EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 147 
sider the broadest use. It is not content with 
simple good and bad, and so is fastidious and 
Gurious, or nice only.That is very true 
which Raleigh says about the equal necessity of 
war and law, that “The necessity of war which 
among human actions is most lawless hath some 
kind of affinity and near resemblance with the 
necessity of law,” for both equally rest on force 
as their basis, and war is only the resource 
of law, either on a smaller or larger scale, its 
authority asserted. In war, in some sense, lies 
the very genius of law. It is law creative and 
active, it is the first principle of law. What is 
human warfare but just this, an effort to make 
the laws of God and nature take sides with one 
party. Men make an arbitrary code, and, be¬ 
cause it is not right, they try to make it prevail 
by might. The moral law does not want any 
champion. Its assertors do not go to war. It 
was never infringed with impunity. It is in¬ 
consistent to deny war and maintain law, for if 
there were no need of war there would be no 
need of law. 
March 16, 1852. Before sunrise. With what 
infinite and unwearied expectation and procla¬ 
mation the cocks usher in every dawn, as if 
there had never been one before, and the dogs 
bark still, and the thallus of lichens springs, so 
tenacious of life is nature. 
