I think Kelvin gets a bit of a raw deal in the way people often quote him: “[life etc.] is infinitely beyond the range of any scientific inquiry”.
By cutting off the quote there it sounds like he is claiming that science will never be able to understand life. However, as you show above, he continues with, ”… hitherto entered on.” Thus, the sentence is making a claim about the power of science up to the time of his writing to understand life. This is a far more reasonable claim.
I think Kelvin gets a bit of a raw deal in the way people often quote him: “[life etc.] is infinitely beyond the range of any scientific inquiry”.
By cutting off the quote there it sounds like he is claiming that science will never be able to understand life. However, as you show above, he continues with, ”… hitherto entered on.” Thus, the sentence is making a claim about the power of science up to the time of his writing to understand life. This is a far more reasonable claim.