354 CREATIVE EVOLUTION 



Such, then, was the directing idea of the reform 

 by which both the science of nature and mathematics, 

 which serves as its instrument, were renewed. Modern 

 science is the daughter of astronomy ; it has come 

 down from heaven to earth along the inclined plane of 

 Galileo, for it is through Galileo that Newton and his 

 successors are connected with Kepler. Now, how did 

 the astronomical problem present itself to Kepler ? 

 The question was, knowing the respective positions 

 of the planets at a given moment, how to calculate 

 their positions at any other moment. So the same 

 question presented itself, henceforth, for every material 

 system. Each material point became a rudimentary 

 planet, and the main question, the ideal problem whose 

 solution would yield the key to all the others was, the 

 positions of these elements at a particular moment being 

 given, how to determine their relative positions at any 

 moment. Ni&amp;gt; doubt the problem cannot be pur in these 

 precise terms except in very simple cases, for a schema 

 tized reality ; for we never know the respective positions 

 of the real elements of matter, supposing there are 

 real elements ; and, even if we knew them at a given 

 moment, the calculation of their positions at another 

 moment would generally require a mathematical effort 

 surpassing human powers. But it is enough for us to 

 know that these elements might be known, that their 

 present positions might be noted, and that a superhuman 

 intellect might, by submitting these data to mathematical 

 operations, determine the positions of the elements at 

 any other moment of time. This conviction is at the 

 bottom of the questions we put to ourselves on the 

 subject of nature, and of the methods we employ to 

 solve them. _That is why every law in static form 

 seems to us as a provisional instalment or as a particular 



