INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE ON CHEMICAL REACTION 205 
of his laws of energetics, and of intelligibly presenting interpretations 
consistent with them, of phenomena which actually lie beyond the 
range of their possible application (2). 
This is not the time or place to discuss the question, whether or 
not it is justifiable to interpret all natural processes mechanically. 
It is pertinent only to remark that each step taken in the development 
of the mechanistic view has been necessitated by man's inability to 
frame other workable interpretations of the facts; so that in our own 
time it results that the only apparently tenable criticism of this view 
of nature is one which bases its opposition on the limitations of the 
intellect itself.^ 
^ The philosophical speculations on this point, and the lively discussions incident 
to them which have occupied so much recent attention are of the utmost interest to 
any student of current thought; and it is by no means intended that such summary 
reference to them be construed as dismissing them with a gesture. Every discussion 
of this sort cannot fail to be of the utmost service to the physical scientist, who, in 
consequence of the very perfection of his conceptual scheme, is too often led to 
ignore the possible limitations of his method and the metaphysical nature of his 
habitual assumptions; and is sometimes betrayed into didactic utterance by his 
uneasy impatience when these are subjected to analysis. The point which it seems 
is to be kept clearly in mind, however, is this: that it is not necessary for the 
physicist in defense of his method to consider the strictly philosophical import of 
his results. Whether his mechanistic notions imply the subsistence of a corre- 
sponding Reality or whether they do not, is for such purpose immaterial. The 
structure of co-ordinated knowledge which has been built on the basis of these con- 
cepts has proved itself to be the most powerful instrument which has ever served man's 
purpose to control his environment. In short, it works; as inevitably it must since 
every stage in its construction has been built with reference to that scientific criterion 
which in wider application is now often referred to as the pragmatic rule; 
and its justification need be sought in nothing more remote than this com- 
plete practicality. If there shall be developed in connection with any other habit 
of thought, such as the vitalistic interpretation of such phenomena as we are here 
considering, a workable method, by means of which one may be permitted to do 
something more than meditate upon such matters, then science will be thereby 
tremendously enriched; and any equable person will be more stimulated than 
depressed by the ensuing conflict of opinion. It must be admitted that the history 
of such conceptions, from the demonology of. the ancients to that vitalism of our 
forefathers which was so fortunately anaesthetized early in the last century, holds 
out little hope of such result. Meanwhile, nevertheless, the service rendered the 
physicist by well-considered criticism of his tenets from whatever point of view, 
will be invaluable, in so far as it leads him to a more lively apprehension of the 
possible limitations of his method, while he holds to his perfectly legitimate purpose 
of extending his mechanistic interpretations to the point of their furthest possible 
usefulness. 
