322 COMSTOCK— THE MODERN THEORY [April 22, 



phenomena in which the less famiHar actions of the outside world 

 were expressed in terms of the intimate and much more familiar 

 workings of the human mind. " Nature abhors a vacuum," and like 

 expressions, show the type. 



The progress of science exhibits countless examples of the 

 second type of explanation, for, wherever two or more concepts are 

 merged into a profounder synthesis, there we have an expression in 

 terms of something more jundamcntal. When, for instance, it is 

 said that the phenomena of tidal action are caused by the gravita- 

 tional attraction of the moon, it is stated merely that this action is 

 really one with countless other phenomena which, although dis- 

 similar on the surface, merge with it into the profounder synthesis 

 known as the law of gravitation. 



It is important also to remember in this connection, that /;; this 

 process of explanation we always have left the one concept into 

 which the many have merged, so that as time goes on the alterna- 

 tives of explanation grow fewer and fewer, and in the end — if we 

 can imagine an end — there is no explanation, because there is no 

 more fundamental fact. 



You will pardon me, I am sure, if I say one word more with 

 reference to this question of ultimate explanation. 



We have all heard people say, " Isn't it wonderful that so much 

 is known about electricity, and yet no one knows what electricity 

 \s !" Now, doubtless the observation has some meaning, but cer- 

 tainly not as much as it seems to have; for, after all, what do they 

 mean by " what electricity is " ? Do they expect the announcement 

 some day that electricity is a liquid similar to water, or a gas similar 

 to air? 



It is becoming more and more probable that electricity is the 

 chief constituent of the atoms themselves, and an electron, which is 

 a particle of electricity, if anything is, is certainly less than a ten- 

 thousandth the size of one of the atoms in a water molecule. There- 

 fore after the " Is^' following the word " electricity," there is noth- 

 ing to put which is already familiar, and when the profounder con- 

 cept does come, it will be extremely fundamental, but it will cause 

 the layman no thrill of long-anticipated disclosure. 



A special type of critical attitude is necessary in dealing with 



