Introduction To The Science Of Government And Compend Of

Synopsis

General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1839 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. Laws. -- The Law of Nature -- Law of Revelation -- Municipal Law -- Law of Nations. 19. Law, in its widest sense, signifies a rule of action, and is applied to all kinds of action, whether animate or inanimate, rational or irrational. According to established principles in nature, all matter tends to decay; all ponderous bodies determine towards the centre of the earth; heat and moisture promote the growth of plants. This invariable tendency of all species of matter to certain motions, changes, and relations, as well as those which govern human conduct, are called physical laws, or the laws of nature. Law, in a more limited sense, denotes the rules of human action; the precepts by which man, as a moral, social, and accountable being, is commanded to regulate his behavior. 20. The law of nature, as applied to man, is a rule of action arising out of the natural relations which he sustains to his Creator and to his fellow men. As a creature, he must be subject to the laws of his Creator, on whom he is dependent. The will of the Creator is his law, and is called the law of nature. This law is founded in those relations of justice which existed in the nature of things prior to any positive precept; that is, it is a perfect rule for all rational and moral beings, and is right in itself, without depending on any positive command to make it so. It is that eternal law of right to which God himself conforms. Man, as a social being, is subject to the same law. He is in a mea sure dependent on his fellow beings. All men being created equal, each is bound by the unchangeable principles of natur...