THE TRIPLE WORLD 159 



by science of the purely physico-chemical processes 

 or mechanism of the living- body has been learned in 

 those deep foundations of knowledge appertaining to 

 the simplest state of things, wherein phenomena and 

 events are unobscured by the intervention of life. 

 Mechanics, the science of moving masses of matter, 

 has been extended to include masses that are not 

 individually capable of being apprehended, to the 

 individual molecules and atoms of which matter is 

 built, the mechanics of which constitute chemistry 

 and physics. 



THE SCIENTIFIC CONTROL OF THE MECHANICAL 

 WORLD. 



Naturally it is with this world that I am most 

 concerned, for it is from here that any contribution 

 that physical science can make to the common stock 

 of philosophy must come, /and, indeed, the clarifica- 

 tion of thought that has resulted from the occupation 

 and interpretation of the mechanical world, whether 

 of cosmical systems or of the body of a man, is 

 unique. For from this world mystery in any real 

 sense has been banished. 



I have to make this more clear. Our knowledge 

 of matter and energy is not complete and in many 

 respects is far from complete. But in this field we 

 can move with an assurance, and a power of 

 predicting events before they occur, which is true of 

 no other realm of study. It is true also that Absolute 

 or Ultimate Truth here, as elsewhere, may be for 

 ever unattainable, that the fundamentals of to-day 

 matter electricity, the ether and energy may in the 

 fulness of time be displaced by still more fundamental 

 conceptions. But do not believe that future advances 

 in this field are going to invalidate and overthrow the 

 conclusions already reached, so far as they concern 

 life. We have lived long enough in this world to 



