From Aristarchus there is, logically, only one step to Copernicus; from Hippocrates, only a step to Paracelsus; from Archimedes, only a step to Galileo. And yet the continuity was broken for a time-span nearly as long as that from the beginning of the Christian era to our day. Looking back at the road along which human science travelled, one has the image of a destroyed bridge with rafters jutting out from both sides; and in between, nothing.
