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essentially different from that held by the scientific philosophy. 

 The course of Nature as it presents itself to the eye of science is 

 not a collection of isolated causes, each with its effect attached to 

 it, but it is rather to be symbolized by a chain in which each link 

 is connected with the link which precedes it and with the one 

 which follows it. At each moment of time, the state of the uni- 

 verse is the effect of the state which immediately preceded it, and 

 the cause of the state which immediately follows. There are no 

 such things as distinct causes and effects, but only laws of prog- 

 ress which connect the successive links of the seemingly endless 

 chain. 



As an illustration of this, let us take the falling of the rock. 

 To the mere observer there is no evident reason why it should fall 

 at one time rather than another, he may, therefore, feel that there 

 is room for speculation as to the cause which made it fall at the ex- 

 act moment it did. But science teaches that it will fall at the very, 

 moment when the cohesive extraction which binds it to the moun- 

 tain behind, becomes less than the weight of the rock. We might 

 suppose a power to so adjust the causes which effect the cohesion 

 that the rock shall fall at some desired moment. But any such 

 adjustment would be as complete a change of the course of nature 

 as if the power should hold the rock up after it had begun to 

 fall. The natural processes by which the cohesion of the rock is 

 *slowly diminished, though largely hidden from our view, are gov- 

 erned by laws as precise in their action as those which regulate 

 the motion of the planets. The water which falls from the clouds 

 slowly percolates through the ground, and enters a crack in the 

 supporting mass. It wears it away at a rate dependent on the 

 solubility of the material and the quantity of water which falls. 

 A constant, but certain molecular action goes on without ceasing 

 between each molecule of water and each molecule of rock. The 

 strength of the latter is thus weakened according to some law ad- 

 mitting of precise mathematical statement. Thus, a mind pos- 

 sessed of sufficient mathematical ability, knowing how much water 

 runs over the rock from time to time, and knowing also the laws 

 of molecular action between the rock and the water, could deter- 

 mine long in advance the very moment at which the rock would 

 fall. 



Going back another step, we see that the quantity of water 

 which runs over the rock depends on antecedent circumstances in 



