78 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



rudest tribes and races of Mankind, are all found 

 to follow rules of progress as regular as those 

 which preside over any of the material growths 

 of Nature. Yet so it is ; and it is upon this fact 

 alone that the science of Language rests — a science 

 in which all the facts are not yet observed, and 

 many of those which have been observed are not 

 yet reduced to order; but in which enough has 

 been ascertained to show that languages grow, 

 and change from generation to generation accord- 

 ing to rules of which the men who speak them are 

 wholly unconscious. It is the same with all other 

 things. And as it is now, so apparently has it 

 been in all past time of which we have any record. 

 Even the work of Creation has been and is being- 

 carried on under rules of adherence to Typical 

 Forms, and under limits of variation from them, 

 which can be dimly seen and traced, although 

 they cannot be denned or understood. The uni- 

 versal prevalence of laws of this kind cannot 

 therefore be denied. The discovery of them is 

 one of the first results of all physical inquiry. 

 In this sense it is true that we, and the world 

 around us, are under the Reign of Law. 



