198 THE LIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE 



quoted from the introduction to his Theorie de la 

 Lumiere, will prove this: 



" It matters little to us whether the ether really 

 exists; that is the business of the metaphysician to 

 find out; the essential thing for us is that everything 

 acts as if it existed, and that this hypothesis is con- 

 venient in explaining phenomena. After all, have we 

 any other reason for believing in the existence of ma- 

 terial objects? Is not that belief also a convenient 

 hypothesis ; only we shall never cease to make it, mean- 

 while the time will come, without doubt, when the ether 

 will be rejected as useless." 



See what an advance in confusion of thought we 

 have now! Hypothesis is no longer a necessity, it is 

 a convenience. If those of the ether (and no idea has 

 been more fruitful than the ether) cannot be verified 

 by experiment, how can they be convenient, because he 

 says unverifiable hypotheses are dangerous; and if they 

 can be verified, how can we reject the truth, whether 

 they are convenient or not? Again, how can every- 

 thing act as if the ether existed, unless it does exist? 

 Is not that our definition of existence ? And lastly, one 

 would suppose that if we shall never cease to postulate 

 the existence of matter, we have come as near making 

 matter a certainty as we can ever attain to any cer- 

 tainty. 



The unfortunate feature of such statements is that 

 they constantly rise to trouble their makers. We shall 



