108 SCIENCE AND PSEUDO-SCIENCE m 



ing if the Duke of Argyll would explain how he 

 proposes to set ab >ut showing that the elliptical 

 form of the orbits of the planets, the constant 

 area described by the radius vector, and the 

 proportionality of the squares of the periodic 

 times to the cubes of the distances from the sun, 

 are either caused by the " force of gravitation " 

 or deducible from the "law of gravitation/* 

 I conceive that it would be about as apposite to 

 say that the various compounds of nitrogen with 

 oxygen are caused by chemical attraction and 

 deducible from the atomic theory. 



Newton assuredly lent no shadow of support to 

 the modern pseudo-scientific philosophy which 

 confounds laws with causes. I have not taken 

 the trouble to trace out this commonest of 

 . fallacies to its first beginning ; but I was familiar 

 with it in full bloom, more than thirty years ago, 

 in a work which had a great vogue in its day the 

 " Vestiges of ike Natural History of Creation " 

 of which the first edition was published in 1844. 

 It is full of apt and forcible illustrations of 

 pseudo-scientific realism. Consider, for example, 

 this gem serene. When a boy who has climbed a 

 tree loses his hold of the branch, "the law of 

 gravitation unrelentingly pulls him to the ground, 

 arid then he is hurt/' whereby the Almighty is 

 quite relieved from any responsibility for the 

 accident. Here is the " law of gravitation " 



