THE PHILOSOPHICAL BASIS 15 



elusive ; but it is a metaphysical argument, not 

 one with which Natural Science is concerned 

 directly. In framing and attempting to answer 

 her own deeper questions, Metaphysics uses the 

 results of Natural Science, as indeed of all other 

 branches of inquiry. But this does not make 

 Natural Science a branch of Metaphysics, or 

 remove the essential difference between the 

 subjects of the two studies. 



The object of Natural Science, then, is to 

 fit together a consistent and harmonious model 

 which shall represent to our minds the phe- 

 nomena which act on our senses. We need not 

 fear that this limitation will lower the dignity or 

 circumscribe unduly the extent of our inquiries. 

 Whether we look inwards or outwards, the 

 complexity of the phenomena seems boundless : 



Boundless inward in the atom ; boundless outward in 

 the whole. 



The more we learn, the more various and 

 intricate are the new avenues of research which 

 open before us. As has been well said, the 

 larger grows the sphere of knowledge, the greater 

 becomes its area of contact with the unknown. 



So complex would be an entire mental picture 

 of phenomena, that divisions of Natural Science 

 have arisen, each of them tending more and 

 more to demand the exclusive attention of the 

 specialist. These divisions are purely arbitrary ; 

 they have arisen partly from differences in 

 methods of inquiry, partly from historical reasons. 

 Moreover, they are variable, and are shifted from 

 time to time according to the needs of each 



