Part 24 (1/2)
CHAPTER II.
CHARACTERS OF THE LAW OF NATURE.
Q. What are the characters of the law of nature?
A. There can be a.s.signed ten princ.i.p.al ones.
Q. Which is the first?
A. To be inherent to the existence of things, and, consequently, primitive and anterior to every other law: so that all those which man has received, are only imitations of it, and their perfection is ascertained by the resemblance they bear to this primordial model.
Q. Which is the second?
A. To be derived immediately from G.o.d, and presented by him to each man, whereas all other laws are presented to us by men, who may be either deceived or deceivers.
Q. Which is the third?
A. To be common to all times, and to all countries, that is to say, one and universal.
Q. Is no other law universal?
A. No: for no other is agreeable or applicable to all the people of the earth; they are all local and accidental, originating from circ.u.mstances of places and of persons; so that if such a man had not existed, or such an event happened, such a law would never have been enacted.
Q. Which is the fourth character?
A. To be uniform and invariable.
Q. Is no other law uniform and invariable?
A. No: for what is good and virtue according to one, is evil and vice according to another; and what one and the same law approves of at one time, it often condemns at another.
Q. Which is the fifth character?
A. To be evident and palpable, because it consists entirely of facts incessantly present to the senses, and to demonstration.
Q. Are not other laws evident?
A. No: for they are founded on past and doubtful facts, on equivocal and suspicious testimonies, and on proofs inaccessible to the senses.
Q. Which is the sixth character?
A. To be reasonable, because its precepts and entire doctrine are conformable to reason, and to the human understanding.
Q. Is no other law reasonable?
A. No: for all are in contradiction to the reason and the understanding of men, and tyrannically impose on him a blind and impracticable belief.
Q. Which is the seventh character?