226 VITALISM AND SCHOLASTICISM 



conception of an orderly or supposed orderly 

 sequence of events in the natural world. Viewed 

 strictly from the standpoint of science, as 

 Huxley was careful to point out, there are no 

 such things as laws in the ordinary sense of 

 precepts or decrees, in the processes of Nature. 



What we do know is that there are certain 



*- 



observed sequences of events and that these do 

 actually present to us a picture of a uniform 

 nature. But this is a different thing from 

 assuming, as many without any evidence are 

 prone to do, that these sequences are the result 

 of some inexorable compulsion or some intrinsic 

 and absolute necessity emerging out of the 

 nature of the universe, and that in no other way 

 could things take place than that in which as 

 a matter of fact we are accustomed to find that 

 they do take place. 



As it is of the first importance that those who 

 are not accustomed to dealing with scientific 

 theories should understand the real value of 

 these so-called " Laws," I will add one further 

 quotation on the subject from one of the acutest 

 thinkers and most accomplished physicists I 

 Poynting have ever known.* " We must confess that 

 physical laws have greatly fallen off in dignity. 

 No long time ago they were quite commonly 

 described as the Fixed Laws of Nature, and were 



* The late Professor J. H. Poynting, F.R.S., in a British 

 Association Address, 1889. 



