Spencer Heath Archive

Item 250

Concluding paragraph copied by SH from an article on physics, “Interaction of Matter and Radiation,” by Oliver J. Lodge, page 883 in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1943. The last five lines, omitting the word “now,” might serve well in an article on Heath’s philosophy of science and the future of physics.

“There are still more recent developments. Speculation is active, the revolution is in progress and fresh discover­ies are constantly being made. The whole constitutes an elaborate net-work of interlockings and concordances /coincidences?/, which must have a deep-seated meaning when we can unravel the tangled skein. All we can do now is to hint at the stages that are being reached, to realize that nothing like the last word has been spoken, to wonder at the genius which has so greatly illuminated and yet partly confused us and to have faith in the advent of a great generalization.”