Galois and the theory of groups : a bright star in mathesis
Galois and the theory of groups : a bright star in mathesis
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伽罗瓦和群论：数学中的一颗明亮的星星
作者：
L. Lieber
萨顿博士的《科学史导论》第一卷已经在自然界中得到了评论，被普遍认为是对我们对文明发展的认识的重大贡献，理所当然地受到称赞。第二卷在四年的短暂间隔后发表，涵盖了十二世纪和十三世纪--或者，正如萨顿博士所说，从“中世纪最伟大的圣经评论家之一”本·埃兹拉拉比到米拉比利斯医生罗杰·培根。可能没有一个学者有能力对这本书进行彻底和权威的批评分析，但总体结论几乎不可能不是作者完全保持并在几个值得注意的方面超过了他在作品的第一部分为自己设定的高而严格的标准。人们很难决定，萨顿博士是因为他在尝试一项如此艰巨的任务时的勇气，还是因为他坚持不懈地完成这项任务的决心而更受赞扬。至少可以肯定的是，未来的科学史学家、整个学术史学家或文明史学家都不会认为他的图书馆装备充足，除非萨顿的一本书触手可及。
THE first volume of Dr. Sarton's “Introduction to the History of Science”, already reviewed in NATURE, was universally and deservedly acclaimed as a major contribution to our knowledge of the growth of civilisation. The second volume, which follows after a brief interval of four years, covers the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—or, as Dr. Sarton puts it, the period from Rabbi ben Ezra, “one of the greatest Biblical commentators of the Middle Ages” to Roger Bacon, theDoctor Mirabilis. There is probably no single scholar competent to subject the book to a thorough and authoritative critical analysis, but the general verdict can scarcely be other than that the author has fully maintained, and, indeed, in several notable respects, surpassed, the high and exacting standard he set himself in the first part of the work. One finds it difficult to decide whether Dr. Sarton is more to be praised for his courage in attempting so stupendous a task, or for his unflagging determination in carrying it to so successful a conclusion it is at least certain that no future historian of science, of learning as a whole, or of civilisation itself, will consider his library adequately equipped unless a copy of Sarton is within arm's reach.