25

Logic II 25

[?] condition of things; and is a compusion to begin to acting to make
for that situation to begin to change in a particular perfectly
determinate way; and what the general character of the
result may be in no way concerns the efficient causation.
For example, I shoot at a bird an eagle on the wing; and
since my purpose, -- a special sort of final, or ideal, cause,
is to hit the bird, I do not shoot directly at it, but a
little ahead of it, making allowance for the change of
place by the time the bullet gets to that distance. But
often So far, it is an affair of final causation. But after
the bullet leaves the rifle, the affair is turned over to the
blind and stupid efficient causation, and should the bird
eagle make a swoop in another direction, the bullet does
not swerve in the least, efficient causation having no regard whatsoever
for results, but simple obeying orders blindly. It is true that
the force of the bullet conforms to a law; and the law is
something general. But for that very reason the law is not