6 Prof. Oliver Lodge on 



perceived to exert force on each other ; and so on ? Solely 

 because these things do fit into a coherent and self-consistent 

 scheme of the universe. 



Any scheme or doctrine sufficiently harmonious and consistent 

 goes far thereby towards establishing itself as truth. So 

 conspicuously is this the case, when one comes to reflect, that 

 there are not wanting some who conjecture that by our 

 thought we are, so to speak, constructing, or at least helping 

 to construct, the cosmic scheme. 



Some axioms the human race has now given up challenging, 

 and by so abstaining has silently accepted as corresponding 

 to the truth of things. Others it occasionally exercises its 

 ingenuity in degrading or depreciating, not into untruths, 

 but into special cases of a higher and super-sensuous gene- 

 ralization. Varieties of space are imagined, and mathemati- 

 cally treated, where more than one line can be drawn through 

 a point parallel to a given line, where the shortest distance 

 between two points is not straight, where the three angles of 

 a triangle are not equal to half a revolution, where a closed 

 surface is an incomplete boundary, and where more than three 

 lines can be perpendicular to each other. These things are 

 imagined, and for all I know they may in some occult fashion 

 exist. To set bounds to the possibilities of the universe on 

 the limited evidence of our few sense-organs would be absurd. 

 But I say that any proof of their actual existence within our 

 more developed ken rests with the experimentalist. As soon as 

 facts are forthcoming which clearly and definitely are in- 

 explicable on the basis of our present notions concerning space, 

 I for one am willing to enlarge those notions and to con- 

 template provisionally whatever hypothesis suggests itself as 

 most simple and plausible. Till then there is plenty of work 

 for a physicist in interpreting, systematizing, and clarifying 

 the facts of the universe, as it appeals to him through the 

 agency of his ordinary three-dimensional senses, aided by his 

 undimensional common-sense. 



But I hold that with all these vague possibilities of ultimate 

 development in front of him (not so vague but that they are 

 in some sort conceivable, or at least tractable by reason), a 

 natural philosopher need not confuse himself by endeavouring 

 to complicate what is already transparently simple ; nor will 

 he be wise to attempt an over-laborious scrutiny of his funda- 

 mental axioms ; for the more neatly and quietly he can lay his 

 foundations the more time will he have for building the super- 

 structure, and the more gorgeous he may hope to make it. 

 By all means let him avoid a rotten or insecure element in 

 his foundation. It must be as sound and strong as possible ; 



