130 THE LIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE 



The degree of stability of each system is determined by 

 the radio-activity of its element. Professor Lorentz 

 considers the protion to be a small particle charged 

 with electricity and probably a local modification of 

 the ether ; but his work on electro-magnetic mass leads 

 one to the opinion that he believes electricity to be the 

 real essence of the material universe. The modern 

 school of German physicists is frankly endeavoring to 

 give a purely electro-magnetic foundation to the 

 mechanism of the electron and to mechanical actions 

 in general. 



Now to me, and I believe to many men of science, the 

 chief and indeed only value of an atomic theory is to 

 give a concrete, though crude, image of matter reduced 

 to its simplest conditions. The word electricity gives 

 me no such image of matter; it conveys absolutely no 

 idea of materiality nor even of space or time rela- 

 tions. What the originators of the electrical atom 

 have done is apparently to transpose the words, matter 

 and electricity, tacitly giving to the latter all the ideas 

 usually associated with the former. We may as well 

 take the next step at once and raise the objective uni- 

 verse on the Leibnitzian monad or on Schopenhauer's 

 philosophy of " Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung." 



Again, the law of the conservation of matter has 

 been one of the most fertile ideas in science; according 

 to this law at least one attribute, inertia, remains con- 

 stant however all others may change, thus giving con- 



