LAW; ITS DEFINITIONS. 77 



may be formed, and to the pressure of the sur- 

 rounding 'atmosphere. Then that pressure is 

 itself exercised under rigorous rules again. Not 

 one of the countless varieties of form which pre- 

 vail in clouds, and which give to the face of 

 heaven such infinite expression, not one of them 

 but is ruled by Law — woven, or braided, or torn, 

 or scattered, or gathered up again and folded, — 

 by Forces which are free only " within the bounds 

 of Law." 



And equally in those subjects of inquiry in 

 which rules of number and of proportion are not 

 applicable, rules are discernible which belong to 

 another class, but which are as certain and as 

 prevailing. All events, however casual or dis- 

 connected they may at first appear to be, are 

 found in the course of time to arrange themselves 

 in some certain Order, the index and exponent 

 of Forces, of which we know nothing except their 

 existence as evidenced in these effects. It is 

 indeed wonderful to find that in such a matter, 

 for example, as the development of our Human 

 Speech, the unconscious changes which arise from 

 time to time among the rudest utterances of the 



