82 THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE 



historically they have the older claim to the word — that 

 civil law existed long anterior to scientific law. This, in 

 a certain sense, is perfectly true,^ because the earliest 

 attempts to codify laws for the conduct of men living 

 in communities preceded any conscious recognition of 

 scientific law. Now this leads us directly to a very 

 important distinction, which, if it be neglected, is the source 

 of much confusion. Does law exist before it receives 

 expression and recognition ? According to Austin, law in 

 the juridical sense certainly does not, for such a law 

 involves a " command," and a " corresponding duty " — 

 that is, expression and recognition. What are we to say, 

 then, with regard to scientific law — does it really exist 

 before man has given expression to it? Has the word 

 any meaning when unassociated with the mind of man ? 

 I hold that we must definitely answer " no " to both these 

 questions, and I believe that the reader who has carefully 

 followed my second chapter will see at once the grounds 

 for this statement. A scientific law is related to the 

 perceptions and conceptions formed by the perceptive 

 and reasoning faculties in man ; it is meaningless except 

 in association with these ; it is the resume or brief expres- 

 sion of the relationships and sequences of certain groups 

 of these perceptions and conceptions, and exists only when 

 formulated by man. 



§ 3. — Natural Law relative to Man 



Let us take that branch of scientific law which deals 

 with the so-called "outside world" — -natural law. We 

 have seen that this outside world is a construct. It con- 

 sists of objects constructed partly from immediate sense- 

 impressions, and partly from the store of impresses. For 

 this reason the " outside world " is essentially conditioned 

 by the perceptive and retentive faculties in man. Even 

 the metaphysicians, who postulate " things-in-themselves," 

 admit that sense-impressions in nowise resemble them, and 

 that man's sense-impressions, so far from representing the 

 ^ For our final conclusions as to the historical right to the word, see p. 94. 



