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thoughts) that he could not more effectually have benefited pofterity, or contributed to the fervice of the public, than by founding an inftitution which may instruct the rifing generation in the wisdom of our civil polity, and inspire them with a defire to be still better acquainted with the laws and conftitution of their country.

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in it's most

fignifies a rule of action; and is applied indifcriminately to all kinds of action, whether animate or inanimate, rational or irrational. Thus we fay, the laws of motion, of gravitation, of optics, or mechanics, as well as the laws of nature and of nations. And it is that rule of action, which is prefcribed by some superior, and which the inferior is bound to obey.

THUS when the fupreme being formed the univerfe, and created matter out of nothing, he impreffed certain principles upon that matter, from which it can never depart, and without which it would cease to be. When he put that matter into motion, he established certain laws of motion, to which all moveable bodies must conform. And, to defcend from the greatest operations to the fmalleft, when a workman forms a clock, or other piece of mechanism, he establishes at his own pleasure certain arbitrary laws for it's direction; as that the hand fhall defcribe a given space in a given time; to which law as long as the work conforms, fo long it continues in perfection, and anfwers the end of it's formation.

If we farther advance, from mere inactive matter to vegetable and animal life, we shall find them ftill governed by laws; more numerous indeed, but equally fixed and invariable. The whole progrefs of plants, from the feed to the root, and from thence to the feed again;-the method of animal

nutrition,

nutrition, digeflion, fecretion, and all other branches of vital economy;-are not left to chance, or the will of the creature itself, but are performed in a wondrous involuntary manner, and guided by unerring rules laid down by the great creator.

THIS then is the general fignification of law, a rule of action dictated by fome fuperior being: and, in thofe creatures that have neither the power to think, nor to will, fuch laws must be invariably obeyed, fo long as the creature itself fubfifts, for it's exiftence depends on that obedience. But laws, in their more confined fenfe, (1) and in which it is our

(1) This perhaps is the only fenfe in which the word law can be ftrictly used; for in all cafes where it is not applied to human conduct, it may be confidered as a metaphor, and in every instance a more appropriate term may be found. When it is ufed to exprefs the operations of the Deity or Creator, it comprehends ideas very different from thofe which are included in it's fignification. when it is applied to man, or his other creatures. The volitions of the Almighty are his laws, he had only to will pusybw xx εγένετο. When we apply the word law to motion, matter, or the works of nature or of art, we shall find in every cafe, that with equal or greater propriety and perfpicuity, we might have used the words quality, property, or peculiarity.-We fay that it is a law of motion, that a body put in motion in vacuo muft for ever go forward in a ftraight line with the fame velocity; that it is a law of nature, that particles of matter fhall attract each other with a force that varies inversely as the fquare of the diftance from each other; and mathematicians fay,that a ferics of numbers obferves a certain law, when each fubfequent term bears a certain relation or proportion to the preceding term: but in all these inftances we might as well have used the word property or quality, it being as much the property of all matter to move in a ftraight line, or to gravitate, as it is to be folid or extended; and when we fay that it is the law of a feries that each term is the fquare or fquare-root of the preceding term, we mean nothing more than that fuch is it's property or peculiarity. And the word law is ufed in this fenfe in those cafes only which are faretioned by ufage; as it would be thought a harsh expreffion to fay, that it is a law that fnow fhould be white, or that fire fhould burn. When a mechanic forms a clock, he establishes a model

prefent business to confider them, denote the rules, not of action in general, but of human action or conduct: that is, the precepts by which man, the nobleft of all fublunary beings, a creature endowed with both reason and freewill, is commanded to make use of those faculties in the general regulation of his behaviour.

MAN, confidered as a creature, must neceffarily be subject to the laws of his creator, for he is entirely a dependent being. A being, independent of any other, has no rule to purfue, but fuch as he prefcribes to himfelf; but a ftate of dependence will inevitably oblige the inferior to take the will of him, on whom he depends, as the rule of his conduct: not indeed in every particular, but in all thofe points wherein his dependence confifts. This principle therefore has more or lefs extent and effect, in proportion as the fuperiority of the one and the dependence of the other is greater or lefs, abfolute or limited. And confequently, as man depends abfolutely upon his maker for every thing, it is neceflary that he should in all points conform to his maker's will.

THIS will of his maker is called the law of nature. For as God, when he created matter, and endued it with a prin

a model of it either in fact or in his mind, according to his pleafure; but if he should refolve that the wheels of his clock fhould move contrary to the ufual rotation of fimilar pieces of mechanism, we could hardly with any propriety established by ufage apply the term law to his scheme. When law is applied to any other object than man, it ceases to contain two of it's effential ingredient ideas, viz. difobedience and punishment.

Hooker, in the beginning of his Ecclefiaftical Polity, like the learned judge, has with incomparable eloquence interpreted law in it's most general and comprehenfive fenfe. And moft writers who treat law as a science, begin with fuch an explanation. But the Editor, though it may feem presumptuous to question fuch authority, has thought it his duty to fuggeft thefe few obfervations upon the fignification of the word law.

ciple of mobility, established certain rules for the perpetual direction of that motion; fo, when he created man, and endued him with freewill to conduct himself in all parts of [40] life, he laid down certain immutable laws of human nature, whereby that freewill is in fome degree regulated and reftrained, and gave him alfo the faculty of reafon to discover the purport of those laws.

CONSIDERING the creator only as a being of infinite power, he was able unquestionably to have prefcribed whatever laws he pleased to his creature, man, however unjuft or fevere. But as he is alfo a being of infinite wifdom, he has laid down only fuch laws as were founded in thofe relations of juftice, that existed in the nature of things antecedent to any positive precept. These are the eternal, immutable laws of good and evil, to which the creator himself in all his difpenfations conforms; and which he has enabled human reafon to difcover, fo far as they are neceflary for the conduct of human actions. Such among others are thefe principles: that we should live honeftly (2), fhould hurt nobody, and should render to every one his due; to which three general precepts Juftinian has reduced the whole doctrine of law.

a

BUT if the discovery of these first principles of the law of nature depended only upon the due exertion of right reafon, a Juris praecepta funt haec, bonefte vivere, alterum non laedere, fuum cuique tribuere. Inft. I. 1. 3.

(2) It is rather remarkable that both Harris, in his translation of Juftinian's Institutes, and the learned Commentator, whose profound learning and elegant taste in the claffics no one will queftion, should render in English, boneftè vivere, to live honeftly.-The language of the Institutes is far too pure to admit of that interpretation; and befides, our idea of honefty is fully conveyed by the words fuum cuique tribuere. I fhould prefume to think that bonè vivere fignifies to live honourably, or with decorum, or bienfeance; and that this precept was intended to comprize that clafs of duties, of which the violations are ruinous to fociety, not by immediate but remote confequences, as drunkennefs, debauchery, profaneness, extravagance, gaming, &c.

and

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