58 Origin, or Process of Causation of the Series. [CHAP. ill. 



The result of all this interaction between what we have 

 thus called objects and agencies is that the final outcome 

 presents the same general characteristics of uniformity as may 

 be detected separately in the two constituent elements. Or 

 rather, as we shall proceed presently to show, it does so 

 in the great majority of cases. 



5. It may be objected that such an explanation as 

 the above does not really amount to anything deserving 

 of the name, for that instead of explaining how a particular 

 state of things is caused it merely points out that the 

 same state exists elsewhere. There is a uniformity dis 

 covered in the objects at the stage when they are com 

 monly submitted to calculation; we then grope about 

 amongst the causes of them, and after all only discover 

 a precisely similar uniformity existing amongst these causes. 

 This is to some extent true, for though part of the objection 

 can be removed, it must always remain the case that the 

 foundations of an objective science will rest in the last resort 

 upon the mere fact that things are found to be of such and 

 such a character. 



6. This division, into objects and the agencies which 

 affect them, is merely intended for a rough practical ar 

 rangement, sufficient to point out to the reader the imme 

 diate nature of the causes which bring about our familiar 

 uniformities. If we go back a step further, it might fairly 

 be maintained that they may be reduced to one, namely, 

 to the agencies. The objects, as we have termed them, 

 are not an original creation in the state in which we now 

 find them. No one supposes that whole groups or classes 

 were brought into existence simultaneously, with all their 

 general resemblances and particular differences fully de 

 veloped. Even if it were the case that the first parents 

 of each natural kind had been specially created, instead 



