Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



called molecular forces compel us (unless we make 

 the very artificial assumption that a variety of 

 attractions and repulsions co-exist in matter along- 

 side of, and yet totally distinct from, the attraction 

 of gravitation) to suppose very great modifications 

 of the law for small distances. In fact, as we 

 saw of Boyle's law before — the Newtonian law 

 is probably metaphysical — true under certain 

 limited conditions — and the appearance of finality 

 has been given to it by the fact that our observa- 

 tions have been made under such or similar condi- 

 tions. When we extend our observation into 

 quite other regions of space, the law of the 

 inverse square ceases to appear as even an 

 approximation to the truth — as, for instance, the 

 law of the inverse jijth power has been thought 

 to be nearer the mark for small molecular 

 distances. 



And indeed the state of the great theories of 

 Science in the present day — the confusion in which 

 the Atomic theory of physics finds itself, the dismal 

 insufficiency of the Darwin theory of the survival 

 of the fittest ; the collapse in late times of one of 

 the fundamental theories of Astronomy, namely 

 that of the stability of the lunar and planetary 

 orbits ; the cataclysms and convulsions which 

 Geology seems just now to be undergoing ; the 

 appalling and indeed insurmountable difficulties 

 which attach to the Undulatory theory of Light ; 

 the final wreck and abandonment of the Value- 

 theory, the foundation-theory of Political Economy 

 — all these things do not seem to point to very 



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