Modern scientific ideas : especially in the idea of discontinuity / by Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S.

  • Lodge, Oliver, Sir, 1851-1940.
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Modern scientific ideas : especially in the idea of discontinuity / by Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    21/84 (page 19)
    which the atomic idea can be applied to the problems of modern astronomy. For it is round that atoms give us information about the heavens, and that heavenly bodies, in their turn, give us further information about the atom. All these subjects could be expanded into a treatise, and possibly some of them even in this series will be so partially expanded. Discontinuity in various forms is the theme of the chapters following. Thus it may he complained, and partially admitted, that whereas we set out with the ideas of Uniformity, Continuity, and Evolution as our theme, we have rather swerved from our promise and arrived or hinted at Variability, Discontinuity, and a deep-seated uncertainty about the nature of Time, which may cut at the root of the objective character of Evolution. Very well, we are not stagnant, but in a state of flux; our ideas are those of the modern era, but there is no finality, no absolute completeness, even about our most fundamental conceptions. We creep from thought to thought, we delight in the findings of our day and generation, we hold up a gem or two for admiration, but no material explanation can be ultimately satisfying. When, for a moment, after a long day’s survey of the field, we lift our eyes and gaze towards the spiritual horizon, we perceive a region beyond the scope of science, where measurements fail, where explanations cease, and we catch a glimpse of an unfathomed glory.