THE UNFATHOMED UNIVERSE 5 



The scientific order has grown like an organism. Its 

 methods have become more penetrating; improvements in 

 instruments (such as telescope and microscope, spectroscope 

 and radioscope) have almost meant new senses. Its stand- 

 ard of accuracy has been raised, many residual phenomena 

 and minute discrepancies, previously neglected, have pointed 

 the way to discoveries, as in the case of Argon. Its con- 

 cepts have been periodically thrown into the crucible of 

 criticism, and come out clearer, or not at all. Thus force, 

 instead of being a power inherent in substances, became 

 a measure of the rate of transference of energy, and heat 

 became a mode of motion. Large bodies of facts which 

 used to be regarded as beyond science, the weather and 

 dreams for instance, have become amenable to scientific treat- 

 ment. 



The progress of science wrought inevitable changes in 

 man's outlook. The work of Copernicus and Galileo shat- 

 tered the geocentric theory, which made our Earth the centre 

 of the solar system, and subsequent discoveries showed what 

 a small corner of the universe our whole system occupies. 

 'Not that we estimate man's kingdom in furlongs! The 

 great discoverers in astronomy, physics, and chemistry re- 

 vealed more and more clearly the reign of law in the in- 

 organic world. No room was left for guidance or control 

 other than there is in the nature of things themselves; no 

 room was left for interventions or influxes; and the idea 

 that physical events were immediately ordered " by the hand 

 of God " in relation to human interests disappeared like a 

 dream. There came indeed to be an exaggeration of the 

 omnipotence of the Laws of ^N'ature — man's formulations 

 of observed uniformities of sequence, which, although they 

 evidently approximate to reality, cannot be invested with 



