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oloev has been the ^ mto ^ iTSe third , Positive conception has preddmhiated . The germ of Positivism wM be found even m ^ the Fetichistic stage ; nor was mm ever abso-S incapable of Abstraction . On the other hand , the positive period will not entirely exclude the initial and intermediate tendencies of the human mind . It should be observed , too , that these three stages are aU closely connected ; for the Metaphysical is a transition state , anS is partly theological and partly scientific . * The chasm between Supernaturahsm and Positivism is bridged over by Metaphysics . Without it Humanity would never have ar isen : for natura nonagit per saltum . The principle of
gradation or continuity , the characteristic of nature , is also the characteristic of the new Philosophy , and will be found to underlie all its logical and scientific conceptions . As an illustration , I subjoin a passage from bir John Herschel ' s Discourse : — ' There can be little doubt that the solid , liquid , and aeriform states of bodies are merely stages in a progress of gradual transition ' from one extreme to the other ; and that , however strongly marked the distinctions between them may appear , they will ultimately turn out to be separated by no sudden or violent Une of demarcation , but shade into each other by insensible gradations . M . " The present is a favourable occasion for bringing forward a criticism on the much-used and much-abused term , " Laws of Nature , " which for nearly
twenty years I have employed with misgiving . The phrase has two vices it is inaccurate , and it is misleading ; and I think that a severe critic might not unreasonably condemn its employment as peculiarly improper m Positive Philosophy . The conception implied in , or suggested by , the phrase " Laws of Nature / ' is the last and most refined expression of the Metap hy sical stage of speculation : in it Law replaces the old term Principle j in it Law is the delicate abstract Entity superadded to the phenomena . ¦ . For
observe : When you say that it is according to a law that bodies gravitate , that fluids ascend to their level , or that the needle points towards the north , you are superadding to the fads an abstract entity ( law ) , which you believe coerces the facts , makes them to be what they are ; you give a generalized statement of the facts , and out of that you make an entity—a something ah extra . What is this Law which produces the phenomena , but a more subtle , a more impersonal substitute for the Supernatural Power which , m the Theological epoch , was believed to superintend all things ,
" To guide the whirlwind and direct the storm ?" If the Savage says it is a Demon who directs the storm , does not the man of science say it is a Law which directs it ? These two conceptions , are they not identical ? . I know it will be answered , that men of science do not so conceive Law . They do not believe that the everliving activities we in our profound ignorance christen Nature , are moved according to certain celestial Statutes , with " pains and penalties" thereunto attached . But my objection is not habituall this
the less valid . The current language of men y expresses conception ; and although , when their attention is directed to it , when they begin rigorously to define terms , they call a Law the " expression of the relations of coexistence and succession , " yet I say their language about " breaking the laws of Nature , " acting " contrary to the laws of Nature , " indicates the misleading suggestions of the term , and much of their reasoning is vitiated by it . Thus , to go no farther than the Development theory , which assumes a certain fixed and definite Plan m the universe—are not the Laws which work out this Plan endowed with a
mysterious prescience of the end they are to reach ? And what are prescient laws but metaphysical entities ? Nevertheless , that the Creator has subjected matter to certain immutable laws , is a concep tion which most men of science loudly proclaim ; and however they may refine upon terms , and sublimate the idea of Law , its human element cannot always be eliminated . But this , I must confess , seems to me a m echanical theory of the universe , both ster ile and irreligious : it makes God necessary as a postulate , and there leaves him . He having legislated for the universe once for all , the laws are now sufficient to sustain the great life of the universe 1 According to my own dynamic conceptions , which admit God only as Life , and the Universe as his Activity , such notions of Law are profoundly erroneous ; and I object therefore to the term Laws of Nature , because its direct
meaning points to a mecha nical conception of Nature , and because , however we may circumscribe its meaning , as expressive simply of the relations of coexistence and succession , the word Law does and must bring with it its human associations , and must therein bo delusive . Rather than the popular , and , as I call it , mechanical theory of the Universe , let me have the primitive spontaneous theory of the earlier stages of Humanity : I can accommodate myself better with the old Deities—capr icious and human as they arc—than with the modem Laws ; for the Deities at least were living powers ! Spinoza and Goethe teach us something better than the mechanical theory , anil to them I refer the reader , upon whose lips a scornful smile has been raised by what has just been said .
Let me suppose it granted that tho term Law is objectionable . What shall be the substitute ? Tlie difficulty of finding one has been very great . The " mind in the spacious circuit of its musing" alighted on terms all cloffffed with intrusive nnd delusive meanings , which unfitted thorn for replacing the old term . Tho one upon which I finally settled docs not altogether satisfy me , but it fulfils the main requisites . I propose to call tho relations of coexistence and succession , usually named Laws , by the name of Methods . Etymologically , Method ( peOoBoc ) is a path leading onwards , a way of transit . Tho Methods of Nature would
the temperature of water . Yet if you pour water into a red-hot crucible containing liquid sulphuric acid , the temperature of the water is not raised ; nay , so far from that , it is lowered to the freezing point , and in lieu of steam you have ice I This is no contradiction to the Laws " of Nature ; no law is broken ; the path is intersected by another path , thus : The rapid evaporation of the sulphur ic acid produces cold so intense that the water which ( the acid absent ) would have hissed off in steam , now not only loses in evaporation all the heat given it by the fire , but also loses a portion of that beat which kept it liquid . And this is simply because the Method of Nature—the true path of its activity as regards sulphuricjicid subjected to
therefore express ! the paths along which the activities of / Nature travelled to results ( phenomena ) . I cannot avoid figwative language , and it is useful , because expressive ; but the conception here expressed 4 s limited to the facts , with nothing superadded . Given the phenomena , we name the process by which they are called forth , the Way of Nature --the path Forces take to that particular result . These paths niay be ^ intersected by the paths of other Forcesv For instance , a spark will ignite dry gunpowder ; . Here a particular path is opened along which Forces can travel to a particular issue ( explosion ); but if we throw water on tliepowder , ike particular path is blocked up , and another issue is reached . Fire raises
heat—is what we call rapid evaporation . To understand this conception of Methods , let us place ourselves at the most abstract point of view : let us consider Nature as the sum of Forces ; which because they are , and are Forces , must act , and must act along some pathway or other—rand . let us further consider these Forces about to leap into results—we can only consider them as travelling along certain definite paths to reach certain definite results . We thus see that tlie path of activity is one of the conditions of an act ; and that to the observed actions we superadd nothing not given in the actions themselves , by declaring such and such to be the Methods of Nature .
I try various forms of expression , and various illustrations , to familiarize my meaning . Let me take one from the science of Mechanics . Matter is said to be inert ' , as a scientific artifice this may be useful in mechanics , but out of that domain to consider matter as incapable of spontarieously modifying the action of forces applied to it , is a remnant of the old Metaphysical notion , that all states Of activity and movement are produced from without ; * notion in accordance with that phase of mental development when movement was explained by supernatural entities ; a notion in accordance with the mechanical theory that all matter is a " lifeless mass of clay in the potter ' s hands . " I cannot bring myself so to consider it . I
desire some considerable rectification of these gross conceptions of matter , and would view it as the phenomena of Forces , and say that all matter , animate and inanimate , is everywhere in a state of spontaneous activity of Life , in short ; a conception , I need scarcely add , to which all modern science is rapidly tending . And having once so conceived it , we should conclude that the movements of matter are not obedient to Laws , but are the spontaneous activities of the Forces ; and what we call Laws are nothing but the paths , or Methods , along which the Forces move . of Methods
That there are objections incident to the use the term , I am aware ; is it possible to avoid objections ? Moreover , I am not Quixotic Neologist enough to expect that the old term will fall out of use , could even a new term , wholly free from objection , be suggested . But I think this digression will not have been superfluous , if it serve to fix the students attention on the characteristic defect of the conception of Law , and if it cause him , when he meets with the term Law , mentally to correct it into Method . Without at once altering our scientific phraseology , we may at once accustom our thoughts to Methods of Nature , and so familiarize
ourselves with the positive spirit of regarding Nature . / I know not what Comte will say to this criticism , but I have noticed the effect of the term Law as decidedly misleading ; and I think the direction in which it points—to the mechanical theory of the universe a direction Philosophy should energetically be warned against . To quit this discussion , and return to the Cours de Philosophic Positive , let me advise those who have some mathematical attainment , to study the chapters devoted to Mathematics in the first volume ( pp . 117-739 ) , as A despair of giving any useful account of them within the space at my disposal , even though a friend has submitted to me his analysis . Those unacquainted with Mathematics will do well just to skim through the chap ters , picking out the general principles , and then commencing the Leptures on Astronomy—which I will open next week . *
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THE TWO SISTERS . Awake ! awake 1 the royal hills Are diademed with rosy light , The waving forests , warbling rills , All worship God aright . Where trees like emerald pillars rise , A child is kneeling on the sod , Hor face is looking on tho skies , Her heart is gone to God , Her prayer is said , she rises now , She seeks the dear familiar bower , —
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* For tho Oomto Subscription Fund X have to acknowledge 2 J . from Mr . Wy » Hording , and 10 * . " from a Gorman . "
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 8, 1852, page 448, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1934/page/20/
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