from so many percolations; and withal they may know that the understanding can drink in the most pure and flowering part of the species, and can leave the dregs at the bottom. Have you not thus often seen a seal stamping itself upon the wax, and yet not communicating the least particle of matter, but only leaving a form and impression upon it? However, there is as much proportion between these species and an intellectus patiens, as between these and an intellectus agens. Nay, there is more proportion between these species and the understanding, than between the soul and body, which yet are joined and married together in a most loving and conjugal union. CHAPTER X. OF THE CONSENT OF NATIONS. THOUGH nature's law be principally proclaimed by the voice of reason, though it be sufficiently discovered by 'the candle of the Lord,' yet there is also a secondary and additional way, which contributes no small light to the manifestation of it: I mean the harmony and joint consent of nations, who, though there be 'no communion, nor commerce, nor compact'1 between them, yet do tacitly and spontaneously conspire in a dutiful observation of the most radical and fundamental laws of nature. So that by this pleasant concert of theirs you may know that the same nature did tune them all. When you see the same prints and impressions upon so many several nations, you easily perceive that they were stamped with the same public seal.'2 When you see the very same seeds thrown in such different soils, yet all increasing and multiplying, budding and blossoming, branching out and enlarging themselves into some fruitful expressions, you know then that it was Nature's hand, her bountiful and successful hand, that scattered such seminal principles among them; you presently know that is no enclosed way, it is a 'king's highway," in which you meet with so many travellers, such a concourse and confluence of people. 1 Κοινωνία ἢ συνθήκη. 3 Via regia. 2 Eodem communi sigillo. Acts ii. 8-12. Amongst many others, the learned Grotius is full and express for searching out the law of nature in this manner. You shall hear his own words, which he speaks in that excellent work of his, De Jure Belli et Pacis. 'The existence of natural law is usually proved both à priori and à posteriori, the former being the more refined mode of proof, the latter the more suited for popular apprehension. The proof à priori, is by showing that something does or does not accord with our rational and social natures, and this of necessity. That à posteriori is by gathering together and reckoning, not perhaps with absolute certainty, but at least with great probability, as parts of a system of natural law, all points which among all nations-I mean all the more civilized-are considered as such." And he does annex this reason of it, ‘A universal effect requires a universal cause.' When you see such fresh springs and streams of justice watering several kingdoms and nations, you know that they are participations of some rich fountain, of a vast ocean. When you see so many rays of the same light shooting themselves into the several corners of the world, you presently look up to the sun, as the glorious original of them all. Let me, then, a little vary that place in the Acts of the Apostles: You may hear every man in his own language, in his own dialect, and idiom, speaking the same works of nature; Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, in Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, 1 Esse aliquid juris naturalis, probari solet tum ab eo quod prius est, tum ab eo quod posterius; quarum probandi rationum illa subtilior est, hæc popularior. A priori, si ostendatur rei alicujus convenientia aut disconvenientia necessaria cum natura rationali ac sociali. A posteriori vero, si non certissima fide, certe probabiliter admodum juris naturalis esse colligitur id, quod apud gentes omnes aut moraliores omnes tale esse creditur.-Prolegg. 2 Universalis effectus universalem requirit causam. and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of For whatsoever is natural and essential, is also universal As nature shows choice variety and needlework in this, in that she works every individual with several flourishes, with some singular and distinguishing notes, so likewise she plainly aspires to concord and unity, whilst she knits all together in a common and specifical identity. Not only in the faces of men, but in their beings also, there is much of identity, and yet much of variety. You do not doubt but that in all nations there is an exact likeness and agreement in the fabric and composure of men's bodies in respect of integrals, excepting a few monsters and heteroclites in nature; nor can you doubt but that there is the very same frame and constitution of men's spirits in respect of intrinsicals, unless in some prodigious ones, that in the philosopher's language are 'mistakes of nature.'3 As face answers face, so does the heart of one man the heart of another, even the heart of an Athenian the heart of an Indian. Wherefore the votes and suffrages of nature are no con 1 Aristotle. 2 Τὸ μὲν φύσει ἀκίνητον, καὶ πανταχοῦ τὴν αὐτὴν ἔχει δύναμιν, ὥσπερ τὸ πῦρ καὶ ἐνθάδε καὶ ἐν Πέρσαις καίει. 8 'Αμαρτήματα τῆς φύσεως.—Aristot. Prov. xxvii. 19. temptible things. No report quite dies out, which many nations spread,"1 as the poet sings. This was the mind of that great moralist, Seneca, as appears by that speech of his: With us the fact of a thing appearing true to all proves its truth."2 But the orator is higher and fuller in his expression, 'But in everything the agreement of all nations must be believed to indicate a law of nature.' And that other orator, Quintilian, does not much differ from him in this: We hold those things true, to which common opinion has given sanction.' Or, if the judgment of a philosopher be more potent and prevalent with you, you may hear Aristotle telling you, 'It is best that all men should seem to agree to what shall be said.'5 You may hear Heraclitus determining, that 'general opinion' is an excellent 'test' of truth; and therefore he was wont to lay down this for a maxim, 'Things generally believed are worthy of credit;'s which may be rendered, 'The voice of the people is the voice of God; yet upon this condition, that it be taken with its due restraints and limitations. If you would have a sacred author set his seal to all this, Tertullian has done it, 'That which is found agreed upon by many, is not a mistake, but a truth handed down to them.' 10 Surely that must needs be a clear convincing light, that can command respect and adoration from all beholders; it must be an orient pearl indeed, if none will trample upon 1 Φήμη δ ̓ οὔτις πάμπαν ἀπόλλυται, ἥντινα λαοὶ 2 Apud nos veritatis argumentum est aliquid omnibus videri. 3 Omni autem in re, consensio omnium gentium lex naturæ putanda est. 4 Pro certis habemus ea, in quæ communi opinione concessum est. 5 Κράτιστον πάντας ἀνθρώπους φαίνεσθαι συνομολογοῦντας τοῖς ῥηθησο μένοις. • Ο λόγος ξυνός. 8 Τὰ κοινῆ φαινόμενα πιστά. * Κριτήριον. Vox populi vox Dei. 10 Quod apud multos unum invenitur, non est erratum, sed traditum. |