SECT. 15.] Origin, or Process of Causation of the Series. 69 



effect which these disturbances are able to produce is so in 

 appreciably small, that we may fairly consider that the result 

 obtained is the direct product of the mind, the accurate 

 realization of its intention. What is the consequence? 

 Every house in the row, if designed by one man and at one 

 time, is of exactly the same height, width, &c. as its 

 neighbours; or if there are variations they are few, definite, 

 and regular. The result offers no resemblance whatever to 

 the heights, weights, &c. of a number of men selected at 

 random. The builder probably had some regular design in 

 contemplation, and he has succeeded in executing it. 



15. It may be replied that if we extend our observa 

 tions, say to the houses of a large city, we shall then detect 

 the property under discussion. The different heights of a 

 great number, when grouped together, might be found to 

 resemble those of a great number of human beings under 

 similar treatment. Something of this kind might not impro 

 bably be found to be the case, though the resemblance 

 would be far from being a close one. But to raise this 

 question is to get on to different ground, for we were 

 speaking (as remarked above) not of the work of different 

 minds with their different aims, but of that of one mind. 

 In a multiplicity of designs, there may be that variable uni 

 formity, for which we may look in vain in a single design. 

 The heights which the different builders contemplated 

 might be found to group themselves into something of the 

 same kind of uniformity as that which prevails in most 

 other things which they should undertake to do indepen 

 dently. We might then trace the action of the same two 

 conditions, a uniformity in the multitude of their different 

 designs, a uniformity also in the infinite variety of the 

 influences which have modified those designs. But this is a 

 very different thing from saying that the work of one man 



