CHEMICAL CLOCK I75 



outside of this motion. We ascertain that all reality can be 

 traced back to a conjunction of space and time, that immobi- 

 lity is synonymous with nullity, and yet we hesitate, not without 

 a certain hypocrisy, to look things in the face. We have been 

 frightened of philosophy. We have been warned, and rightly 

 so, against mere intellectual exercises. But now that science 

 brings us back to measurable, concrete facts, which raise new 

 problems, we are forced to attack them, if the conquests of the 

 human mind are to continue, even though these problems 

 have been listed sixty years ago amongst the 'untouch- 

 able' questions reserved for philosophers. We cannot help 

 but smile nowadays when thinking of the ancient quarrels. 

 There is no more room for such childishness, which only 

 existed because of our ignorance and because, the problems 

 being wrongly stated, the extrapolations were false. The 

 modern experimental results have made a hecatomb of theories 

 in 'ism'. A harvest of disturbing facts arises in their place. 

 As they are solidly established, they can hardly give birth to 

 quarrels, but in front of them, deprived of the magnificent 

 confidence of our predecessors, we often feel our reason falter. 

 It must be admitted that these results have sometimes 

 dashed the hopes prematurely expressed with great publicity 

 by certain scientists of the last century who had given rein to 

 their enthusiasm and sentimental convictions to the detriment 

 of those primordial qualities of a scientist: prudence and 

 humility. This cannot be helped. Our immense progress is 

 measured principally by the fact that we now admit that we 

 know nothing — or very little — and that it is quite possible that 

 we shall never know much more. Our science will assuredly 

 progress, and the material conditions of our existence will be 

 transformed — I hesitate to say ameliorated. Day by day we 

 will learn to use with greater skill the elements composed 

 ultimately of pure velocity, that is to say, of space and time. 

 But what benefit will our consciousness, which transforms 

 these velocities into a universe, derive therefrom? How will 

 our happiness be increased? These are vain questions. There 

 is no doubt that a new era is beginning from a philosophical 



