INFLUENCE ON RECENT SCIENCE 101 



tion; is to attempt the limit of simplicity in scientific 

 procedure. Why Descartes chose such a postulate as 

 the criterion of matter, is directly traceable to his 

 fundamental dictum: cogito, ergo sum. If his own 

 existence is real only because of thought, and if mind 

 or thought be the criterion of all reality, form replaces 

 substance, and the extent of matter is its essential 

 quality. Although Descartes went further in this di- 

 rection than most men of science are willing to go, 

 yet he has imposed his method on science to the present 

 day and we are still industriously building worlds as we 

 think them to be. 



Dazzling as the system of Descartes appears when 

 viewed as a whole, it has a foundation of sand and an 

 imaginary rather than a substantial superstructure. 

 Consider his statements: space or matter is infinite in 

 extent and continuous in character, and in the begin- 

 ning it was divided in equal parts which were then 

 moved with a force sufficient to separate them. If 

 matter fills all space, or rather is space, where was the 

 additional space to permit of this separation and what 

 then filled the interstices between the separated parts? 

 Again, the impact and grinding of particle on par- 

 ticle are supposed to have reduced them to uniform 

 spheres and the dust of this attrition then served to 

 fill the spaces left in such a pile of spheres. This 

 dust is of all shapes and so fine that there is always 

 at hand just the proper quantity to fill any space be- 



