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CHAPTER V. 

 OF THE LAW OF UNIVERSAL CAUSATION. 



1. THE phenomena of nature exist in two 

 distinct relations to one another ; that of simultaneity, 

 and that of succession. Every phenomenon is related, 

 in an uniform manner, to some phenomena that 

 coexist with it, and to some that have preceded or will 

 follow it. 



Of the uniformities which exist among synchronous 

 phenomena, the most important, on every account, 

 are the laws of number ; and next to them those of 

 space, or in other words, of extension and figure. 

 The laws of number are common to synchronous and 

 successive phenomena. That two and two make 

 four, is equally true whether the second two follow 

 the first two or accompany them. It is as true of 

 days and years as of feet and inches. The laws of 

 extension and figure, (in other words, the theorems of 

 geometry, from its lowest to its highest branches,) are, 

 on the contrary, laws of simultaneous phenomena only. 

 The various parts of space, and of the objects which 

 are said to fill space, coexist ; and the unvarying laws 

 which are the subject of the science of geometry, are 

 an expression of the mode of their coexistence. 



This is a class of laws, or in other words, of unifor- 

 mities, for the comprehension and proof of which it is 

 not necessary to suppose any lapse of time, any variety 

 of facts or events succeeding one another. If all the 

 objects in the universe were unchangeably fixed, and 

 had remained in that condition from eternity, the 

 propositions of geometry would still be true of those 



