RESULTS AND LIMITS OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD. 465 



even in the absence of all disturbance, our inferences are 

 merely the best which can be made, and do not approach 

 to infallibility. If, however, interference be possible, even 

 the theory of probability ceases to be applicable, for, the 

 amount and nature of that interference being arbitrary 

 and unknown, there ceases to be any connexion between 

 premises and conclusion. Many years of reflection have 

 not enabled me to see any way of avoiding this hiatus of 

 scientific certainty. The conclusions of scientific inference 

 appear to be always of an hypothetical and purely pro 

 visional nature. Given certain experience the theory of 

 probability yields us the true interpretation of that ex 

 perience and is the surest guide open to us. But the best 

 calculated results which it can give are never absolute 

 probabilities ; they are purely relative to the extent of 

 our information. It seems to be impossible for us to judge 

 how far our experience gives us adequate information of 

 the universe as a whole, and of all the forces and pheno 

 mena which can have place therein. 



I feel that I cannot in the space remaining at my com 

 mand in the present volume, sufficiently follow out the 

 lines of thought suggested, or define with precision my 

 own conclusions. This chapter contains merely Reflections 

 upon subjects of so weighty a character that I should 

 myself wish for many years nay for more than a lifetime 

 of further reflection. My purpose, as I have repeatedly 

 said, is the purely negative one of showing that atheism 

 and materialism are no necessary results of Scientific 

 Method. From the preceding reviews of the value of our 

 scientific knowledge, I draw one distinct conclusion, that 

 we cannot disprove the possibility of Divine interference 

 in the course of nature. Such interference might arise, so 

 far as our knowledge extends, in two ways. It might 

 consist in the disclosure of the existence of some agent or 

 spring of energy previously unknown, but which effects a 



VOL. II. H h 



