LAW IN POLITICS. 425 



and good. It is for the gaining of these triumphs 

 that Man has been gifted with the desire of 

 Knowledge, and with the sense of Right, and with 

 the faculties of Contrivance. In such triumphs lie 

 the aim and purpose of all Natural Laws — for these 

 they were all established — for these they all work, 

 whether by way of encouragement, or of restraint, 

 or of retribution. 



Nothing is more striking in the history of Dis- 

 covery than the ages during which men have 

 been blind to the suggestions of Natural Law 

 — suggestions which now appear so obvious that 

 we wonder how the interpretation of them could 

 have been missed so long. It is very easy to 

 feel this wonder concerning others ; it it much 

 more difficult to remember that the same wonder 

 will certainly be felt concerning ourselves. Such 

 as we now see to have been the position of former 

 generations in respect to things which they failed 

 to understand, — such, we may depend upon it, is 

 precisely our own position in regard to innumer- 

 able phenomena now constantly passing before 

 our eyes. We may be sure of this ; and we ought 

 to be as glad of it as we are sure. For the world 



