OF LAWS IN GENERAL. 



bility, visibility, cohesion, weight, etc. &quot;We have no trace of 

 a time when the resistance offered by an object was regarded 

 as caused by the will of the object ; or when the pressure of 

 a body on the hand holding it, was ascribed to the agency of a 

 living being. And accordingly, these are the relations of which 

 we are oftenest conscious ; being objectively frequent, conspi 

 cuous, simple, concrete, and of immediate personal concern. 



Similarly with the ordinary phenomena of motion. The 

 fall of a mass on the withdrawal of its support, is a sequence 

 which directly affects bodily welfare, is conspicuous, simple j 

 concrete, and very often repeated. Hence it is one of the 

 uniformities recognized before the dawn of tradition. We 

 know of no era when movements due to terrestrial gravi 

 tation were attributed to volition. Only when the relation 

 is obscured only, as in the case of an aerolite, where the 

 antecedent of the descent is unperceived, do we find the con 

 ception of personal agency. On the other hand, mo 

 tions of intrinsically the same order as that of a falling stone 

 those of the heavenly bodies long remain un generalized ; 

 and until their uniformity is seen, are construed as results of 

 will. This difference is clearly not dependent on compara 

 tive complexity or abstractness ; since the motion of a planet 

 in an ellipse, is as simple and concrete a phenomenon as the 

 motion of a projected arrow in a parabola. But the ante 

 cedents are not conspicuous ; the sequences are of long 

 duration ; and they are not often repeated. And that these 

 are the causes of their slow reduction to law, we see in the 

 fact that they are severally generalized in the order of their 

 frequency and conspicuousness the moon s monthly cycle, 

 the sun s annual change, the periods of the inferior planets, 

 the periods of the superior planets. 



While astronomical sequences were still ascribed to voli 

 tion, certain terrestrial sequences of a different kind, but 

 some of them equally without complication, were interpreted 

 in like manner. The solidification of water at a low tempc- 





