Do you not think that there are things which you cannot understand, and yet which are; that some people see things that others cannot? But there are things old and new which must not be contemplate by men’s eyes, because they know – or think they know – some things which other men have told them. Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain.

– Bram Stoker

Dracula, Chapter 14. Van Helsing criticizes the rational man of science Seward for being too narrow and prejudiced in his efforts to diagnose Lucy. Seward does not believe in vampires as there is no proof. Van Helsing on the other hand has an open mind and values the knowlege of the new and the old world. This speaks to the theme of modernity and the advances of science, which have blinded people to the dangers that their disgarded traditions and superstitions once protected them from.