LAW; — ITS DEFINITIONS. 79 



It is true, out only a bit and fragment of the 

 truth. For there is another fact quite as promi- 

 nent as the universal presence and prevalence of 

 laws — and that is, the number of them which are 

 concerned in each single operation in Nature. No 

 one Law — that is to say, no one Force — determines 

 anything that we see happening or done around 

 us. It is always the result of different and op- 

 posing Forces nicely balanced against each other. 

 The least disturbance of the proportion in which 

 any one of them is allowed to tell, produces a 

 total change in the effect. The more we know 

 of Nature, the more intricate do such combinations 

 appear to be. They can be traced very near to the 

 fountains of Life itself, even close up to the confines 

 of the last secret of all — how the Will acts upon 

 its organs in the Body. Recent investigations in 

 Physiology seem to favour the hypothesis that our 

 muscles are the seat of two opposing Forces, each 

 so adjusted as to counteract the other; and that 

 this antagonism is itself so arranged as to enable 

 us by acting on one of these Forces, to regulate the 

 action of the other. One Force — an elastic or con- 

 tractile Force — is supposed to be inherent in the 



