MEASUREMENTS 209 



earliest stage, and before the age of miracles has set in. 1 

 When we speak of physical causes, we ascribe to the pro 

 cesses of nature a human will, a thing which, though it 

 invariably precedes conscious action, is not known or dis 

 coverable outside of its sphere. It is in obedience to this 

 propensity that when a natural philosopher requires a general 

 term to cover different modes of motion or rates of accelera 

 tion he has recourse to the words force, or energy, or laws J 

 of nature. 



The distinction between events that can be measured 

 and those which cannot is clearly suggested hi the German 

 words Thatsache and Ursache. All the events in the 

 external world are mere facts, of equal value as links in 

 a chain which stretches backwards and forwards into 

 infinity. No one of them can be called a primary fact, 

 but each is an effect if interpreted with reference to its 

 antecedent, and a cause with reference to the event that 

 follows. In the subjective world, on the contrary, every 

 subjective event, if regarded with reference to the event 

 that follows it, is a primary fact, an Ursache, or cause. Our 

 curiosity does not tempt us to go back, nor could we if we 

 wished ; merely because we have no means of obtaining 

 exact definitions. Every cause, in the scientific sense of 

 the word, is also a result, and the concept of a first cause 

 is essentially anthropomorphic and teleological. It must, 

 therefore, be justified by a purpose. But it is useless for 

 the purposes of religion, as a cause which has retired finally 

 from active business cannot serve as an object of worship. 

 Ethics, as a branch of inquiry, begins with the assumption 

 that the individual man is the cause of his own actions. 

 It regards man as an Ursache, and never as a Thatsache. 

 Directly we look backward, and attempt to bring the 

 individual as an agent into the line of invariable sequence, 

 we contradict the first assumption of our inquiry. If we 

 succeeded, we should extinguish ethics, and substitute in 



On difc, par exemple, du nitrate d argent qu il est sensible a Faction de 

 la lumiere, et de la lumiere qu elle est sensible pour le nitrate d argent. 

 Dumont, Sensibilite, p. 23. 



BENETT O 



