372 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



V. Granting the highest attainable validity to the suc- 

 cessive steps taken by science in attaining its ultimate 

 generalizations, these are expressions of laws under which 

 successions of phenomena come into existence. The order 

 and method of the cosmos are so far revealed. Its phe- 

 nomena become intelligible in their mutual relations. 

 The flow of events is systematic, certain, predicable. 

 Nothing happens capriciously, or with any regard to 

 interjected emergencies. No variation in the established 

 order of events can be expected under any supposable 

 circumstances. This is the " reign of law." No ground 

 exists for denying that this reign embraces all the events 

 which make up the history of the irrational world. Nor 

 can it be denied that all rational activities proceed ac- 

 cording to some law; for otherwise there would be no 

 evidence that they are rational. But the laws of rational 

 activity inhere in rational spontaneity; those of physical 

 events are imposed by external authority. 



But the reign of law means nothing more than the 

 universal prevalence of methodical successions of events. 

 Law is the formula under which events are coordinated; 

 but law does not produce events. A phenomenon is scien- 

 tifically explained when we refer it to the law under 

 which it takes place; but it is not exhaustively explained. 

 For the purposes of science it is adequate to ascribe 

 events to law, because law is the ultimate stadium of 

 scientific ratiocination. It lies on the remotest frontier 

 of scientific territory. Physical law is itself an abstrac- 

 tion, and constitutes the connecting link between the 

 physical and the metaphysical. But when we say, in the 

 language of science, that events " come by law," we must 

 take care not to conclude that law is their cause. Law 



