234 SCIENCE AND THE HUMAN MIND 



horizon caused by recent physical discoveries, and 

 note the gradual recognition that, however successfully 

 the mechanism of physiological processes may be 

 described in physical or chemical terms, and however 

 clearly the story of organic evolution may be pictured 

 by natural selection, the fundamental problems 

 which underlie the mysteries of consciousness and 

 of the existence of the Universe remain unsolved if 

 not unaffected. 



Matter is more complex than was thought. The 

 atom has been resolved into units of electricity, and 

 shattered into a thousand fragments. Energy, 

 though constant in amount, continually becomes less 

 available in all physical conditions known to us ; but 

 those conditions may be far from exhausting the 

 possibilities of creation. Darwin and Mendel have 

 thrown light on the methods of evolution and the laws 

 of inheritance, but the confident anticipations of some 

 of Darwin's early followers that the wonders of creation 

 were in a fair way to cease to be wonderful, have 

 passed away. A naturalistic explanation of external 

 Nature may be a little less remote, but the secret of 

 the inner consciousness of man remains untouched. 



Till the year 1895, it seemed that the main lines of 

 physics, laid down during the middle of the nine- 

 The Expansion teentn century, had settled the limits, as 



of Physical well as the foundations, of the sciences of 

 ce ' matter and energy. There seemed little 

 left to do but to fill in the details of the scheme. 

 But at that date a new series of phenomena began 

 to come to light and soon revolutionized the whole 

 outlook. 



