THE INDIRECT JUSTIFICATION OF ENTELECHY 211 



to be acknowledged. But that is by no means satisfactory. 

 Mechanical physics offers a real explanation of the problem 

 of the combination of properties, and at the same time 

 it allows us to understand another important problem, 

 which is insoluble in any other way : the problem which may 

 be called the systematics of natural events and properties 

 in the Inorganic. 



In fact, mechanical physics in its ultimate aim tries 

 to prove all combinations of properties in one thing on 

 the one hand, and the totality of possible properties (and 

 events) as such, on the other, to be the mere outcome 

 of the possible kinds of equilibrium or causality of 

 elemental matter. To mention only one class of phenomena 

 that may be thus explained : mechanical physics shows 

 us firstly why there may be so many kinds of typical 

 atoms, it shows us secondly why there may be so many 

 kinds of molecules, and it shows us thirdly why there 

 may be so many kinds of crystalline systems. In order 

 to do so it only has to solve certain problems about the 

 possible types of equilibria in space, first of electrons, 

 and then of atoms, and finally of molecules. Thus all its 

 problems, to some extent, become mere problems of 

 geometry. 



All that we have said is absolutely independent of 

 the present state of mechanical physics ; it is true whether 

 classical mechanics holds the field, operating with one kind 

 of material elements (" mass "-elements) and two kinds of 

 primary forces, or whether we shall have to reduce mass to 

 electrons, and to consider space as a sort of activity in 

 the form of " ether." 



Future mechanical science, then, will have altogether 



