PREDICTION AND CONTROL 161 



The measure of the exactness and extent of our 

 knowledge of the inanimate universe is shown by 

 our powers of controlling it and guiding it to serve 

 our ends. In the inaccessible regions of space the 

 test is prediction, but, with regard to the phenomena 

 around us, in addition to this, imitation and control 

 follow understanding and are the signs that we are 

 on safe ground. 



Here, again, knowledge may only be beginning, 

 but the success achieved is a justification for the view 

 that mystery in any real sense has been banished 

 from the inanimate universe. In engineering we 

 draw upon the chemical energy of fuel, and by com- 

 bustion convert it into heat the chaotic rush of 

 molecules in every direction at once and from this 

 chaos, by the steam-engine or other prime-mover, we 

 produce the orderly motion of masses of matter 

 which is mechanical energy, and this is used to 

 lighten the heavy labour of the world and perform 

 tasks which before would have been done by draught 

 cattle or slaves. 



The terms "vital energy" or "vital force" have 

 disappeared. Energy, like money, has many denomi- 

 nations, but these are honoured at fixed exchange 

 ratios throughout the universe, whether in the living 

 organism or in the non-living world. The power by 

 which we live and move and have our being is none 

 other than that which drives on the stars in their 

 courses and maintains their splendours over the long 

 epochs of cosmical time. Science now takes it where 

 it is to be found, whether in fuel, waterfall or sun- 

 shine it is all one and uses it to do the labour of 

 men. Science can even transfer energy from its 

 inanimate originals and direct it into living bodies, 

 so that now two may live where before one would 

 have struggled miserably for an existence. 



A simple people, who confused power with deity, 



