quences. An important consequence
of firing a gun is the propulsion of the bullet or shell; but there are
many other consequences in the whole effect, and one of them is the
heating of the barrel, which, accumulating with rapid firing, may at
last put the gun out of action. The tides have consequences to shipping
and in the wear and tear of the coast that draw every one's attention;
but we are told that they also retard the rotation of the earth, and at
last may cause it to present always the same face to the sun, and,
therefore, to be uninhabitable. Such concurrent consequences of any
cause may be called its Co-effects: the Effect being the sum of them.

The neglect to take account of the whole effect (that is, of all the
co-effects) in any case of causation is perhaps the reason why many
philosophers have maintained the doctrine of a "Plurality of Causes":
meaning not that more than one condition is operative in the antecedent
of every event (which is true), but that the same event may be due at
different times to different antecedents, that in fact there may be
_vicarious_ causes. If, however, we take any effect as a whole, this
does not seem to be true. A fire may certainly be lit in many ways: with
a match or a flint and steel, or by rubbing sticks together, or by a
flash of lightning: have we not here a plurality of causes? Not if we
take account of the whole effect; for then we shall find it modified in
each case according to the difference of the cause. In one case there
will be a burnt match, in another a warm flint, in the last a changed
state of electrical tension. And similar differences are found in cases
of death under different conditions, as stabbing, hanging, cholera; or
of shipwreck from explosion, scuttling, tempest. Hence a Coroner's Court
expects to find, by examining a corpse, the precise cause of death. In
short, if we knew the facts minutely enough, it would be found that
there is only one Cause (sum of conditions) for each Effect (sum of
co-effects), and that the order of events is as uniform backwards as
forwards.

Still, as we are far from knowing events minutely, it is necessary in
practical affairs, and even in the more complex and unmanageable
scientific investigations, especially those that deal with human life,
to acknowledge a possible plurality of causes for any effect. Indeed,
forgetfulness of this leads to many rash generalisations; as that
'revolutions always begin in hunger'; or th