i8 PHYSICAL SCIENCE 



idea of a single arbitrary section, cut through an 

 imaginary model of it, seems only to need stating 

 in these terms to be disbelieved. 



The study of physics enables us to examine 

 nature from a broader standpoint than that used 

 by mechanics. But here again other aspects 

 must be ignored. As Mach has well said, 

 ** Physical Science does not pretend to be a 

 complete view of the world ; it simply claims that 

 it is working towards such a complete view in the 

 future. The highest philosophy of the scientific 

 investigator is precisely this toleration of an 

 incomplete conception of the world and the 

 preference for it rather than for an apparently 

 perfect but inadequate conception." 



When the experimental study of nature was 

 new, when man first caught a glimpse of order 

 in the multiplicity of phenomena, such a view 

 of the all-comprehending character of physical 

 science seemed just. Let us again listen to 

 Mach :— 



** The French encyclopaedists of the eighteenth 

 century imagined they were not far from a final 

 explanation of the world by physical and mechani- 

 cal principles ; Laplace even conceived a mind 

 competent to foretell the progress of nature for 

 all eternity, if but the masses, their positions, and 

 initial velocities were given. In the eighteenth 

 century, this joyful over-estimation of the scope 

 of the new physico-mechanical ideas is pardon- 

 able. Indeed, it is a refreshing, noble, and 

 elevating spectacle ; and we can deeply sym- 

 pathise with this expression of intellectual joy, 

 so unique in history. But now, after a century 

 has elapsed, after our judgment has grown more 



