THE PLACE OF SCIENCE 293 



more true to say that / see and that / think than 

 to say that cells in the brain see and think. I am 

 writing in the British Museum, under the great 

 dome, with its dado of books ; and the scientific 

 statement that the vision of the dome and books 

 is an agitation of molecules in my brain seems to 

 me either false or meaningless — the ultimate 

 " reductio ad absurdum " of the primary postulate 

 of science {i.e. that the objective has separate 

 existence). 



Let it be granted that by assuming that the eye 

 sees, and that brain-cells think, and that the earth 

 goes round the sun, we can draw many useful 

 practical inferences ; still, the assumptions are only 

 convenient symbolism, and as far away from real 

 truth as the mathematical symbol x may be from 

 the star it may represent. 



The most materialistic of philosophers must 

 admit that all objects are subject-objects^ and that 

 the ultimate atoms of science — pace Tyndall — are 

 simply and purely conceptual ; and both admis- 

 sions involve that the conclusions of science are 

 only provisional. True Science grants and re- 

 cognises all this. 



The great achievement of modern science seems 

 to me not so much its mechanical inventions as 

 its rapprochement to philosophy and religion — a 

 rapprochement necessitated by its own progress 



