Cornish China Clay 
499 
1S77.] 
gated all the hidden springs of energy within the earth 
itself? Is there no chance of a sudden outbreak of some 
kind which will destroy this world and all its inhabitants in 
the twinkling of an eye ? These suppositions are not un- 
scientific : it is unscientific to assume complete knowledge 
when we really know almost nothing. 
I think I have said enough to show that the scientific 
method is necessarily limited ; that it leads us to recognise 
our own ignorance and the vastness of the problems pre- 
sented for solution. 
In an early part of this paper I said that by the aid 
of science we rise from the changing to the changeless ; 
but if what I have said concerning the limitations of 
scientific laws, and concerning the unknown possibilities 
of Nature be true, it would appear as if the firm standing- 
ground we had seemed to gain were vanishing from 
under our feet. In a sense it is so ; in another, and higher 
sense, the ground remains sure and firm. Science, when 
we know our littleness and the greatness of Nature, ex- 
hibits to us the reign of law, but bids us beware of placing 
our partial interpretations upon her laws ; she commands 
us to proceed in the investigation of fadts, but to be very 
careful how we interpret these fadts. We have learned 
enough already to lead us to believe that although we can 
never fathom the mysteries of the Universe, the Universe is 
nevertheless obedient to order. If that little portion of the 
Universe which Science has conquered to herself be so 
wonderful in its organisation and in its working what must 
the whole Universe be? 
