appeal to the objectification of will, instead of giving a physical
explanation, as we have to appeal to the creative power of God. For
physics demands causes, and the will is never a cause. Its whole relation
to the phenomenon is not in accordance with the principle of sufficient
reason. But that which in itself is the will exists in another aspect as
idea; that is to say, is phenomenon. As such, it obeys the laws which
constitute the form of the phenomenon. Every movement, for example,
although it is always a manifestation of will, must yet have a cause from
which it is to be explained in relation to a particular time and space;
that is, not in general in its inner nature, but as a _particular_
phenomenon. In the case of the stone, this is a mechanical cause; in that
of the movement of a man, it is a motive; but in no case can it be
wanting. On the other hand, the universal common nature of all phenomena
of one particular kind, that which must be presupposed if the explanation
from causes is to have any sense and meaning, is the general force of
nature, which, in physics, must remain a _qualitas occulta_, because with
it the etiological explanation ends and the metaphysical begins. But the
chain of causes and effects is never broken by an original force to which
it has been necessary to appeal. It does not run back to such a force as
if it were its first link, but the nearest link, as well as the remotest,
presupposes the original force, and could otherwise explain nothing. A
series of causes and effects may be the manifestation of the most
different kinds of forces, whose successive visible appearances are
conducted through it, as I have illustrated above by the example of a
metal machine. But the difference of these original forces, which cannot
be referred to each other, by no means breaks the unity of that chain of
causes, and the connection between all its links. The etiology and the
philosophy of nature never do violence to each other, but go hand in hand,
regarding the same object from different points of view. Etiology gives an
account of the causes which necessarily produce the particular phenomenon
to be explained. It exhibits, as the foundation of all its explanations,
the universal forces which are active in all these causes and effects. It
accurately defines, enumerates, and distinguishes these forces, and then
indicates all the different effects in which each force appears, regulated
by the difference of the circumstances, always in accordance with its own
peculiar character, which it discloses in obedience to an invariable rule,
called _a law of nature_. When all this has been thoroughly accomplished
by physics in every particular, it will be complete, and its work will be
done. There will then remain no unknown force in unorganised nature, nor
any effect, which has not been proved to be the manifestation of one of
these forces under definite circumstances, in accordance with a law of
nature.