4 
JS'atural History Society of N~. JB., Bulletin No. IV. 
it merely expresses a fact. The law, or rather laws, of optics are 
first learnt by a series of experiments or observations. And when 
the law is recognized, it is after all a term applied to similar results 
under similar conditions. The ultimate force or forces are beyond 
the ability of man to define or to comprehend. But whilst we are 
unable to know what the effective force may be, we yet are able to 
conclude that if any conditions are wanting, or other conditions are 
added, the sequence of events will be changed, or the working of 
that particular sequence will be interrupted. 
m THE ORGANIC WORLD 
a similar grouping of facts occurs. In the growth of plants, and the 
conditions under which they are found, certain sequences are traced 
and become recognized as laws of grow'th or development. Also in 
the animal economy we are led to generalize — the varying families, 
the conditions of their existence, their modified organs of life, the 
circumstances which may be favorable or injurious in their action. 
We call these results of our investigations law’s of being. They 
state facts as to sequence, but do not give the reason why they 
should be results. So also with the laws in the intellectual world. 
The law of association, in which one thought or sensation recalls 
another which was cotemporary with it. To call it a law does not 
explain why such should be. The frequent repetition which 
strengthens the power to recall is one of the laws of mental action, 
but to apply to it the term law merely expresses the fact — does not 
explain the cause. In the moral we are forced to admit certain 
results as the consequence of moral feelings in action. We speak of 
a law of love ; we know that an emotion in one person excites a 
similar emotion in another. We may apply the term law’ to it, but 
that does not solve the difficulty. 
I have spoken of the Ethics of Law. By this I mean the man- 
ner in which results occur; the obligation which exists in the 
sequence of events ; the obedience to a command. The term ethics 
is generally used to denote a moral relationship in conduct as in 
man to man. I claim its use in the other departments to the rela- 
tions of matter and the organic laws as truly as it may be applied 
to the intellectual and must be to the moral faculties. 
To know the ethics — that is, the manner, obligation and obe- 
dience — of the laws of matter, is to recognize the principles or 
