94 THE REIGN OF LAW. 



in any one of the elements of its composition, or 

 if any one of the laws regulating the action were 

 other than it is. Under a thinner air even the 

 torrid zone might be wrapped in eternal snow. 

 Under a denser air, and one with different refract- 

 ing powers, the earth and all that is therein might 

 be burnt up. And so it is through the whole of 

 Nature: laws everywhere — laws in themselves 

 invariable, but so worked as to produce effects 

 of inexhaustible variety by being pitched against 

 each other, and made to hold each other in re- 

 straint. 



I have already referred to Chemistry as a 

 science full of illustrations of Law in the First and 

 simplest sense — that is, of facts in observed orders 

 of recurrence. But Chemistry is a science not less 

 rich in illustration of Law in the Fourth sense — 

 that is, of Forces in mutual adjustment. Indeed, 

 in Chemistry, this system of adjustment among 

 the different properties of matter is especially 

 intricate and observable. Some of the laws 

 which regulate Chemical Combination were dis- 

 covered in our own time, and are amongst the 

 most wonderful and the most beautiful which have 



