CHAPTER VII 

 LAW AND PRINCIPLE 



The great tragedy of science the slaying of a beautiful 



hypothesis by an ugly fact. Huxley. 

 Consistency in regard to opinions is the slow poison of the 



intellectual life, the destroyer of its vividness and its 



energy. Sir Humphry Davy. 

 Of all monarchs Nature is the most just in enactment of 



laws, and the most rigorous in punishing the violation 



of them. Wilkins. 



Though the mills of God grind slowly. 



Yet they grind exceeding small : 

 Though with patience he stands waiting, 



With exactness, grinds he all. Longfellow. 

 Nature is so varied in her manifestations and phenomena, 



and the difficulty of elucidating their causes is so great, 



that many must unite their knowledge and efforts in 



order to comprehend her and force her to reveal her laws. 



Laplace. 

 For Nature, Time is nothing. It is never a difficulty : 



she always has it at her disposal : and it is for her the 



means by which she has accomplished the greatest as well 



as the least results. Lamarck. 



IN a scientific sense, a natural law is merely a precise 

 statement of the relationship between certain results 

 of observation. Facts must first be collected by obser- 

 vation or measurement ; then they have to be classified 

 and compared with the view of finding any relationship 

 existing between them. When a relation is discovered 



