740 THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENCE. [CHAP. 



The Indeterminate Problem of Creation. 



A second and very serious misapprehension concern- 

 ing the import of a law of nature may now be pointed 

 out. It is not uncommonly supposed that a law deter- 

 mines the character of the results which shall take place, 

 as, for instance, that the law of gravity determines what 

 force of gravity shall act upon a given particle. Surely 

 a little reflection must render it plain that a law by itself 

 determines nothing. It is law plus agents obeying law 

 which has results, and it is no function of law to govern or 

 define the number and place of its own agents. Whether 

 a particle of matter shall gravitate, depends not only upon 

 the law of Newton, but also upon the distribution of sur- 

 rounding particles. The theory of gravitation may perhaps 

 be true throughout all time and in all parts of space, and 

 the Creator may never find occasion to create those possible 

 exceptions to it which I have asserted to be conceivable. 

 Let this be as it may ; our science cannot certainly deter- 

 mine the question. Certain it is, that the law of gravity 

 does not alone determine the forces which may be brought 

 to bear at any point of space. The force of gravitation act- 

 ing upon any particle depends upon the mass, distance, and 

 relative position of all the other particles of matter within 

 the bounds of space at the instant in question. Even 

 assuming that all matter when once distributed through 

 space at the Creation was thenceforth to act in an in- 

 variable manner without subsequent interference, yet the 

 actual configuration of matter at any moment, and the 

 consequent results of the law of gravitation, must have 

 been entirely a matter of free choice. 



Chalmers has most distinctly pointed out that the 

 existing collocations of the material world are as important 

 as the laws which the objects obey. He remarks that a 

 certain class of writers entirely overlook the distinction, 

 and forget that mere laws without collocations would 

 have afforded no security against a turbid and disorderly 

 chaos. 1 Mill has recognised 2 the truth of Chalmers' 

 statement, without drawing the proper inferences from 



1 First Bridgewater Treatise (18^4), pp. 16-24. 



2 System of Logic, 5th edit. bk. III. chap. V. 7 ; chap. XVI. 3. 



