SCIENCE AND ART 183 



kinetic energy through space, continually alter- 

 nating between these two settings, this eternal 

 motion never ceases, is never dissipated, and is 

 never recreated; it simply exists. The concep- 

 tion thrills the imagination like a poem" (Gotch, 

 1906, p. 55). 



One of the great changes in modern intellectual 

 development has been the transition from a 

 static to a dynamic way of looking at things. 

 What began in astronomy spread to geology and 

 thence to biology, and now every science owns to 

 the change. The subject-matter is considered 

 in its becoming, in its present activity, and as in 

 process of evolution. Everything is seen "in the 

 light of evolution." And this familiar intellec- 

 tual transition has given a thrill to art. 



Again, it is well known that modern progress 

 in chemistry and physics has given us a much 

 more vital conception of what has been labelled 

 or libelled as "dead matter." To speak of inert 

 matter, at any rate, is an anachronism. We 

 believe that every one who feels something of the 

 witchery and mystery of precious stones will 

 admit that his vision is illumined and intensified 

 by what modern science has to tell of the internal 

 activity or "life" of jewels. 



And, again, it is characteristic of at least a 

 large school of modern biologists that they assert 

 the autonomy of then* science and the transcen- 



