206 THE LIMITATIONS OF SCIENCE 



but if it is a hole, then a hole in the ether is just the 

 contrary to a hole. Holes never even seem to play an 

 active part in anything; they show no inclination or 

 ability of themselves to change their location; and 

 nothing, except an ether, has ever been conceived of as 

 able to react on a hole. The simple fact of the case 

 is, such statements are attempts to do just what Poin- 

 care said they were, attempts to explain the known by 

 the unknown. The pity of it is that science is filled 

 with just such attempts ; we recognize the words used, 

 but their sense is so twisted that they really express 

 no clear idea. In comparison with such quibbles and 

 such verbal distortion, the action of Dr. Johnson, 

 when, in answer to the similar logic of a metaphysician 

 of the Berkeleian type, he kicked a stone as our ulti- 

 mate proof of the existence of matter, is true science 

 at least it is organized common sense. It is comical 

 to read the opinions, concerning the essence of matter, 

 of those modern physicists who have succumbed to the 

 fascination of explaining the known by the unknown. 

 Led by a small band of German physicists, they use 

 mathematical symbols and scientific phrases; and yet 

 they are explaining phenomena in quite the approved 

 medieval fashion of transcendental symbolism. It is 

 perfectly easy to match their statements with the ab- 

 stract theorems of an Albert Magnus or a St. Thomas 

 Aquinas. In other words, modern science has sud- 

 denly taken a leap into pure metaphysics, while, at the 



