ABSTRACT
Language and art have been proved to be independent of race, and there seems no good reason for supposing that scientific interests are biologically inherited independently of cultural circumstances. The Greek people, for instance, are generally recognized to have made the most fundamental and the most distinguished contributions to science. But they never did anything of great importance in this respect before Thales and Pythagoras or after Galen and Ptolemy. All competent histories recognize the role of the Jews in making Saracen science available to Europe. That was indeed a great service. But from the point of view of original contributions, the great names of Maimonides, Ibn Gabirol, and the rest belong to the field of philosophy, rather than of science. The Jews of England seem, in the main, to have had more opportunity in the fields of politics, statesmanship and law.
