128 THE INSUFPIOIENOY OF PHrSICAL LAW. 



THE INSUFFICIENCY OF PHYSICAL LAW. 



BY CHARLES B. WARRING, PH.D. 



We often use the word law in the abstract as a generic 

 term, including all laws which pertain to the subject un- 

 der consideration, as the Law of the Land, Commercial 

 Law, Maritime Law, Civil Law, Military Law. In the 

 same way Physical Law refers to and includes all the 

 laws of physics, hence I shall say Physical- Law when 

 speaking of the whole as if one, and physical laws when 

 I desire to refer to these laws individually. 



What is Law ? 



Moral and Civil law imply two parties, one of whom 

 has authority to command and power to punish, and the 

 other is under obligation to obey. This definition can- 

 not apply to physical law, for that acts on matter, and 

 matter cannot be punished, nor is it conscious of obliga- 

 tion to obey. Consequently Law in this connection has 

 come to mean an order of action, or perhaps more accur- 

 ately, a statement of an invariable order of sequence in 

 or between physical phenomena. We note what comes 

 first, and what invariably follows, taking care, of course, 

 to eliminate all errors of observation, and we formulate 

 the operation in words, and we have a law. For exam- 

 ple, I toss a stone upwards. In a few moments it comes 

 to the ground. I remove a support from beneath a 

 body. At once it goes to the earth. I try various sub- 

 stances with the same result, and conclude that all un- 

 supported bodies fall to the earth. 



My faith may be shaken by seeing smoke ascend, and 

 birds fly, but greater knowledge, and the use of my 

 reasoning faculties, enable me to see that these are after 

 all only other cases of the same law. As I discover the 

 shape of the earth, I generalize my statement a little 

 more, and say that all unsupported bodies fall towards 



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