest those who love science 

 as outsiders in the general ideas which form the 

 atmosphere of the laboratory and, above all, 

 to make them familiar with that superior form 

 of common sense which is called the scientific 

 spirit. 



As a rule the French genius prefers lucidity 

 to depth. It will not be satisfied till it has re- 

 duced ideas to their simplest form. Further, a 

 lengthy training in literature has taught it that 

 lucidity can only be obtained by order, by 

 methodical exposition rising from the known 

 to the unknown, from the simple to the com- 

 posite. 



XVlll 



