(p. 184). Let us not, therefore, seek any where else but in the very nature of human actions, in their essential differences and consequences, for the true foundation of the laws of nature, and why God forbids some things whilst he commands others.-1 Burlem. 185.

LAW OF NATURE.

Est quidem vera lex, recta ratio, naturæ congruens, diffusa in omnes, constans, sempiterna, quæ vocat ad officium jubendo, vetando a fraude deterreat, quæ tamen neque probos frustra jubet, aut vetat; nec improbos jubendo aut vetando movet. Huic legi nec obrogari fas est, neque derogari ex hâc aliquid licet; neque tota abrogari potest. Nec vero aut per senatum, aut per populum solvi hâc lege possumus. Neque est quærendus explanator aut interpres ejus alius. Nec erit alia lex Romæ, alia Athenis, alia nunc, alia post hac; sed omnes gentes, et omni tempore, una lex et sempiterna et immutabilis continebit. Unusque erit communis quasi magister et imperator Deus. Ille legis hujus inventor, disceptator, lator, cui non parebit ipse se fugiet, ac naturam aspernabitur; atque hoc ipso luet maximas pænas, etiamsi cætera supplicia, quæ putantur effugerit.-Cic.

de Repub. lib. iii. quoted by Lactant. Institut. Divin. lib. vi. c. 8.

Moral good and evil consist in a conformity or disagreement to truth, and those things that are coincident with it; reason and happiness.Wooll. p. 113. 8vo.

Things are so ordered and disposed by the Author of Nature, that the rectitude of our actions and way to happiness are coincident; and that such acts as are disagreeable to truth and wrong in themselves tend to make men ultimately unhappy.-Wooll. 265.

Nec si regnante Tarquinio, nulla erat Romæ scripta lex de stupris, idcirco non contralegem sempiternam Sextus Tarquinio vim Lucretiæ attulit. Erat enim ratio recta, profecta à rerum natura, et ad rectè faciendum impellens, et å delicto avocans: quæ non tum denique incipit lex esse, cùm scripta est, sed tum cùm orta est. Orta autem simul est cum mente divina.-Cic.

To live virtuously is to practise reason, and act and speak conformably to truth.-Wooll, 341.

Ipsa virtus brevissimè recta ratio dici potest. -Cic.

Quæ non aliud est quam recta ratio.Seneca.

*It occurs also in the Consolatio, and goes to prove that work to be really his.

Vitam ad certam rationis normam dirigere et diligentissime momenta perpendere officiorum omnium memento.-Cic. in Muræn.

Nulla enim vitæ pars, neque publicis neque privatis, neque forensibus, neque domesticis, in rebus, neque si tecum agas quid, neque si cum altero contrahas vacare officio potest, in eoque colendo, sita vitæ est honestas omnis, et in negligendo turpitudo.-Cic. de Off.

It is the duty of every being capable of discerning truth, and of acting conformably to it, to endeavour to practise reason; not to contradict any truth by word or deed, but to treat every thing as being what it is.—Wooll. 111.

All municipal laws act in subordination to the primary law of nature, and, where they annex a punishment to natural crimes, are only declaratory of and auxiliary to that law. -1 Black. Comment. 254.

Natural law is the rule and dictate of right reason, shewing the moral deformity or moral necessity there is in any act, according to its suitableness or unsuitableness to a reasonable nature.-Grotius.

A general and lasting utility, in opposition to a partial or particular advantage, is the true characteristic to distinguish what is truly just or honest from what is so only in the erroneous

opinion of men.-1 Burlemac. 221. S.P. 1 Paley. Mor. Phil.

Whatever is inherent in the nature of manwhatever is a consequence of his original constitution and state-acquaints us clearly and distinctly with the will of the Creator, with the use he expects we should make of our faculties, and the obligations to which he has thought proper to subject us.-1 Burlemac. 308.

When it is said, that the precepts of natural law are of eternal verity; the saying is so far to be restrained and limited that this eternity ought to be considered as reaching no farther than the imposition and institution of God Almighty, and the origin of the human kind. Though, to say the truth, the eternity which we improperly attribute to the laws of nature is only to be rated in proportion to the opposition they bear to positive laws; these being frequently subject to alteration, whilst those remain fixt and unchangeable.-Puffend. Nat. & Nat. p. 20. fol.

It is positive law alone that can be dispensed with, and not the law of nature, Malum in se, our common lawyers maintain, admits of no dispensation.-Taylor, 141.

Non enim naturalis ratio auctoritate senatus commutari potuit.-Digest.

In quo lapsa consuetudo deflexit de via, sensimque eo deducta est, ut honestatem ab utilitate secernens, et constituerit honestum esse aliquod quod utile non esset, et utile quod non honestum; quâ nulla pernicies major hominum vitæ potuit ad ferri.-Cic. de Off. lib. ii. c. 3.

Rectè execrari eum qui primus utilitatem a naturâ sejunxisset. Caput exitiorum omnium tum illud effici, quod quibus incredibile videatur, sit autem necessarium, ut nihilo sese plus quam alterim diligat.-Cic. de Leg.

To cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.-Dr. Johnson, 3 Bos. 200.

Note For the Heaten opinions relative to a future state -See Nemesis, &c. in Ammian. Marcellin. lib. xiv. cap. 11.