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30 IDEAS AND OPINIONS
Let every man judge by himself, by what he has himself read,
not by what others tell him.
If that happens, this Gumbel case, after an unedifying beginning,
may still do good.
FASCISM AND SCIENCE
A letter to Signor Rocco, Minister of Justice and Education
under Mussolini, 1925-1932. Published in Mein Weltbild,
Amsterdam: Querido Verlag, 1934.
My DEAR Sm:
Two of the most eminent and respected men of science in
Italy have applied to me in their difficulties of conscience and
requested me to write to you with the object of preventing,
if possible, a cruel hardship with which men of learning are
threatened in Italy. I refer to an oath of loyalty to the Fascist
system. The burden of my request is that you should please
advise Signor Mussolini to spare the flower of Italy'S intellect
this humiliation.
However much our political convictions may differ, I know
that we agree on one basic point: we both admire the outstanding
accomplishments of the European intellect and see in them
our highest values. Those achievements are based on the freedom
of thought and of teaching, on the principle that the desire
for truth must take precedence over all other desires. It was
this basis alone that enabled our civilization to take its rise in
Greece and to celebrate its rebirth in Italy at the Renaissance.
This, our most valuable possession, has been paid for by the
martyr's blood of pure and great men, for whose sake Italy is
still loved and revered today.
I do not intend to argue with you about what inroads on
human liberty may be justified by reasons of state. But the
pursuit of scientific truth, detached from the practical interests
of everyday life, ought to be treated as sacred by every government,
and it is in the highest interests of all that honest servants
of truth should be left in peace. This is also undoubtedly in the