(2) The same peculiarity prevails again in the force and frequency of most natural agencies. Wind and weather are seen to lose their proverbial irregularity when examined on a large scale. Man's work therefore, when operated on by such agencies as these, even though it had been made in different cases absolutely alike to begin with, afterwards shows only a general regularity. I may sow exactly the same amount of seed in my field every year. The yield may one year be moderate, the next year be abundant through favourable weather, and then again in turn be destroyed by hail. But in the long run these irregularities will be equalized in the result of my crops, because they are equalized in the power and frequency of the productive agencies. The business of underwriters, and offices which insure the crops against hail, would fall under this class; though, as already remarked, there is no very profound distinction between them and the former class. The reader must be reminded again that this fixity is only temporary, that is, that even here the series belong to the class of those which possess a fluctuating type. Those indeed who believe in the fixity of natural species will have the best chance of finding a series of the really permanent type amongst them, though even they will admit that some change in the characteristic is attainable in length of time. In the case of the principal natural agencies, it is of course incontestable that the present average is referable to the present geological period only. Our average temperature and average rainfall have in former times been widely different from what they now are, and doubtless will be so again. Any fuller investigation of the process by which, on the Theory of Evolution, out of a primeval simplicity and uniformity the present variety was educed, hardly belongs to the scope of the present work: at most, a few hints must suffice. 11. The above, then, are instances of natural objects and natural agencies. There seems reason to believe that it is in such things only, as distinguished from things artificial, that the property in question is to be found. This is an assertion that will need some discussion and explanation. Two instances, in apparent opposition, will at once occur to the mind of some readers; one of which, from its great intrinsic importance, and the other, from the frequency of the problems which it furnishes, will demand a few minutes' separate examination.