This merely means that physical causes act without any definite intention on their part of any particular results to follow from their action. Electrical tension in the air tends to discharge itself in the form of lightning, but not to kill this particular man under the tree, although it does kill. The volcanic nisus prompts to an eruption, but not to the destruction of such and such a city that is built over the volcano. So far as physical agencies are concerned, the lava, or flaming gas, takes its determined path, neither making for the city, as such, nor avoiding it, as such.

Of God and His Creatures: 1.50