CHAPTEK V. 



OF THE LAW OF UNIVERSAL CAUSATION. 



1 . THE phenomena of nature exist in two distinct re- 

 lations to one another ; that of simultaneity, and that of suc- 

 cession. Every phenomenon is related, in an uniform manner, 

 to some phenomena that coexist with it, and to some that have 

 preceded and will follow it 



Of the uniformities which exist among synchronous pheno- 

 mena, the most important, on every account, are the laws of 

 number ; and next to them those of space, or, in other words, 

 of extension and figure. The laws of number are common to 

 synchronous and successive phenomena. That two and two 

 make four, is equally true whether the second two follow the 

 first two or accompany them. It is as true of days and years 

 as of feet and inches. The laws of extension and figure (in 

 other words, the theorems of geometry, from its lowest to its 

 highest branches) are, on the contrary, laws of simultaneous 

 phenomena only. The various parts of space, and of the 

 objects which are said to fill space, coexist; and the unvarying 

 laws which are the subject of the science of geometry, are an 

 expression of the mode of their coexistence. 



This is a class of laws, or in other words, of uniformities, 

 for the comprehension and proof of which it is not necessary 

 to suppose any lapse of time, any variety of facts or events suc- 

 ceeding one another. If all the objects in the universe were 

 unchangeably fixed, and had remained in that condition from 

 eternity, the propositions of geometry would still be true of 

 those objects. All things which possess extension, or, in other 

 words, which fill space, are subject to geometrical laws. Pos- 

 sessing extension, they possess figure ; possessing figure, they 

 must possess some figure in particular, and have all the pro- 

 perties which geometry assigns to that figure. If one body be 



