334 SUMMER. 



followed, has in fact, been contemporary with, a 

 community of human customs ; so linked together are 

 all the parts of nature, that man cannot change any 

 without there being, to a certain extent, and that 

 always in the proportion of the change that art has 

 made, a natural and spontaneous change in the 

 others. That is a very obvious matter, a matter 

 which any body may see, and cannot help seeing, 

 almost whether they look for it or not ; and yet, in a 

 philosophical point of view, it is one of the most im- 

 portant of all matters, and really lets us see farther 

 into the system and working of nature than many of 

 those things which we collect, and wonder at, and 

 worship, as the clues by which we are to thread the 

 labyrinth. It shows us that while there is a particular 

 law (or mode and succession of appearances, for when 

 we speak of nature that is all we can mean by a law) 

 that regulates the individual, there is a general law 

 that regulates the whole; that there is always a 

 sequence, in which the same consequent always 

 follows the same antecedent, and follows it always in 

 the same proportion, just as the same bow always 

 throws the same arrow to the same distance, when 

 placed at the same angle, in the same state of the air, 

 and drawn to the same length. This is universal the 

 very law and constitution of existence ; and the in- 

 ference, though somewhat humbling to the pride of 

 man, as it shows him how marvellously little progress 

 he has yet made in the knowledge of matters that are 

 before him every day and all day long, is most cheer- 

 ing to the future student, as it shows that none of the 

 phenomena of nature are mysterious, but that they may 



