42 From Matter to Man. 



which it (the effect) follows by dire necessity. The 

 cause of any particular condition, motion, or occur- 

 rence is thus solely the condition, motion, occurrence, 

 or series of conditions and occurrences immediately 

 preceding it. 



All that man can determine as causes in natural 

 operations, apart from his own endeavours, are thus 

 solely those conditions known to him as the antece- 

 dents of certain effects. Hence, the notion of inten- 

 tional natural causation may, as already observed, be 

 banished from human speculation, for under the relent- 

 less accidental conditions of a ceaseless transformation 

 of substance, antecedents and consequents inevitably 

 tail to one another irrevocably, endlessly, and in- 

 continently. 

 r^J Cause, finally, is the automatic operation of matter 

 in certain conditions and positions whereby certain 

 effects are produced. Change the conditions or posi- 

 tions, and automatically or kaleidoscopically, the effect 

 varies. Cause, therefore, resolves itself into the auto- 

 matic working of the natural laws of matter and 

 energy as presently to be enunciated. 



