THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 141 



what answer shall we make ? We see tissues divide, 

 cells develop, processes go on — but How and Why ? 

 These are but phenomena ; but what are phenomena 

 but effects ? Causes, it may be, of other effects ; but 

 still effects of other causes. And why does the cause 

 cause that effect ? Why should it not cause some- 

 thing else ? Why should it cause anything at all ? 

 Because it obeys a law. But why does it obey the 

 law ? and how does it obey the law ? And, after all, 

 what is a law ? A mere custom of nature. We see 

 the same phenomenon happen a great many times ; 

 and we infer from thence that it has a custom 

 of happening ; and therefore we call it a law : but 

 we have not seen the law ; all we have seen is the 

 phenomenon which we suppose to indicate the law : 

 we have seen things fall ; but we never saw a little 

 flying thing pulling them down, with " gravitation " 

 labelled on its back ; and the question, why things 

 fall, and how, is just where it was before Newton 

 was born, and is likely to remain there. All we 

 can say is, that Nature has her customs, and that 

 other customs ensue, when those customs appear : 



