166 THE ANATOMY OF SCIENCE 



elements with which we are familiar. In spite of 

 the enormously greater reach of modern tele- 

 scopes, the stellar universe is very much smaller 

 than it formerly was, and we can imagine the 

 modern child saying, 



Twinkle, twinkle, little star, 



How I used to wonder what you are. 



Indeed, after the discovery that just two kinds 

 of building blocks suffice for our whole galaxy, 

 it seems that greater restrictions have been 

 placed upon speculative philosophy than ever 

 before in the whole history of science. 



But let us beware of too much complacency. 

 The discovery that millions of compounds are 

 composed of a hundred elements is now followed 

 by the discovery that the hundred elements are 

 composed of two sub-elements. Yet even if you 

 and I and the stars are nothing but protons and 

 electrons, this knowledge does not at present 

 aid us much in solving the problem of the con- 

 stitution of the proteins. Have we not seen in 

 the last chapter how the great science of me- 

 chanics is helpless in the face of large numbers 

 and must call to its aid the alien methods of 

 thermodynamics? Many of the problems of 

 chemistry for a long time to come must be 



