NECESSARY NATURE OF THE CArSE. 31 



sequence of some similarly universal principle. As gravi- 

 tation was assignable as the cause of each of the groups of 

 phenomena which Kepler formulated ; so may some equally 

 simple attribute of things be assignable as the cause of each 

 of the groups of phenomena formulated in the foregoing 

 pages. We may be able to affiliate all these varied and 

 complex evolutions of the homogeneous into the heteroge- 

 neous, upon certain simple facts of immediate experi- 

 ence, which, in virtue of endless repetition, we regard as 

 necessary. 



The probability of a common cause, and the possibility 

 of formulating it, being granted, it will be well, before 

 going further, to consider what must be the general 

 characteristics of such cause, and in what direction we 

 ought to look for it. We can with certainty predict that 

 it has a high degree of generality ; seeing that it is com- 

 mon to such infinitely varied phenomena: just in propor- 

 tion to the universality of its application must be the 

 abstractness of its character. We need not expect to see 

 in it an obvious solution of this or that form of Progress ; 

 because it equally refers to forms of Progress bearing little 

 apparent resemblance to them : its association with multi- 

 form orders of facts, involves its dissociation from any par- 

 ticular order of facts. Being that which determines Pro- 

 gress of every kind — astronomic, geologic, organic, ethnolo- 

 gic, social, economic, artistic, &c. — it must be concerned 

 with some fundamental attribute possessed in common by 

 these ; and must be expressible in terms of this fundamen- 

 tal attribute. The only obvious respect in which all kinds 

 of Progress are alike, is, that they are modes of change y and 

 hence, in some characteristic of changes in general, the de- 

 sired solution will probably be found. We may suspect 

 d priori that in some law of change lies the explanation of 

 this universal transformation of the homogeneous into tho 

 hetero2:eneous. 



