572 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



which comprehend and command the multiplicity of 

 phenomena, recalling but not explaining to us their 

 essential and underlying unity. 



As is the case with the notion of force, so also the 

 conception of " Laws of Nature " creates considerable 

 difficulty, and this difficulty arises from similar causes. 

 The word Law is taken from conditions of human 

 society, and denotes written and acknowledged statutes 

 by which the conduct of a number of human beings 

 living together is regulated. In this instance the rule 

 of conduct is superimposed upon the condition of things 

 which would have existed if no definite order had been 

 formed. Such laws are subject to change, can be 

 enforced or disregarded ; the law is, as it were, something 

 outside of the society which is supposed to acknowledge 

 and follow it. In a similar manner the popular mind 

 is apt to look upon the laws of nature as something 

 outside of natural things ; the latter being considered 

 to be in a state of chaos before the system of laws 

 which constitute the order of nature is introduced. 

 Just in the same way as the forces of nature figured 

 in the popular understanding as something outside or 

 behind the different motions which they bring about, so 

 the laws or order of nature figure in the popular mind 

 as a kind of formal arrangement to which the otherwise 

 disorderly elements have to submit. Now, in the same 

 way as the exact science of nature defines the forces 

 merely by their physical effects in the motions of 

 particles and masses of matter, so it sees and knows 

 the laws of nature only through the actual behaviour of 

 things external. This behaviour exhibits uniformity 



