The Limits of Physical Science. 33, 



any rate, we may boldly affirm, that the hypothesis 

 which formulates the law of concrete being and ex- 

 plains the whole series of cosmic and individual change 

 while it is confessedly ignorant of the law of that 

 ever present and ceaselessly active world of real ex- 

 istence lying around us, and touching us at every 

 instant, must have in it a large imaginative element. 



(4.) The inexactness of all observation and experi- 

 ment is further illustrated, when we bring into view 

 the endless complexity of all causes and effects. Every 

 experiment is complicated by the co-existence of a 

 countless number of co-operating forces, each of which 

 is correlated with all the rest, and contributes its part 

 to the combined result. The scientific principle of the 

 correlation of physical forces brings this aspect of the 

 intricateness of nature very emphatically into view. 

 The relations of forces, whether in masses or in mole- 

 cules, are for man limitless. Every new discovery of 

 correlation among the special sciences is fresh evi- 

 dence of the boundless complexity of causes, and 

 additional ground for questioning the perfect exact- 

 ness of any experimental truth. Every correlation 

 on which attention is fixed shows, with greater clear- 

 ness, the exhaustless inter-relations of things. As we 

 become more fully alive to the inconceivably complex 

 whole which constitutes the totality of the universe,, 

 we shall advance with less assurance to universal 

 truths from generalizations of science, valid so long 



as the scientist continues on the solid ground of 



c 



