Continuity 3 



By the fourth of our major losses, I 

 mean the death of the brilliant Mathe- 

 matician of a neighbouring nation who 

 took so comprehensive and philosophic a 

 grasp of the intricacies of physics, and 

 whose eloquent -though sceptical exposi- 

 tion of our laws and processes, and of the 

 modifications entailed in them by recent 

 advances, will be sure to attract still 

 more widespread attention among all to 

 whom the rather abstruse subject-matter 

 is sufficiently familiar. I cannot say that 

 I find myself in agreement with all that 

 Henri Poincar6 wrote or spoke in the 

 domain of physics, but no physicist can 

 help being interested in his mode of 

 presentation; and I may have occasion 

 to refer, in passing, to some of the topics 

 with which he dealt. 



And now, eliminating from our purview, 

 as is always necessary, a great mass of 

 human activity, and limiting ourselves 

 to a scrutiny on the side of pure science 

 alone, let us ask what, in the main, is 

 the characteristic of the promising though 



