36 THE LIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE 



There is yet another purpose in science which re- 

 quires simplicity instead of complexity. Physics, to be 

 something more than an intellectual puzzle for the 

 specialist, should enlarge our power over the external 

 world and increase our use of natural resources. Con- 

 sider how great an advance we might make in this 

 direction if hypothesis and occult causes were reduced 

 to a minimum. Instead of a mass of abstruse specu- 

 lations on the nature of ether and matter, our treatises 

 might present a clear and logical discussion of natural 

 phenomena and their laws. The work of Lord Kelvin 

 is typical. He has interspersed in his writings probably 

 a score of models of the atom: now it is a vortex or 

 whirlpool in a continuous fluid ether ; now, a box con- 

 taining gyrostats or wheels spinning on axes ; again, it 

 is a complicated structure of balls, strings, and springs. 

 No two of these agree in principle, and at best repre- 

 sent crudely a limited number of the properties of 

 matter and fail for others. Is there not, after all, 

 something almost pathetic in this incessant striving 

 of the greatest physicist of our times after the un- 

 knowable, building card houses which must be knocked 

 down to provide material for new ones? Certainly 

 more of his great and permanent constructive work 

 would be the property of the world if we had neglected 

 his hypotheses and developed more diligently his ex- 

 periments and his laws. 



On the other hand, it is a serious matter to try to 



