I4S 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY NATURE. 



person, it is then called a monarchy, or a limited 

 monarchy. If the executive power is exercised by a 

 select body of men, it is called an aristocracy or 

 limited aristocracy. If the executive power is exer- 

 cised by a magistrate elected by the people from 

 time 10 time, and removable by the people, it is 

 sometimes, though not, perhaps, with perfect accu- 

 racy, called a republic, or a limited republic. If, in a 

 monarchy, the power of legislation is shared by the 

 representatives of the people, it is called a mixed 

 monarchy ; if in an aristocracy it is so shared, it is 

 called a mixed aristocracy; if in a republic, it is 

 called a representative republic. But it is obvious 

 that all these forms of government may be variously 

 mixed together by delegations and limitations of the 

 executive, legislative, and judicial powers, in differ- 

 ent proportions; and the actual structure of every 

 government depending upon the choice, or necessi- 

 ties, or prejudices, or accidental combinations, of 

 each society, they do not admit of any determinate 

 classifications. But, whatever be the form of the 

 government, the aggregate exercise of the legisla- 

 tive, executive, and judicial powers constitutes what 

 is commonly called the internal sovereignty of a 

 nation. 



8. From the nature and objects of civil govern- 

 ment, we deduce not only the rights, but the duties 

 of magistracy. These, of course, depend upon the 

 nature of the functions, which belong to the partic- 

 ular department, legislative, executive, or judicial. 

 All magistrates are responsible to God for the due 

 and honest discharge of their duty ; and, in republi- 

 can forms of government, these magistrates are also 

 made, in some shape, directly or indirectly, responsi- 

 ble to the people. Every civil government is bound 

 to promote the interests of agriculture, commerce, 

 and manufactures, as conducive to the strength and 

 happiness of the people. Every government is 

 bound to protect the persons, the personal rights, 

 and property of its citizens from violation and injury. 

 Every government is bound to establish courts of 

 justice, to provide for the punishment of crimes, to 

 enforce the obligation of legal contracts, to encour- 

 age marriages, to prohibit immorality, to culti- 

 vate a sense of religious obligation, to allow a free 

 exercise of religious worship,, and a free expression 

 of religious opinion, so far as it is not inconsistent 

 with the public peace and safety. Every govern- 

 ment may impose oaths or other solemn affirmations, 

 appealing to the consciences of parties, for the pur- 

 pose of ascertaining the truth of facts, or to secure 

 the just performance of duties. It may, therefore, 

 reasonably require, that witnesses should be sworn, 

 or otherwise solemnly bound to testify the truth ; 

 and it may also reasonably require parties to take 

 promissory oaths and affirmations for the future dis- 

 charge of official and other duties. And here ends 

 our imperfect sketch of some of the leading prin- 

 ciples of natural law, in their practical application to 

 the relations of man to God, to himself, to other 

 men, and to political society. The consideration of 

 the rights and duties of nations to each other, and of 

 their external sovereignty, and independence, and 

 equality, belongs to another head, that of law of 

 nations. See Nations, Law of. 



NATURAL PHILOSOPHY. See Philosophy, 

 Natural. 



NATURAL RELIGION. See Religion. 

 NATURAL STATE OF MAN is frequently used 

 as synonymous with the state of man previous to the 

 growth of civilization, in which he is considered by 

 some as entirely rude, by others as possessing the 

 relics of intelligence, derived from a prior and better 

 state. Some consider him as having begun in a 

 rude state, but as assisted in the first steps of his 



intellectual progress by inspirations or revelations 

 from Divine Providence, without which, notwith- 

 standing his faculties, fitted fur high improvement, 

 he would have been at first more destitute even than 

 the brutes. This view is well represented and 

 defended, among other works, in Richard Whately's 

 Introductory Lectures on Political Economy (London, 

 1831). The expression natural state, if intended to 

 designate the state best fitted to the nature of man, 

 is ill applied to savage life, notwithstanding the poet's 

 dreams of a golden age of innocent ignorance, and 

 the reveries of philosophers like Rousseau upon a 

 state of savage virtue, uncorrupted by the vices of 

 civilization. We believe that man's natural state is 

 that of society, in a physical, as well as in a moral, 

 point of view, and that man, in the savage state, is 

 no more in a natural condition than a pine tree 

 which is found growing near the limits of perpetual 

 snow on the Alps, where it is stunted to the height 

 of two or three feet. The characteristic trait of man 

 in his (so called) natural state, or, rather, brute state, 

 is improvidence, which reduces him almost to a 

 level with the brutes, and effectually prevents his 

 progress towards civilization ; and it is a curious 

 fact, that none of the savage tribes witli which modern 

 travellers have made us acquainted, have shown any 

 tendency to intellectual advancement in the course of 

 centuries, unless brought into frequent contact with 

 civilized races a fact which certainly is a strong 

 argument for those who ascribe the beginning of 

 civilization to the direct interference and assistance of 

 Providence. See Civilization. 



NATURE ; a word of vast and various significa- 

 tion. In its most extensive meaning, it denotes the 

 world, the universe ; in short, the creation ; hence 

 it comprises both the physical world and the spiritual, 

 as both are created. Those philosophers, ancient 

 and modern, who consider God as inseparably con- 

 nected with the universe, to which his animating 

 breath gives life, include even him under the idea of 

 nature. In fact, they have not unfrequently con- 

 founded God with the laws and principles of nature.* 

 But the Christian expresses, by nature, in its most ex- 

 tensive meaning, the universe, as contradistinguished 

 to God, the Creator. In another application of the 

 word, nature is contradistinguished to art, and signi- 

 fies every thing which is not artificial, not purposely 

 produced or practised with reference to rules of art. 

 In this sense, we speak of a natural poet, or artist, 

 products of nature, &c. It must be observed here, 

 that, in many cases, it is very difficult to draw the 

 exact limit between nature and art. Natural is also 

 used in contradistinction to taught, or communicated; 

 thus we speak of natural powers, in contradistinction 

 to the ability acquired by education, and natural 

 religion, or that which man is supposed to acquire 

 from observation of himself and the creation around 

 him, in contradistinction to positive religion, or such 

 as is revealed, and established by special circum- 

 stances. The term natural religion has been used, 

 also, in a very different sense. It means, sometimes, 

 that polytheism which is founded on the worship of 

 the deified powers of nature. According to some, 

 all polytheism has such an origin. In the narrowest 

 sense, nature means the peculiar character of the 

 various objects of nature in its widest sense, as given 

 above. In this application, it is often used for 

 character only, and we even speak of the " nature 

 of God." In reference to men, nature is very fre- 

 quently used for the physical constitution, and moral 



and Lib. II., c. 22 and 32. To define natura by reference to 

 the res naturales can hardly be considered very philosophjcal. 



