46 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
to what extent our methods and re-ults justify the common 
sense conclusion that we are gradually building up a true and 
lasting picture of the universe to which we belong. 
We have seen that description is often in error and theory 
inadequate, and as even the great empirical laws of Nature 
constantly require revision as knowledge advances, we cannot, 
I think, escape from the conclusion that much of our inter- 
pretation is probably not right, and some of it certainly wrong ; 
that none of it is final. We have not yet touched the absolute. 
The question as to whether we ever can touch the absolute 
is, perhaps, a metaphysical rather than a merely scientific one, 
and we shall not deal with it at any length here ; but it is a 
matter of importance for every student of Nature to inquire 
whether or no his work is tending towards this ideal end. 
The question arises, Does our work as naturalists help us to 
see deeper into Nature, or not ? 
If you think of it you will see that a complete description 
is an explanation, that when you have described everything 
there is to describe about an object or a phenomenon there is 
nothing more to be said about it. Interpretation, therefore, is 
theoretical description. Now, the completeness of our descrip- 
tion of an object varies directly as what may be called our 
“closeness” to the object concerned. You cannot describe 
the texture of a rock from a distance of half a mile ; indeed, a 
petrologist will seldom allow you to name a rock until you 
have peered into and through its component grains with a 
microscope. ‘That description really does mean the coming 
into closer contact is to be seen in the fact that all descriptions 
hark back to the ultra-microscopic, about which, unfortunately, 
we can only reason and never see. If you attempt to explain 
the formation of worlds, you are driven back to the contem- 
plation of chemical atoms and ultimately to electrons, or 
whatever is considered as the most primitive step in the 
series at the time. The explanation of inheritance turns upon 
the presence or absence of unit characters supposed to be 
stored up in the chromosomes in some unknown way. Even 
the investigations of psychological phenomena when carried 
out to their legitimate lengths send you back to the minutiz 
of things, and so with all explanation. We describe till we 
