They had seen the
ruin of most of the systems built up _a priori_ by daring
philosophers, and deemed it more prudent to listen to the advice given
by Kirchhoff and "to substitute the description of facts for a sham
explanation of nature."
It should however be remarked that these physicists somewhat deceived
themselves as to the value of their caution, and that the mistrust
they manifested towards philosophical speculations did not preclude
their admitting, unknown to themselves, certain axioms which they did
not discuss, but which are, properly speaking, metaphysical
conceptions. They were unconsciously speaking a language taught them
by their predecessors, of which they made no attempt to discover the
origin. It is thus that it was readily considered evident that physics
must necessarily some day re-enter the domain of mechanics, and thence
it was postulated that everything in nature is due to movement. We,
further, accepted the principles of the classical mechanics without
discussing their legitimacy.
This state of mind was, even of late years, that of the most
illustrious physicists.
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