10 EMILE BOUTROUX 



himself back, by a movement just as exag- 

 gerated, from right to left, and so on ad in- 

 finitum. Science — culture, culture — science 

 would thus become like the two extremes of the 

 oscillation of a pendulum and the very pre- 

 tension of the science of the present day to 

 a universal hegemony would be nothing but 

 the prelude to the compensating triumph of 

 culture. 



That way of resolving the problem a priori, 

 is too simple. There is nothing to prove that 

 humanity must repeat itself to all eternity, 

 and it may very well be that, at a certain 

 moment of its development, the oscillatory 

 movement may give place to a definite prog- 

 ress in one of the two directions, to the exclu- 

 sion of the other. 



Science, the champions of "Scientism" may 

 say, has, in our day especially, acquired new 

 characteristics and it is not proper to judge 

 of its destiny in the future by the vicissitudes 

 of a past dead beyond hope of resurrection. 

 Human affairs move not only by alternation 

 but also by evolution proper and all evolu- 

 tion is irreversible. 



