The laws of nature are not legislative enactments. Natural events do not take place in obedience to natural laws. Natural laws, as we call them, govern nothing. Thus the law of gravitation does not govern the motion of falling bodies and the coursing of planets, metcors and suns. The law, so-called is a descriptive formula which states in the tersest way possible the mode of action which things of a definite quality will take under certain conditions.
Natural laws are formulas which describe uniformities or regularities of nature.
The forces of life in their operations work, as do all other forces, according to well defined laws or uniformities. Laws have no validity except as expressions of the forces back of them. The uniformities of nature are not mere haphazard coincidences but intrinsically necessary conditions. They are based on the nature of things and constitute an intrinsic and necessary part of the world-order or, rather, of the universal older. The uniformities of nature are eternal.