THOUGHTS ON NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. II 



by figures. They are both efficacious when rightly 

 used; but on a subject of such great complexity as 

 natural philosophy it is well for the mathematician and 

 experimenter to have the assistance of the logician. 



The necessity appears to exist of stating definitely 

 (they being essentially different) that M is always M ; 

 and that S is always S, in logic, science, and philo- 

 sophy. The magnifying of M enormously, or reduc- 

 ing it greatly, does not alter the fact that it is M; 

 and not any chance or possibility can change it 

 into S. The disassociation of the atom does not 

 make the disassociated portions any the less matter, 

 if reduced to the smallest possible size they are still 

 matter, if by any possibility they could be made 

 smaller than the smallest possible (an evident 

 absurdity) they would not be. Mass if it could 

 become no mass would be nothing. This basis of 

 rational reasoning must be maintained at all costs, 

 or the so-called logic, science, or philosophy becomes 

 mere_nonsense. 



Physical Theory. *The enunciation of any one 

 physical law and the rational development of its 

 consequences, constitute a partial physical theory. 

 The assemblage of all the laws which belong to one 

 class of phenomena forms a more general physical 

 theory; but it will be readily understood that these 

 different laws may be merely corollaries of a single 

 law^/The discovery of this single law, when it exists, 

 marks a decided step in the progress of physical 

 science. Thus Newton is supposed to have traced 

 to a single law termed gravitation all the movements 



* Deschanel. 



