PRESIDENT NEWCOMB. 17 



the same way, namely,, upon the quantity of the rainfall and the 

 arrangement of the crevices in the ground. However the latter 

 may have been produced, the cause is still another link in the end- 

 less chain which we can trace back to preceding links as far as we 

 please. Equally is the rainfall a fixed element, determined by the 

 course of the winds and the amount of moisture which they carry. 

 Thus we have a network of causes, too complicated for the human 

 mind to trace in detail, but which the philosophy of science teaches 

 us act with mathematical certainty. No tempering, modifying, or 

 adjusting action comes in at any stage of the process, so far as we 

 can see ; if we admit such action, we have to keep placing it 

 farther back as our knowledge increases. 



Now there is one feature of these causes, the admission or re- 

 jection of which constitutes the main point of difference between 

 the two schools of thought which I have before indicated. All are 

 agreed that the course of nature is determined by what we may 

 call causes or laws, but all are not agreed as to the scope of action 

 of these laws. The great and distinguishing feature which the 

 school of sciences recognizes, and which the other school does not 

 recognize, is that all the laws of nature act without any scrutable 

 regard to consequences. I qualify my statement by the word 

 scrutable, because it is entirely outside the pale of scientific re- 

 search, to speculate upon possil^e inscrutable ends in nature. This 

 being a subject of which the man of science, speaking as such, can 

 affirm nothing, so he can deny nothing. Having found that no 

 trace of regard for consequences can be seen in the mode of action 

 of the laws which he investigates, but that the whole course of 

 things, so far as his eye can penetrate, may be explained and 

 predicted without supposing any such regard, the demands of 

 science are satisfied, and he must there stop. 



Let me illustrate this by going over the train of thought which 

 has just occupied us in the opposite direction, starting from the 

 rainfall, and tracing the succession of causes to the fall of the 

 rock. The spot at which each drop of rain shall fall is determined 

 by antecedent conditions entirely, by gravitation, and the winds. 

 The drop neither seeks nor avoids the crevices, never asks in any 

 way what shall be its destiny after it reaches the ground. It 

 strikes the ground wherever gravity and the winds bring it, per- 

 colates through the soil according to the law of least resistance, 



A. A. A. S., VOL. XXVII. 2 



