NECESSARY NATURE OF THE CAUSE. 31 



sequence of some similarly universal principle. As gravi 

 tation was assignable as the cause of each of the groups of 

 phenomena which Kepler formulated ; so may some equally 

 simple attribute of things be assignable as the cause of each 

 of the groups of phenomena formulated in the foregoing 

 pages. We may be able to affiliate all these varied and 

 complex evolutions of the homogeneous into the heteroge 

 neous, upon certain simple facts of immediate experi 

 ence, which, in virtue of endless repetition, we regard as 

 necessary. 



The probability of a common cause, and the possibility 

 of formulating it, being granted, it will be well, before 

 going further, to consider what must be the general 

 characteristics of such cause, and in what direction we 

 ought to look for it. We can with certainty predict that 

 it has a high degree of generality ; seeing that it is com 

 mon to such infinitely varied phenomena: just in propor 

 tion to the universality of its application must be the 

 abstractness of its character. We need not expect to see 

 in it an obvious solution of this or that form of Progress ; 

 because it equally refers to forms of Progress bearing little 

 apparent resemblance to them : its association with multi 

 form orders of facts, involves its dissociation from any par 

 ticular order of facts. Being that which determines Pro 

 gress of every kind astronomic, geologic, organic, ethnolo 

 gic, social, economic, artistic, &c. it must be concerned 

 with some fundamental attribute possessed in common by 

 these ; and must be expressible in terms of this fundamen 

 tal attribute. The only obvious respect in which all kinds 

 of Progress arc alike, is, that they are modes of change / and 

 hence, in some characteristic of changes in general, the de 

 sired solution will probably be found. We may suspect 

 a priori that in some law of change lies the explanation of 

 this universal transformation of the homogeneous into th 

 heterogeneous. 



