78 The Bible of Nature 



(3) Another line of argument is less easily dealt 

 with. The scientific position is that natural hap- 

 penings are due to properties resident in the given 

 material, whether it be a nebula or a dew-drop. 

 But do we know all the resident properties ? May 

 there not be resident properties as yet undiscov- 

 ered ? May there not be resident properties which 

 are by their very nature beyond scientific discovery? 

 The answer to this argument is Experiment. We 

 can work only with the resident properties that 

 we know, and if by experiment we get a result 

 which cannot be accounted for in terms of the 

 known resident properties, then we must admit 

 that some resident properties have escaped detec- 

 tion, and are there though we cannot define them. 

 As a matter of fact, this commonplace of scien- 

 tific procedure has often led to the discovery of 

 previously unknown resident properties. But if 

 we can give an adequate account of an occurrence 

 in the laboratory in terms of known resident prop- 

 erties, we are justified in trying to do the same for 

 the grandest cosmic phenomena. If we could 

 convince ourselves, as some have convinced them- 

 selves, that a sum of money can disappear from 

 a safe without any opening, we should have to ad- 

 mit that there are properties resident in matter 

 that the physicist is unaware of. But who can 

 say that he knows of any occurrence in inanimate 

 nature which the known resident properties are 



