Inasmuch as Axioms of Uniformity are ultimate truths, they cannot
be deduced; and inasmuch as they are universal, no proof by experience
can ever be adequate. The grounds of our belief in them seem to be
these:

(1) Every inference takes for granted an order of Nature corresponding
with it; and every attempt to explain the origin of anything assumes
that it is the transformation of something else: so that uniformity of
order and conservation of matter and energy are necessary
presuppositions of reasoning.

(2) On the rise of philosophic reflection, these tacit presuppositions
are first taken as dogmas, and later as postulates of scientific
generalisation, and of the architectonic unification of science. Here
they are indispensable.

(3) The presuppositions or postulates are, in some measure, verifiable
in practical life and in scientific demonstration, and the better
verifiable as our methods become more exact.

(4) There is a cause of this belief that cannot be said to contain any
evidence for it, namely, the desire to find in Nature a foundation for
confidence in our own power to foresee and to control events.

CHAPTER XIV

CAUSATION

Sec. 1. For the theory of Induction, the specially important aspect of the
Uniformity of Nature is Causation.

For (1) the Principles of Contradiction and Excluded Middle are implied
in all logical operations, and need no further explication.

(2) That one thing is a mark of another or constantly related to it,
must be established by Induction; and the surest of all marks is a
Cause. So that the application of the axiom of the Syllogism in
particular cases requires, when most valid, a previous appeal to
Causation.

(3) The uniformity of Space and of Time is involved in Causation, so far
as we conceive Causation as essentially matter in motion--for motion is
only known as a traversing of space in time; and so far as forces vary
in any way according to the distance between bodies; so that if space
and time were not uniform, causation would be irregular. Not that time
and space are agents, but they are conditions of every agent's
operation.

(4) The persistence of Matter and Energy, being nothing else than
Causation in the general movement of the world, is applied under the
name of that principle in explaining any particular limited phenomenon,
such as a soap-bubble, or a thunderstorm, or the tide.

(5) As to co-existences, the Geometrical do not belong to Logic: th