L] SCIENCE AND CULTURE. 17 



years before. The foundations of mathematics were 

 so well laid by them, that our children learn their 

 geometry from a book written for the schools of Alex- 

 andria two thousand years ago. Modern astronomy 

 is the natural continuation and development of the 

 work of Hipparchus and of Ptolemy ; modern physics 

 of that of Democritus and of Archimedes ; it was long 

 before modern biological science outgrew the know- 

 ledge bequeathed to us by Aristotle, by Theophrastus, 

 and by Galen. 



We cannot know all the best thoughts and sayings 

 of the Greeks unless we know what they thought 

 about natural phenomena. We cannot fully appre- 

 hend their criticism of life unless we understand the 

 extent to which that criticism was affected by 

 scientific conceptions. We falsely pretend to be the 

 inheritors of their culture, unless we are penetrated, 

 as the best minds among them were, with an unhesi- 

 tating faith that the free employment of reason, in 

 accordance with scientific method, is the sole method 

 of reaching truth. 



Thus I venture to think that the pretensions of 

 our modern Humanists to the possession of the 

 monopoly of culture and to the exclusive inheritance 

 of the spirit of antiquity must be abated, if not 

 abandoned. But I should be very sorry that any- 

 thing I have said should be taken to imply a desire 

 on my part to depreciate the value of classical educa- 

 tion, as it might be and as it sometimes is. The 

 native capacities of mankind vary no less than their 

 opportunities ; and while culture is one, the road by 



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