INFLUENCE ON RECENT SCIENCE 103 



phenomena are independent of them; a confusion of 

 subjective ideality and objective reality? Also how- 

 ever it advances, our knowledge of nature will always 

 be so inadequate that the very announcement of a 

 system of nature should cause us to suspect it of being 

 etched out by fancy, and to be useless as an aid to 

 scientific investigation. Nor can we find a system 

 which does not transgress constantly the limitations of 

 science, and it is safe to say none will ever be proposed 

 which will not transgress them, because it is the desire 

 for such a system that is false, and not its develop- 

 ment. 



On the other hand, the discovery and verification 

 of phenomena should be unreservedly advocated, also 

 their classification into laws and even the restricted use 

 of hypothesis. But the latter has come to have two 

 meanings in scientific usage. The word hypothesis 

 very frequently signifies a law which has been pretty 

 accurately expressed and verified by available experi- 

 ence, but which still does not embrace some phenomena 

 believed to be related to it, or is contradicted by some 

 others ; for example, the law of conservation of energy 

 was an hypothesis in this sense, until the discovery of 

 the mechanical equivalent of heat proved that the me- 

 chanical energy, apparently lost in every action by 

 friction, was accurately balanced by the thermal energy 

 produced by the friction. Such hypothetical reason- 

 ing is quite warranted ; in fact a law or hypothesis of 



