328 THE REIGN OF LAW 



only laws to which Mind is subject. Obscure as 

 these laws are, there are others which are obscurer 

 still. What we cannot see in detail, we can see in 

 the gross. What we cannot recognise in ourselves we 

 are able to recognise in others. We can see that the 

 actions and opinions of men, which are the pheno- 

 mena of Mind, do range themselves in an observed 

 Order, upon which Order we can found, even as we 

 do in the material world, very safe conclusions as 

 to the phenomena which will follow upon definite 

 conditions. And when we go back to former gene- 

 rations — to the history of nations, and the progress 

 of the human race — we can detect still more clearly 

 an orderly progress of events. In that order the 

 operation of great general causes becomes at once 

 apparent. On the recognition of such causes the 

 Philosophy of History depends ; and upon that 

 recognition depends not less the possibility of ap- 

 plying to the exigencies of our own time, and of 

 our own society, a wise and successful legislation. 



But what are these causes, and what is the 

 nature of those "laws" to which voluntary agents 

 are unconsciously obedient ? Is man's Voluntary 

 Agency a delusion, or is it, on the contrary, just 



