4 ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



iii war. Tins important science comprehends only that part of private 

 ethics which is capable of being reduced to iixed and general rules. 1 



And Lord Bacon has, in language often quoted, pointed to the law 

 of nature as the source of all human jurisprudence: 



For there are in nature certain fountains of justice, whence all civil 

 laws are derived but as streams, and like as waters do take tinctures 

 and tastes from the soils through which they run, so do civil laws vary 

 according to the regions and governments where they are planted, 

 though they proceed from the same fountain. 2 



This original and universal source of all law is variously designated 

 by different writers; sometimes as "the law of nature," sometimes as 

 "natural justice," sometimes as "the dictates of right reason;" but, 

 however described, the same thing is intended. "The law of nature" 

 is the most approved and widely employed term. The universal obli- 

 gation which it imposes is declared by Cicero in a passage of lofty 

 eloquence which has been the admiration of jurists in every succeeding 

 age. 3 



And the same doctrine is inculcated by the great teacher of the laws 

 of England in language which may have been borrowed from the greai 

 Roman : 



This law of nature being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God 

 himself, is, of course, superior in obligation to any other. It is binding 

 over the globe, in all countries, and at all times; no human laws areof 

 any validity if contrary to this, and such of them as are valid derive 

 all their force and all their authority, mediately or immediately, from 

 this original. 4 



The dependency of all law upon the law of nature is happily ex- 

 pressed by Cicero in another often quoted passage: " Lex est supremo, 

 ratio insita a natura qua- jubet ea '/""' facienda sunt, prohibctque con- 



1 Dissertation on the, Law of Nature and Nations. 



2 De Augmentis Scientiarum. 



3 "Est quidem vera lex recta ratio naturae congruens, diffusa in omnes, constans, 

 sempiterna, quae vocet ail officium jubendo, vetando a fraude deterreat, quae tainen 

 nequeprobos frustra jubet aut vetat, nee improbosjuberidoaut vetaudornovet. Huic 

 legi nee obrogari fas est neque derogari ex hac aliquid licet neque tota abrogari po- 

 test, nee vevo aut per senatum aut per populuni solvi hac lege possumus, neque est 

 quaerendus explanator aut interpres ejus alius, nee eritalialex Komae, alia Atlienis, 

 alia nunc, alia posthae, sed et omnes gentes ct omui tempore una lex et sempiterna 

 et immutabilis continebit nuusquisquo erit communis quasi magisfcer et imperator 

 omnium deus: ille legis hujus inventor, disceptator, lator, oui qui non parebit, ipse 

 se fugiet ac naturam hominis aspernatua hoe ipso lnet maximas poenas, etiam si 

 caetera supplicia quae putautur, eiit'ugerit." (Do Republica, Lib. 111. Cap. XXII, § 33.) 



♦Jjiackstone, Com., Book 1 ; p, 4L 



