The universe, according to my idea, is, always was, and forever will
be. It did not "come into being;" it is the one eternal being--the only
thing that ever did, does, or can exist. It did not "make its own laws."
We know nothing of what we call the laws of Nature except as we gather
the idea of law from the uniformity of phenomena springing from like
conditions. To make myself clear: Water always runs down hill. The
theist says that this happens because there is behind the phenomenon an
active law. As a matter of fact law is this side of the phenomenon. Law
does not cause the phenomenon, but the phenomenon causes the idea of law
in our minds, and this idea is produced from the fact that under like
circumstances the same phenomena always happens. Mr. Black probably
thinks that the difference in the weight of rocks and clouds was created
by law; that parallel lines fail to imite only because it is illegal;
that diameter and circumference could have been so made that it would
be a greater distance across than around a circle, that a straight line
could inclose a triangle if not prevented by law, and that a little
legislation could make it possible for two bodies to occupy the same
space at the same time. It seems to me that law can not be the cause of
phenomena, but it is an effect produced in our minds by their succession
and resemblance. To put a God back of the universe compels us to admit
that there was a time when nothing existed except this God; that this
God had lived from eternity in an infinite vacuum and in an absolute
idleness. The mind of every thoughtful man is forced to one of these two
conclusions, either that the universe is self-existent or that it
was created by a self-existent being. To my mied there are far more
difficulties in the second hypothesis than in the first.