THE SCIENTIFIC LAW 89 



this argument — which, however, has only reached us at 

 second-hand^ — is characteristic enough. Yet the argument 

 is noteworthy, for we find in it the three meanings of the 

 term law with which we have been dealing hopelessly 

 confused. The Stoics pass from the scientific law to the 

 lex natures, — the mere sequence of phenomena, — and then 

 to the civil or moral law without in the least observing 

 the magnitude of their spring ; and what these early 

 philosophers accomplished in this way has been surpassed 

 by the devotees of philosophy and natural theology in 

 later ages. One example will, perhaps, suffice for our 

 present investigation. Richard Hooker, a divine of the 

 sixteenth century, who achieved a remarkable reputation 

 for himself by stating paradoxes based on a confusion 

 between natural and moral law, thus defines laiv in 

 general : — 



" That which doth assign unto each thing the kind, 

 that which doth moderate the force and power, that which 

 doth appoint the form and measure of working, the same 

 we term a Law " {Ecclesiastical Polity, Bk. I. ii.). 



Hooker further considers that all things, including 

 nature, have some operations " not violent or casual." 

 This leads him to assert that such operations have " some 

 fore-conceived end." Hence he holds that nature is 

 guided by law, and that this law is a product of reason. 

 Unlike the Stoics, Hooker placed this reason in a worker, 

 God, outside and not inherent in Nature, otherwise his 

 doctrine and the conclusions he draws from it closely re- 

 semble theirs. He was, however, aware of the elastic 

 character of his definition of law, for he writes : — 



" They, who thus are accustomed to speak, apply the 

 name Law unto that only rule of working which a superior 

 authority imposeth ; whereas we, somewhat more enlarg- 

 ing the sense thereof, term any kind of rule or canon 

 whereby actions are framed, a law " (Bk. I, iii.). 



The views of Hooker and the Stoics thus briefly 

 sketched deserve careful consideration by the reader, as 



^ Marcus Auielius, iv. 4, and Cicero, De Icgibjis, i. 6-7. Cf. T. C. 

 Sandars, The Inslitiites of Jtistiniau, p. xxii. Longmans, 187S. 



