352 THE REIGN OF LAW 



For as one great consequence of the Reign 

 of Law over material things is the necessity of 

 resorting to the use of appropriate means for the 

 accomplishment of Purpose, so does the same ne- 

 cessity arise out of the same conditions among the 

 phenomena of Mind. If we wish to operate upon 

 human action, we must go to work by presenting 

 to the Will some motive tending to produce 

 the action we desire. Above all, if we seek to 

 operate not merely on individual actions, but 

 upon that which mainly determines conduct, viz., 

 human character, we must direct our efforts to 

 place that character under outward conditions 

 which we know to have a favourable effect upon 

 it. In the material world we should be power- 

 less to control any event if we did not know it 

 to be subject to Laws — that is, to Forces which, 

 though not liable to change in essence, are sub- 

 ject to endless change in combination and in use. 

 The same impotency would affect us, if in 

 the moral world also definite conditions had not 

 always an invariable tendency to produce cer- 

 tain definite results. It is a mere confusion of 

 thought and of language which confounds the "in- 



