INTRODUCTION 15 



birth of the men of genius whose life-work forms the 

 subject-matter of our pages. All nations contain 

 strains of blood, differentiated from each other either 

 in their origin, or through long periods of segregation 

 and inbreeding among the different sections of the 

 people, considered geographically, socially, or indus- 

 trially. But, conversely, identical racial offshoots 

 are found permeating and linking up nations widely 

 separated from each other ; and again, a similarity 

 of social standing added to a common ancestral origin 

 will produce a co-ordination of outlook in quarters 

 which are, geographically speaking, remote from each 

 other. Owing to the intermingling of peoples and 

 types throughout Western Europe, and especially to 

 the peculiar stratigraphical distribution of the Northern 

 race as administrators and directors, it is clear that 

 there is often greater community of intellectual 

 interest between the corresponding sections of various 

 similarly formed nations than between the different 

 strata of any one country. It is due to this pheno- 

 menon that science, the creation of the Northern 

 mind in varying environments, has always proved 

 more cosmopolitan within its limited range than, 

 for instance, such "popular" developments as the 

 technical or manual arts and crafts. 



The essence of the mental state favourable to the 

 growth of science seems to be a recognition of the fact 

 that the careful and patient study of nature is the 

 true method to obtain a knowledge of this aspect of 

 the Universe. " Natura enim non nisi parendo 

 vincitur." From this attitude of mind, common to 

 all the heroes of the romance of science, it is but a 

 step to the religious position which regards inward 



