SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM 



55 



illuminate something beyond itself. The 

 force of intellectual penetration into this 

 penumbral region which surrounds actual 

 knowledge is not, as some seem to think, 

 dependent upon method, but upon the 

 genius of the investigator. There is, 

 however, no genius so gifted as not to 

 need control and verification. The pro- 

 foundest minds know best that Nature's 

 ways are not at all times their ways, and 

 that the brightest flashes in the world of 

 thought are incomplete until they have 

 been proved to have their counterparts 

 in the world of fact. Thus the vocation 

 cf the true experimentalist may be 

 defined as the continued exercise of 

 spiritual insight, and its incessant cor- 

 rection and realisation. His experiments 

 constitute a body, of which his purified 

 intuitions are, as it were, the soul. 



Partly through mathematical and 

 partly through experimental research, 

 physical science has, of late years, 

 assumed a momentous position in the 

 world. Both in a material and in an 

 intellectual point of view it has produced, 

 and it is destined to produce, immense 

 changes vast social ameliorations, and 

 vast alterations in the popular conception 

 of the origin, rule, and governance of 

 natural things. By science, in the 

 physical world, miracles are wrought, 

 while philosophy is forsaking its ancient 

 metaphysical channels, and pursuing 

 others which have been opened or 

 indicated by scientific research. This 

 must become more and more the case as 

 philosophical writers become more deeply 

 imbued with the methods of science, 

 better acquainted with the facts which 

 scientific men have established, and with 

 the great theories which they have elabo- 

 rated. 



If you look at the face of a watch, you 

 see the hour and minute-hands, and 

 possibly also a second-hand, moving 

 over the graduated dial. Why do these 

 hands move ; and why are their relative 

 motions such as they are observed to be? 

 These questions cannot be answered 

 without opening the watch, mastering its 

 various parts, and ascertaining their 



relationship to each . other. When this 

 is done, we find that the observed 

 motion of the hands follows of necessity 

 from the inner mechanism of the watch 

 when acted upon by the force invested 

 in the spring. The motion of the hands 

 may be called a phenomenon of art, but 

 the case is similar with the phenomena 

 of nature. These also have their inner 

 mechanism and their store of force to 

 set that mechanism going. The ultimate 

 problem of physical science is to reveal 

 this mechanism, to discern this store, 

 and to show that, from the combined 

 action of both, the phenomena of which 

 they constitute the basis must, of neces- 

 sity, flow. 



I thought an attempt to give you even 

 a brief and sketchy illustration of the 

 manner in which scientific thinkers 

 regard this problem would not be un- 

 interesting to you on the present occa- 

 sion ; more especially as it will give me 

 occasion to say a word or two on the 

 tendencies and limits of modern science; 

 to point out the region which men of 

 science claim as their own, and where it 

 is futile to oppose their advance ; and 

 also to define, if possible, the bourne 

 between this and that other region to 

 which the questionings and yearnings of 

 the scientific intellect are directed in vain. 

 But here your tolerance will be needed. 

 It was the American Emerson, I think, 

 who said that it is hardly possible to state 

 any truth strongly, without apparent in- 

 justice to some other truth. Truth is 

 often of a dual character, taking the form 

 of a magnet with two poles ; and many 

 of the differences which agitate the think- 

 ing part of mankind are to be traced to 

 the exclusiveness with which partisan 

 reasoners dwell upon one half of the 

 duality, in forgetfulness of the other. 

 The proper course appears to be to state 

 both halves strongly, and allow each its 

 fair share in the formation of the resul- 

 tant conviction. But this waiting for the 

 statement of the two sides of a question 

 implies patience. It implies a resolution 

 to suppress indignation, if the statement 

 of the one half should clash with our 



