MODERN SCIENCE 7 



But there is yet another aspect of the History of 

 Science. Our scientific system of its nature claims an 

 independence of all race, nationality, or creed. It is of 

 all studies the most truly international. The scientific 

 man may, better than most", claim with St. Paul that 

 he is a citizen of no mean city, that he is the true 

 citizen of the world. Nevertheless, in all countries and 

 at all periods there has been a certain local and temporal 

 stamp in the Science that has been produced. These 

 differences, however, concern the processes and methods 

 of Science rather than its results or aims. Now among 

 the processes and methods of Modern Science there are, 

 as it seems to me, certain new factors of an order that 

 the world has not before seen ; and though he must be 

 sanguine indeed who believes that, of our nature and 

 because we are who we are, the guardianship of the 

 scientific treasury will always remain with us, yet these 

 new factors give us some hope of a permanence in our 

 scientific results of a character never before attained. 

 It is the facts on which the hope of such permanence 

 may be based that I propose to discuss to-day. 



To bring these points in our scientific system into 

 adequate relief we need some basis of comparison. 

 I propose to use for this purpose the best defined scien- 

 tific system of antiquity that is presented to the historian's 

 vipw, I mean the scientific system of the Greeks. 



Greek Science may be said to take its origin among 

 the Ionian colonies in the seventh century B.C. Whence 

 did it derive ? We may probably distinguish three roots : 

 W the Mesopotamian. (2) the Egyptian, and (3) the 

 Minoan ; and our knowledge of these three sources is in 

 the order named. From Mesopotamia the Ionian Greek 

 derived his basic mathematical conceptions, together 

 with much of his astronomical and cosmological system. 



A 5 



