FUNCTION OF CRITICISM IN ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 365 
electric and magnetic relations, but each type has ended in 
some irreconcilable difficulty, and therefore no such ana¬ 
logues are known. The attempts of Lodge , Boltzmann , and 
others to illustrate the electric and magnetic phenomena by 
means of mechanical pictures must always be considered 
under the reservation that they can be only partially true. 
I have thus attempted to give some idea of the battle 
royal between mechanics and energetics that is now going 
on, and have indicated that the banners of mechanics are cer¬ 
tainly drooping, and that their standard-bearers are weary. 
Whether energetics is to be the final victor, or whether some 
stronger idea will be discovered, remains beyond the fore¬ 
cast of today. It looks now as if science were fast approach¬ 
ing those impenetrable mysteries which have confronted the 
metaphysician and the theologian for centuries; it seems 
certain that the attempt to construct this universe out of 
pure matter and the three simple law T s of force is a failure; 
it may not be improper to assert that the available energy 
for doing useful work is being expended and that the 
world’s supply is running down. There arises further ques¬ 
tions : Where did energy spring from originally ? What keeps 
up the supply, if it is now running down. What is to be the 
final state of things when the supply has gone ? If the uni¬ 
verse in its physical processes is really exhausting itself, 
what is this theory of evolution by which it is claimed that 
some combinations of energy, animal and human life, organic 
life, is coming up ? Is inorganic life running down, and is 
organic life coming up ? If this is so, what is the difference ? 
In fact, what is life ? Is mechanics destined to give place 
to energetics, and is energy finally to become tributary to 
the science of life whose first law has not yet been discovered ? 
If not this, what is the true hierarchy in the existences, and 
does the pathway lead up from man and his little spark 
of life to some immense oversoul, and is that life the sub¬ 
stance of the temporary phenomena we call this world ? 
