Abstract
SCIENCE is one of the spheres of human activity which knows nothing of boundaries and frontiers, of races and creeds. It appeals neither to tradition nor sentiment, it has no folk-lore or legends. Its study is free to all, it speaks in one language, it has but one object, but it is the handmaid of all art, all industry and all human progress. “Science, like Nature, to which it belongs,” said Davy, “is neither limited by time or space. It belongs to the world and is of no country and no age.” Pasteur's view was that “Science has no nationality because knowledge is the patrimony of humanity, the torch which gives light to the world”. It is justifiable to write of Chinese art, Byzantine art, Moorish architecture, Italian painting, Greek sculpture and Russian literature, but science cannot be divided into such chapters. The contributions of the ancient, the medieval and modern worlds and of all continents are interwoven and inseparable. Illimitable in its extent, the edifice of science may be compared with the temple of art of which Lafcadio Hearn wrote to the musician Krehbiel. In this temple, he said, “the more you advance the more seemingly infinite becomes the vastness of the place, the more interminable its vistas of arches and the more mysterious its endless succession of aisles… The Vatican with its sixty thousand rooms is but a child's toy house compared with one of the countless wings of art's infinite temples.” In the erection of this great structure of science, a multitude from many lands have assisted, and their work is seen to-day in the sky and on the sea, in factory and field and around our hearths and homes, touching every side of life.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
SCIENCE AND NATIONALITY. Nature 152, 253–255 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/152253a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/152253a0