SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY 133 



previously untried combination of two highly 

 complex substances. It is like an untried experi- 

 ment in Heredity. 



It comes to this: that the only cases in which 

 we can say that our scientific account is complete 

 and absolutely satisfactory, are cases of mechan- 

 ics most beautifully in Gravitational Astronomy 

 where the resultant is just a new form of the 

 components. Then only can we say with a clear 

 intellectual conscience, "Causa sequat effectum." 

 Science is continually showing that one particular 

 collocation of matter and energy passes into 

 another, but when the chains of sequence that it 

 chronicles are intricate it is no longer plain that 

 the resultant must be as it is and not otherwise. 



Again, the terms of scientific interpretations are 

 not self-explanatory. The biologist's cheques are 

 backed by "Organism," "Protoplasm," "Hered- 

 ity," and so on, and no one can suppose that 

 these are self-explanatory terms. Some term of 

 this sort may be an absolutely necessary postu- 

 late in Biology, but it obviously means starting 

 with a great deal "given." And when we pass to 

 more exact sciences, and find the cheques backed 

 "Gravitation," "Chemical Affinity," and so on, 

 we must again recognize that a good deal is taken 

 as "given." 



It may be said, however, that these terms of 

 description are continually undergoing a process 



