CHAPTER II 



THE METAPHYSICAL TENDENCIES OF 

 MODERN PHYSICS 



Pero, signer Simplicio, venite pure con le ragioni e con le 

 dimostrazioni vostri o di Aristotile, e non con testi e nude 

 autorita, perche i discorsi nostri hanno a essere intorno al 

 mondo sensibile, e non sopra un mondo di carta. GALILEO. 



IT is a more or less simple thing to discover and 

 follow the main current of thought in a science like 

 physics, which must develop logically or not at all, 

 after the confusion of strife has passed away and only 

 the permanent additions to our knowledge remain. 

 This has been attempted in the former chapter, so far 

 at least as the atomic theory is concerned. It was 

 then shown that if we build up a homogeneous hypoth- 

 esis of the natural phenomena heat, light, sound, and 

 electricity from an analogy to mechanical laws, we 

 inevitably postulate the objective existence of matter, 

 and create a series of fictitious ethers, and of atomic, or 

 indivisible, elements of matter. The claim was also 

 made that this method which attempts to explain the 

 laws of nature not only fails to do so, but also pre- 

 vents the adoption of a better scientific procedure. 



In the first place, it is difficult to point to any scien- 



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