The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-07-04

Some intelligent people not profess
sional in the physical sciences have
been more or less distressed of late
by the suspicion or belief that some
of those who do profess science have
been going the gait Of the profess
sional "progressives." Perhaps IL Is
/ not a movement with a programme
and a Roosevelt: hut now one and
now another scientist OF good repute
and hitherto unimpeachable conduct
turns out OF his proper path to pick
flowers in the meadows Of meta
physics. When a Poincare begins to
act like a Bergson the people who
read their books begin to fdget. When
some one OF the standing Of Prof.
Louis T~RENCHARD MORE of the Uni
versity of Cincinnati essays to define
The Limitations Of Scirnc tHolt) the
suspicion is authoritatively confirmed
and attains form and specification. Is
not the diffusely discernihle tendency
to point out limitations OF govern
mental powers. of reforming agencies
In the community. of those who PAINT
our pictures. write our books and
keep the lamp Of learning filled and
alight. a sign Of healthy reaction from
an all too democratic blurring of
boundary lines? Nature builds her
fences often invisible. and the man
who puts paint on them does as great
a service TO his fellows as though he
gave them new powers of eyesisht.
Science crosses into the territory
Of metaphysics on a bridge OF by
pothesis:
The reason why scientific knowledge ad-
vances in spite Of hypothesis. those phan-
toms Of the Imagination, IL because by
p%othesis rarely prec.des experiment. II
We examine the work Of the experimenter
Of to-day, we fnd he sim goes on calmly
working with apparatus and using Il with
the common sense idea that he IL using
real objective matter In spite Of the at
tempt OF the theorist 20 make Il an
attribute OF energy or electricity. Sclen-
tihc hypothesis IL much ike religious
dogma; although It may protest. yet In
the end the despised fact Is cited
as a pillar. or at l-as. a. a Hying hut
tress Of the hypothesis,
The boundary IL marked by a river
OF doubt whose course II Is hard IN
plot. but in n general way physics
is concerned with phenomena and the
statement OF the rules OF their mani
festation as detected, whether with
perfect accuracy or moi. by eXpe-
rience and observation. while THE
causes of phenomena and the discus
sion Of the postulates Of science lie
in the province Of the metaphysician."
Mr.. More tickles his readers who are
not professional scientists or meta
physicians with phrases like sup
pOsititious causes fictitious attributes
in describing the exaggerated use of
Hypothetical processes. and the Cou-
rageous remark hat ''infnity means
nothing" He has no respect for those
physicists in Germany" who ARE
g~ravely discussing whether electrons
are spheres or disks in shape" While
such expressions removed from their
context do not perhaps quite fairl,
represent the nature Of Mr.. More's at.
tempt to pull the saltant scientists
back to earth by their Coattails. at tn,
expense of the latest fashions in hypo-
thetics, ions, eleCtrOns and too per.
slnal atoms, so many of his remarks
are r~efreshingly in contrast to the hug,
Germuggery of the improperly creative
scientific Imagination that the invita-,
tlon to quotation is quite irresistible:
To make an entity or n symbol, &c
speak Of centres Of force as II an In,
telligihle image were conveyed 10 th'
mind. to make matter and inertia ar
attribute Of energy Ia even more meta
physical than the concepts Of atoms and
others. which could az least ne likenet
% sensible objects
legitimate function Of science
the discovery ~ natural phenomena anc
heir classification into genera laws de
rived by logical mathematical processes.
II ia lust this restraint, this dIstin,
guishing between what We know and wha'
We desire, that constitutes the value nj
science as a discipline Of the intellect; ant
In the exercise Of this restraint Hes oul
intellectual integrity,
There is a vast difference hetweer
the early atomic hypothesis, useful In
presenting a reasonably ike image o
things too minute for direct percep
ton, and the purely modern tsndenc,