LAW; — ITS DEFINITIONS. 93 



confusion if it were allowed to operate alone, or if it 

 were not balanced against others in the right pro- 

 portion. It is very difficult to form any adequate 

 idea of the vast number of laws which are con- 

 cerned in producing the most ordinary operations 

 of Nature. Looking only at the combinations with 

 which Astronomy is concerned, the adjustments 

 are almost infinite. Each minutest circumstance 

 in the position, or size, or shape of the earth, the 

 direction of its axis, the velocity of its motion and 

 of its rotation, has its own definite effect, and the 

 slightest change in any one of these relations 

 would wholly alter the world we live in. And 

 then it is to be remembered that the seasons, as 

 they are now fitted to us, and as we are fitted to 

 them, do not depend only on the facts or the laws 

 which Astronomy reveals. They depend quite as 

 much on other sets of facts, and other sets of 

 laws, revealed by other sciences, — such, for ex- 

 ample, as Chemistry, Electricity, and Geology. 

 The motion of the Earth might be exactly what it 

 is, every fact in respect to our Planetary position 

 might remain unchanged, yet the seasons would 

 return in vain if our own atmosphere were altered 



