Modern Science : A Criticism 



of Nature) our knowledge of it must be either 

 absolute or relative. But we cannot know the 

 absolute path ; and as to the relative, why all we 

 can say is that it does not exist (any more than 

 species exists) we cannot break up Nature so ; 

 it is not a thing in Nature, but in our own minds 

 it is a view and a fiction. 1 



Again, let us take an example from Physics 

 Boyle's law of the compressibility of gases. 

 This law states that, the temperature remaining 

 constant, the volume of a given quantity of gas is 

 inversely proportional to its pressure. It is a 

 law which has been made a good deal of, and at 

 one time was thought to be true, i.e., it was thought 

 to be a statement of fact. A more extended and 

 careful observation, however, shows that it is only 

 true under so many limitations, that, like the 

 ellipse in Astronomy, it must be regarded as a 

 convenient fiction and nothing more. It appears 

 that air follows the supposed law pretty well, 

 but not by any means exactly except within very 

 narrow limits of pressure ; other gases, such as 

 carbonic acid and hydrogen, deviate from it very 

 considerably some more than others, and some 

 in one direction and some in the opposite. It was 

 found, among other things, that the nearer a gas 

 was to its liquefying point, the greater was the 

 deviation from the supposed law, and the con- 

 clusion was jumped at that the law was true for 



1 Such fictions, however, are (I need not say) quite necessary 

 as our only means of thinking out, however imperfectly, the 

 problems before us (1920). 



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