72 THE LIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE 



ingenuity. At the same time we have turned to these 

 new manifestations of matter and energy with the 

 hope that in them we have at last found the materials 

 for a new and lasting scientific cosmogony. But the 

 edifice differs in appearance only from that built 

 long ago by Descartes; and the materials in both 

 are the same, changed in name but not in sub- 

 stance. 



By a scientific cosmogony, as distinguished from 

 revelation and from metaphysics, is here meant that 

 we first postulate an archetypal form of substance and 

 certain fundamental forces, few in number and in- 

 herent in this entity, and that then the universe, as it 

 now exists, follows as the result of the continued 

 action of these forces on this substance. That is, the 

 state of the universe may be expressed at any time 

 subsequent to the initial action of the forces by a set 

 of mathematical or verbal formulae. And if we could 

 actually, as we can theoretically, reverse the action of 

 these forces in time and in direction, the primal 

 condition of the universe would again result. It is 

 furthermore postulated that this archetypal substance 

 existed originally in the form of minute particles, 

 separate from each other and exactly similar in char- 

 acter, and that the forces acting on these particles were 

 in such perfect balance that the total value of their 

 effect was zero. From some cause, generally unex- 

 plained, this balance was destroyed and, like a clock 



