346 THE REIGN OF LAW 



if tl'ey be the same, then there must be some 

 essential distinction between "controlling" and 

 " governing." What is this distinction ? It is 

 not denned, or even suggested. Then, again, if 

 no volitions can " interfere with " Laws, how can 

 volitions " control " facts ? If Will controls facts, 

 and yet can't "interfere with" Laws, how is the 

 control over facts exercised ? What is the relation 

 between the Laws which no volitions can "interfere 

 with," and the " facts" which volitions do actually 

 "control?" Can Will control facts, which again 

 are governed by laws, without (in some sense or 

 other) either interfering with those laws, or con- 

 trolling them ? 



If it were possible to get any definite meaning 

 out of this confusion of words, perhaps it might be 

 said that Will can "control" Law, but cannot "in- 

 terfere with" it. There is at least a glimmering 

 of the truth in this. But no man could gather from 

 those two sentences of Mr Mill what the truth is, 

 although, after all, the truth is plain enough, if only 

 some care be taken to confine definite words to 

 some sort of definite meaning. If by Laws are 

 meant the elementary Forces of Nature, and if by 



