SKEPTICISM AND IDOLATRY 193 



government under the necessity of hearkening to the 

 dilettante of the slums, and the feminist; all of whom 

 are preaching the scientific basis of their nostrums. It 

 is not then a matter of indifference what the hypotheses 

 of even the abstract sciences may be, or how we attempt 

 to solve their problems. 



Two books * have recently appeared most oppor- 

 tunely, which record the mature beliefs of two con- 

 spicuous men of science concerning the value and 

 necessity of scientific hypothesis. We could scarcely 

 have two authors more widely contrasted in tempera- 

 ment and in opinions than Poincare and Sir Oliver 

 Lodge; the one, a skeptic who views with detachment 

 the efforts of men to penetrate the mysteries of nature, 

 and the other, a credulous believer with equal convic- 

 tion in matter and ether and spirits. 



Before discussing their views, we should call to 

 mind that Poincare began his career and attained his 

 greatest eminence as a pure mathematician; that he 

 later critically examined the theories of physics; and 

 finally turned to philosophy for the purpose of examin- 

 ing the foundations of science. Sir Oliver Lodge has 



* The Foundations of Science. By H. Poincare. An author- 

 ized translation by George Bruce Halsted of " Science and 

 Hypothesis," "The Value of Science," and "Science and 

 Method," with an introduction by Professor Royce. (The 

 Science Press.) 



Continuity. The Presidential Address to the British Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science for 1913. (Putnam's.) 

 By Sir Oliver Lodge. 



