THE MECHANICAL SYSTEM AND ITS LIMITS 383 



They are in contradiction with the reality that we 

 know. 



It has been said that when we exhaust the air under 

 a glass-bell and the light remains in it, we see the 

 vibrating ether. But it has been rightly answered that 

 even then we do not see ether, but light alone. 



There is no ether, because there is nothing in the 

 world without properties. Ether can never be the 

 object of research ; it is only a means of understanding 

 the world. 



We come to the following important conclusion. 

 Natural science does not represent reality to us as it is. 

 Reality, as it reveals itself in the world, is absolutely 

 incomprehensible to any science or any human being, 

 because it is infinite. Science cannot deal with it as it 

 is ; it has to transform and simplify it. It does that at 

 the very outset of its work. Its first concepts do not 

 picture reality, but apply to it ; this is done by leaving 

 out of account a part of what distinguishes reality — the 

 individuality of each particular thing. As this work of 

 transforming to render intelligible proceeds, and more of 

 the individual characters fall out in the higher concepts, 

 science departs further and further from the visible 

 reality. Its ultimate concept, which has to embrace 

 all, and so must have nothing individual about it, can 

 have nothing in common with reality. It is not a 

 reality, but an indispensably necessary means for grasping 

 the whole world. 



Natural science is occupied with bodies, and forms 



