would be as if we should ask, what were the
Laws of Rome,, and should have read to us a
tabulated list of the laws of that remarkable
State. In either case the reply could scarcely
be called untrue, or even incorrect, but it
would be very defective as regards giving us
true and correct conceptions.
Instead of this method of reply, another,
with no wearying catalogued collection, might
make answer to us, telling how the fabric of
Roman Law was the outgrowth of centuries
of Roman life, actions, thoughts, passions,
environments, institutions, morals ; or, again,
how it reacted on all these. So we should
see that not a list of verbal statements, but a
product of the life and mind of a wonderful
people; the formed and vital power that,
receiving its character from the creating
people, carried on and controlled the activities
of the nation, and we should know the makers
of Roman Law.
In like manner as by the larger and better
method of studying the laws of Rome we
come to know the people that made that
system, and to know the institutions and
life that grew under its guidance and control,
so by the more comprehensive and the truer
method of studying the Laws of Nature we
may learn not merely a catalogue of facts,
however useful or grand, but the character
and thoughts of the power that made this
system of laws. For it is very unphilosophical
to stop, as some do, with the laws, confounding
them in our thoughts with the originating
power, and attributing power to them. Let
us clearly understand that as the laws of a
nation are but rules that guide the actions of
its people, but have power neither of origin
nor of action themselves, so the Laws of
Nature are but the methods according to
which the actions of nature are performed,
but the power in exercise in these actions is
not in or of the laws.
We cannot here present a systematic study
of the character of the power that made the
THE FREE LANCE.
laws of nature as that character, and the acts
of that power may be derived from the system
of laws. A few desultory points, at most, can
be suggested, leaving the interesting study
to those who appreciate the delight it affords.
Three or four things are so manifest that
it is difficult to say which would first fix the
attention of one turning his thoughts to the
study of the character of this power, its in
finity, its constancy, its wisdom, or its eternity.
From the multitude and vastness of the
objects, for the actions of which methods are
to be prescribed, the unlimited, or infinite,
nature of the ordaining power is most evident.
Then a glance along the centuries of the
records of science, and the experience of our
race, makes equally patent another element
in the character of that power, its unchange
ableness. It has neither variableness nor
shadow of change, from the beginning of
actions in the nebulous mists to the latest
hour come forth into time.
Nor is it possible to look in the laws of
nature for the character of the power that
made them without immediately perceiving
its transcendent intelligence, its infinite
wisdom. Nothing less, amid such multitu
dinous and vast complexity, could compre
hend all in enduring stability and harmony.
Less than an infinite degree, of what in our
selves we call intelligence, or some higher
quality of like kind, could not avert speedy
disaster and irremediable confusion.
Alike conspicuous with those elements
already named is the attribute of persistance,
of indestructibility, of eternity. This is
characteristic of every manifestation of the
power that ordered the universe, alike in the
indestructibility of matter that man has known
for generations, and in the conservation of
energy that he has but just now thoroughly
learned.
Other elements of the character of the
law-maker of nature are almost as evident in
laws of nature ; benevolence, justice, verity—