286 SCIENCE AND THE HUMAN MIND 



modern science in its essence has been formulated and 

 developed by the races of North- Western Europe. The 

 scientific conceptions suitable to interpret natural (and 

 indeed supernatural) phenomena to our race are not 

 necessarily suitable for other races. Modern science 

 might have worn a different guise had it developed in 

 other peoples, perhaps would never have developed at 

 all had not the Northern races been impelled to in- 

 vestigate nature experimentally at the right stage in 

 the history of the world. 



But when all criticism is done, we cannot but pause, 

 wondering and amazed at the majesty of the temple 

 of science. Whether we stand within and gaze at 

 the beauty of its proportions and their concord one 

 with another, or whether we pass without and trace 

 the success with which it fits and interprets the spirit 

 of the landscape, we are equally fain to confess that 

 it is the grandest work of the human intellect. And, 

 like a cathedral that has been a shrine for many 

 generations of the sons of men, it can be altered to 

 changing needs. No rearrangement of parts of the 

 superstructure, no addition of mighty tower or soaring 

 spire, need endanger its foundations. Firm on the rock 

 of experience, free from the shifting sands of meta- 

 physical systems, with room on all sides for new aisles 

 and chapels and altars, it stands, a triumph of truth 

 and patient perseverance, and an eternal sanctuary for 

 the human mind. 



