THE p;XPLANATION OF LAWS 93 



which, as we have seen, implies a law), on the notion of 

 the succession of events in time and the separation of 

 bodies in space and so on. But science has abandoned 

 almost all the theories of pre-scientific days. For there 

 were and are such non-scientific theories ; and it is 

 because the plain man has theories of his own, just as 

 much as the most advanced man of science, that it has 

 not been necessary to occupy a larger space in explaining 

 exactly what a theory is ; the reader will probably 

 have recognized at once something familiar in the kind 

 of explanation which the dynamical theory of gases 

 offers. The most typical theories of the pre-scientific 

 era were those which explained the processes occurring in 

 nature by the agencies of beings analogous to men gods, 

 fairies, or demons. The " Natural Theology " of the 

 eighteenth century which tried to explain nature in 

 terms of the characteristics of a God, known through 

 His works, was a theory of that type ; in the features 



!i have been described as essential to theories it 

 differed in no way from that which we have discussed. 

 But all such theories have been abandoned by science ; 

 the theories that it employs are of a type quite unknown 

 before the seventeenth century. 1 In respect of theories 

 science has diverged completely from common sense ; 

 and the divergence can be traced accurately to the 



: of a few great men. Common sense is therefore 

 more ready to accept theories rather than laws as the 

 work of individual genius. 



1 accept fully the view that the formula turn 

 of a new theory, and especially of a new type of theory, 



i exception is often ma our of Lu 



about 70 r 



1 into his works i<: head 



Us maintains in his 



it blossoming in: 



leas, contrasted with those of Galileo .. hcrent 



in them. 



