270 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
provided the distinctions between them are kept clearly in view, 
and provided we watch against the fallacies which must arise 
when we pass, in its use, from one meaning to another. There 
are at least four different senses which must he carefully distin- 
guished — 
1. We have Law as applied simply to “an observed order of 
facts.” 
2. To that order as involving the action of some force or forces, 
of which nothing more maj?- be known. 
3. As applied to individual forces, the measure of whose opera- 
tion has been more or less defined and ascertained. 
4. As applied to those combinations of force which have refer- 
ence to the fulfilment of purpose or to the discharge of 
function. 
Now, in which of these senses does science justify us in enter- 
taining the idea of “ Creation by Law?” 
First, it is certain that there is an “ observed order of facts ” both 
in the organic and in the inorganic world. I mean to speak in this 
paper of the organic world alone, and chiefly of those higher forms 
which are the seat of animal life. In these there is an observed 
order in the most rigid scientific sense, that is, — phenomena in uni- 
form connection, and mutual relations which can be made, and are 
made, the basis of systematic classification. These classifications are 
imperfect, not because they are founded on ideal connections Where 
none exist, but only because they fail in representing adequately the 
subtle and pervading order which binds together all living things. 
But the order which prevails in the existing world is not the only 
order which has been recognised by science. A like order has pre- 
vailed through all the past history of creation. Nay, more ; it has, 
I think, been clearly ascertained, not only that relations similar to 
those which now exist have existed alw'ays among all the animals 
of each contemporary creation, but that order of a like kind has 
connected with each other all the different creations which were 
successively introduced. In almost all the leading types of life 
which have existed in the different geological ages, there is an 
orderly gradation connecting the forms which were becoming ex- 
tinct with the forms which were for the first time appearing in the 
world. It is still disputed by some geologists, whether we have 
