30 THE LIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE 



ments. The day may come when a new war will arise 

 between science and religion on the issue that the de- 

 ductions of science are too metaphysical to be of value. 



It may be necessary, when the laws and phenomena 

 of a science are vaguely known, to employ a hypothet- 

 ical method. And a hypothesis may then be of great 

 use in creating a certain unity amongst diverse ele- 

 ments. But the question may well be asked, whether 

 physical science has not outgrown a method proper for 

 the alchemist and the astrologer. 



The attempt to unite the phenomena of all branches 

 of physics in a few general laws and to explain their 

 cause by the aid of atoms has engaged the attention 

 of the greatest men of science for more than a century. 

 They have spent upon these problems infinite thought 

 and pains, and in the end we have a body of laws firmly 

 established on experimental evidence, but the causes of 

 these laws are as hopelessly obscure as ever. The 

 atom has failed to satisfy the requirements, and now 

 the electron is added to explain new facts, an hypothesis 

 on an hypothesis. As our knowledge increases, who 

 can doubt but that these, in their turn, will give place to 

 others still more complex, if the same method is pur- 

 sued, until the succession of atoms and sub-atoms will 

 make the whole atomistic idea an absurdity ? 



Just as we have, after centuries of incessant con- 

 troversy, been forced to accept the fact that we cannot 

 by reasoning from our consciousness obtain an ob- 



