RIDDLE OF UNIVERSE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5197, 31 October 1927, Page 3

RIDDLE OF UNIVERSE.

IS IT RUNNING DOWN ? ENERGY PROBLEM. Sir Oliver Lodge, in a lecture on Energy inconnecti on with ihe British Association meeting at Leeds, said — “That matter is only one of the, innmerable forms of energy has been emphasised by Einstein in his theory of relativity. This-is the revolution in thought which characterises the advance of science in the 20th century. The electrical theory of matter began ’it. The theory of relativity will go on to clipch it. “ We shall find that the fundamental thing in the material universe; is ether in its various forms of energy, and that the sun and starsj and planets are only the latest recognised manifestations of an unsuspected form of that energy. “Undogmatlcally and tentatively I do not think that life is one of the forms of energy in the sense that it can be transmuted into other forms. It seems to me a guiding and directing principle ad extra which interacts! with the material or physical universe but is not of it. HIGHER ENTITIES. “I apprehend that the universe must contain many things beyond the scope of those we study in physical science, and that we only get a dim and clouded apprehension of such things when’ they interact with those other aspects which either directly or indirectly .'appeal to our sjenses or our reason. •

“Thejse higher entities appear to me undeniably realities, but we are not provided with the dues which may some day, perhaps, enable us to treat them scientifically and incorporate them into the region of organised knowledge. . “The intuitions of poqts, prophets, and saints are to be respected, even by the devotees of physical science, whose field is so large already that they are tempted to treat it as comprehensive of all reality, which I assert dogmatically it is not. “The universe has always existed, and it is still a going concern. It has not run down yet. and perhaps, never will. Can it be true that the universe is like a running-down clock ? Is there anything that‘could wind it up again ? The answer is : ‘Yes—intelligence.’ In our physical scheme we had left intelligence out, but in so far as physics ignores life and mind it cannot be complete as a philosophy. A true philosophy must be comprehensive and ignore nothing. Such a philosophy does not sjxist. Our imagination, intuition, and every other faculty must be strained to the uttermost before we get a momentary glimpse of the vast possibilities latent in reality as a whole.”