THE AIM AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD. 127 



r 



of such seem to imply the conviction conscious or unconscious 

 th at the business of Science is, as I have so often insisted, 

 to render the Objective intelligible,, and that the Objective 

 thus systematised must ultimately be ^he whole Objecfive and 

 nothing but the Objective.* No gap in either thv spatial Or 

 the time series is to be tolerated, nor can we suffer any place in 

 either of the series to be filled by the hypothetical masquerading 

 as Objective. . 



But this principle, apparently so simple, and so clear, 

 discloses unsuspected difficulties of application when we try to 

 determine by its aid the precise value and import of the 

 concepts by means of which we seek to make accessible 

 Objective phenomena intelligible. Many of these concepts 

 assign positions in the spatial and temporal series to things 

 which it is either essentially or else practically impossible to 

 verify. " Attraction " is an example of the first class, " atoms " 

 of the second. What is the actual standing of such entities ? 

 It cannot be denied that some of the evidence is forthcoming 

 which, if completed, would establish their existence, and if this 

 evidence actually produces conviction in men of the highest 

 intellect supremely conversant with the facts, what more is to 

 be said ? The denudation which " the Kazor of Occam " would 

 produce would depend entirely upon the hand that wielded it. 

 If it were applied by Lord Kelvin, the ether, for example, 

 would be safe : if by Professor Karl Pearson, its fate would be 

 .at least doubtful. f If it were handled by Professor J. J. 

 Thomson, the " Faraday tubes " would disappear, while "ions" 

 would, I imagine, remain. The truth seems to be that while 

 cases of this kind were few and isolated, men's attitude towards 

 them might be indeterminate each case was judged upon its 

 merits. But when with the advance of Science a whole compact 

 system of concepts appeared claiming to represent what " goes 



* See Sigwart, Logic, ii, 61. 



t Grammar of Science, 1st ed., p. 214 



