American slavery distinguished from the slavery of English theorists and justified by the law of nature.

Front matter

AMERICAN SLAVERY

DISTINCIUISIIKIJ FllOM

THE SLAVERY OF ENGLISH THEORISTS,

Chapter I. Pao«

Introduction.— The Constitution.— In what sense it fomiidd tub ESTAB- LISHMENT or RELIGION.— ITSELF FOUNDED ON TIIK LAW OF NaTUBB. — TlIB

People at Tin. time or its adoption united in the same Hv.liqion. —New Developments.— Habmonv or the Constitution with Nature and Iwvblation, 11

Chapter II

Definition or Law.— Divine Laws BENEricENT, but diversified in tdeik operation. — Definition of Justice, and its relation to Law. — Rioiits, ' theirNaturr and Definition.— Various sorts of Liberty.- -Slavery. — Ambiguity or the Wobd.— Definition or tub word Slavr, . . .26

Chapter III

Tn« Law or Nature. — An equivocal Expression.— Explained to be a Law rouNDBDiN Nature — Acknowledged by all Mankind. — Declared by Revelation*.— Rights or Nature restrained by its Law. — Extracts from standard Authors, 40

Chapter IV

General Divisions or Society.— Two Main Classes.— Those who abb ih an Immediate, and those who ark in a Mediate Relation to the State. —The Relations explained and illustrated. — Origin or Government. —Eights of Women and Children.— How protected, . ... 88

Vlll

CONTI5NT8.

Chapter V

Till RAMI SUBJECT CONTINUED,-— TllH AUTHORITY Or THE BTATB.— HoW LIM- ITED.— It» RU.ATION TO MINORA. -To MARRIED PERSONS.— ITS VOWEll OVEB

. Blavxby, 70

Chapter VI

SERVITUDE ORIGINALLY CONSISTENT WJI'U A STATU OF INNOCENCE.— ITS SUB- SEQUENT DEBASEMENT.— ^l.F.M ARK AIII.E pAKAAQK O? St. AuailSTIMB, . 84

Chapter VII

Tm Ohio in op Slavkby.— At first in the Wants or Society.— Extended by OTiir.li Causes.— How affected hy "VFab.— Grotius's DISTINCTION of SERVITUDE INTO PERFECT AND IMPERFECT.— KlOllTS ok Fathers, under Tlir. LKVITICAL AND OTUER LAW6, TO VISPQSR OF THEMSELVES AND THEIR CHILDREN. 03

Chapter VIII

anthjuity and extent i>v slavery. —opinions of the ancients — tlib Duty of Masters inculcated hy Cicero.— Objections to the Justice of

8LAVERY DERIVED FROM ITS DkFINITION IN THE JUSTINIAN COPE.— TlIB

Definition explained, and the Oujiotios shown to rest on a Verbal Akbisuity, 108

Chapter IX

Slavery regarded as a Providential Institution.— Children follow the Condition of their Parents.— Inequalities of Fortune.— Man's natural Helplessness.— Remarkable Passaoe from Puny, . 126

Chapter X

Slavery ar a Social Institution.— Oroitnd of it. — Quotations from Gro« Ti\r» awo Pwffendorf.— Slavery at first introduced »y Violence.—

CONTENTS.

PAUB

ANOLKUN TllKOBk 01' fi LA V Kit V.— 8 1. A V V.HY Alt I'OII M UK. II ON CoNqUMT, AMD

under tiik Law ok N nitoNM.— Quotations fhom Grotius, Locke, Honura.

CHAPTER XIT.

LIMITATIONS OK A VI llOIIITY.-~TlJE DlVINB KlGIIT TO DOMINION FOUNDED, HOT

oh Creation, jut on tiik. Wisdom and Uonn.NKSH ov run Curator.— All Human Authority limitkd iivthu Law ok Nature. — At •iihihity ok Hub-

HANDS AND FATHER*. — KllBolW RESPECTING TIIK LoVE OK Oil It NEIGHBOR.—

Tiik Dvtv koundkh in Nature.— Consistent with Servitude. — Compmi-

ATIVR INKI.UENCB OP MttMl If A I, LAW AND i'l? Ht.10 OPINION IN RK8TRA1N" INO THE AllUKI-Jt OK AUTHORITY, 1S3

CHAPTER XIII.

OBJECTIONS, TltKOBKTICAL AND PBACTICAL.~-PROPKRTV IN MAN.— OK NECES- SITY LIMITED ANK COMHTIONAL. — TllK. WORDS OK THE CONSTITUTION —

Quotation r''.o«.Itii>ouO'N/tAi.L.— IIui?akin() up <,k Families. — Maubiagb.

•-IN WHAT SENSE FoBBIDDEN AND IS WHAT PERMITTED, . . . . 10T

CHAPTER XIV.

Tub Pebpetitity ok Si.avkry.-— Not pk.cvi.iab to Southern Slavery.— Nor oiiabgeahle upon slavery as such. — twokoi.1) slavery among the Hebbrws. — Krlations ok the Descendants ok Africans to the Pkoplk op the United States. — Chief Justice Taney's Opinion. — The North and West compared with tub South in tiikir Treatment of the African Hack.— Pbopuect, 215

CHAPTER XV.

The Rendition ok Fugitive Slaves— Provision of tup. Constitution. — In wiut sense the United States are responsible fob the Laws ok the several States. — Distinction between universal and legal Justice.— Tnit local Law in bkspeotto Servitude declarative of the Law ok Nature.— Fugitive Slave Law.— Uwlamation op Fugitives as a genebal rlile not only legally but jiobally just.— exception al Cases, 22*

X , CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XV 1m

' PA01J

African Slapr-Tradc.— Allegory or Icarus anu its APPLICATION.— CONsistency or government in recognizing sl.avi'lly and hkpiioiiatino tub Blavk-Tkadr.— Skizurk and Knsi.avemrnyof Afiucanr.— Why declared Piracy hy Law.— Thr Laws defended against Oh.ikctions drawn moM tiir Inferiority or tiir African Uaob.— From aggravating thr Ilon- Rons or tiir Slavr-Tradk,— And rnoM its alleged Discrimination

AOAINYT SLAVE LaUOR.— TllR PlIOHIHITtON OF TIIR 9l.A VE-Tu ADR ESSEN- TIAL to tiir South, 266

CHAPTER XVII. •

Argument from Scripture.— State or thr Question. — Indirect Influrnce or Christianity on Slavery.— Poi.yuamy and War.— How far parallel to Slavcry.— Diffusion or Knowledge in what sense adverse to it.— Causes of the Decay of Slavery in tiir Hoy an Empire.— Case or St. Cyprian and the Numidian Bishops, 280

CHAPTER XVIII.

Conclusion. — Present State or the Country. — Freedom or Opinion.— Errr.cTs or Anti-Slavery Agitation. — Change of Opinion in the South the Result or a Change in social condition.— The Example op our Fathers. — In what way to re followed. — Provision for free Colored People — Modern Civiltzation. — Its Point of Antagonism to Cuiustianitv. --Tendency of tub Views advocated in the present Work, . 804

Introduction

The first article of the amended Constitution of the United States declares that "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the exercise thereof." This declaration is justly dear to the hearts of the American people. It secures to every citizen the enjoyment of liberty of conscience, or the sacred right to worship God according to the dictates of his own judgment, "with none" on earth "to make him afraid." It puts the various denominations of religion on an equal footing, p'rotecting all but showing preference to none; and thus saves the people from a prolific source of jealousy and discord. The dictate of practical wisdom, it is at once the charter of religious liberty and a preventive of religious dissension.

It would be a great mistake, however, to imagine that this wise provision of the Constitution was intended to effect an absolute severance between government and religion. The law cf Nature, or the law founded in the relation of creatures to one another and to their Maker, is the foundation of all just human laws; and the belief of its divine authority and sanction is the most efficacious motive to the observance of thoso lawrf, and the most enduring bond of human society. This divine law, the obligation of which has been confessed in all ages and all countries, in opposition to which all human laws are nugatory, and the belief of which underlies every variety of religion, is undoubtedly assumed by the Constitution as the basis of the government which it creates, and the limit of its powers. To this extent the Constitution itself is in alliance with religion, establishing its most fundamental principles, and depending on its power over the minds of the people for support. Hence, the very clause which forbids Congress to establish religion, restrains it also from prohibiting such establishment. "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion," either for or against it. It shall not decree its establishment: for a law of Congress to this effect, would, of necessity, involve the adoption of some religious tenets in preference to others, or an alliance ■with some denomination to the exclusion of others. Neither shall it forbid its establishment ; for this would be to abjure the fundamental principles of all religion nnd of all just government, and consequently to destroy its own function and to die by its own hand. Congress shall make no law on the subject one way or the other, but shall leave the government to that natural alliance with religion which God himself has made necessary to its health and perpetuity.

' INTRODUCTION.

If further proof ho needed to show that this was tho design of tho franicrs of tho Federal Constitution, wo may appeal, among other evidences to tho same effect, to the Farewell Address of Washington, whieh, from the unanimous approval it has received, is entitled to be regarded as an authorized exposition of their sentiments. For having distinguished a unity of government from a mere league or confederation which would bo liable at any moment to be dissolved by accident or passion or other inconsiderable cause ; and having insisted on a unity of government as necessary to the welfare and prosperity of the States, the siddress proceeds to inmress on the people the belief that religion and morality are the main pillars of government, and to incite them to the maintenance of a common government from tho fact of their agreement in a common religion. "It is of infinite moment," are the words of the Address, " that you should properly estimate the immense value of your National Union to your collective and individual happiness ;" and it then adds, as an inducement to the preservation of the Union, " With slight shades of difference you have the same relics ion, manners, habits, and political principles." " Religion and morality," it further declares, "are indispensable supports of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity." It denies the tribute of patriotism to tho man who labors to subvert "these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men

INTRODUCTION.

and citizens." It warns the people against the popular fallacy "that morality can ho maintained without religion;" and declares " that reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail, to the exclusion of religious principle."

Religion and morality both teach us to abstain from injury, to keep our engagements, and to fulfill the relative duties of life. So far they arc agreed and work together in liarmony. Considered separately and apart, however, they are essentially different. Merc morality, or morality not founded on religion, permits us to regard the distinction between right and wrong, virtue and vice, as arbitrary and conventional ; as having no higher standard than human prescription, no higher aim than the temporal welfare and convenience of society. Religion, on the other hand, teaches that the distinction between right and wrong, virtue and vice is founded in the will of God ; that the obligation of men to do what is right and virtuous, and to shun what is wrong and vicious, exists antecedently to, and independently of, all human pacts and covenants, and is in fact necessary and eternal. Thus, what morality recognizes as rules of convenience, religion 3 enjoins as the laws of God,

* " Religion and morality differ uot only iu the extent of the duty they prescribe, but in the pnrt in which they are the same in the external work. They differ in the motive; they are just as far asunder as heaven is from the earth. Morality finds all her motives here below ; religion fetches all her motives from above. The highest principle in morals is a just regard to the rights of each other in civil fixed and immutable, and hinds on the consciences of »r.on by tho Tear of (Sod and of judgment to come. Very justly, therefore, are we cautioned (in tho Farewell Address) against the delusive fancy that morality can be maintained without religion.

I make no doubt that CJod has bestowed on every creature its proper nature, and placed it in certain relations from which a rule of action flows, and that this rule is the will and law of the Creator. But the facts of history do not suffer me to believe that human reason is competent to declare this rule with that clearness and authority which are necessary to command the assent and to bind the consciences of the generality of men. This blessing we owe to Divine Revelation, which lias not left us to discover our Makers will cither by intuition (which is the proper guide of angels and not of men), nor by the slow and uncertain deductions of reason, but has delivered it to us in plain and authoritative precepts. Hence when I speak of religion, I must be understood to mean revealed religion ; and I suppose that the word religion is used in the same sense in the Farewell Address.

In this sense it will hardly be denied that religion

society ; the first principle in religion is the love of (rod — or, iu other words, a regard to the relation which we bear to Him, as it is made known to us by revelation ; nnd no action is religious, otherwise than as it respects God, and proceeds from a sense of our duty to Him, or at least is regulated by a sense of that duty." — Bishop Hor*ley'» Charge to his Clergy, 1790.

is the foundation of human soeioty; tho ground on which morality rests for its support and permanence, the source from which it derives its purity and efficiency. As readily will it be avowed that the American people, at the time of the adoption of the Federal Constitution, had one and the same religion. Tho theory which resolves virtue and vice into social conventionalities, a, theory essentially atheistic and subversive of human integrity, was abhorrent to the minds of the people, and has left no trace of its existence in the Constitution and fundamental laws of the Union. The law of Nature, which is only another name for tho religion of Nature, has been assumed as the rule of conscience and the basis of legislation; not the law of Nature as dimly apprehended by Pagans and Mohammed ans,* or as perverted by wild and infidel theorists, but the law of Nature as declared by Divine Revelation and embodied in the institutions of tho Christian religion. Hence the sanction of an oath in order to the discharge of all the functions of government, executive, legislative, and judicial ; and that oath administered in the Name of the One God and on the Holy Evangelists. Hence tho recognition of Christian marriage as the foundation of the family relation, and consequently of the Christian

* I inalec no allusion to the Jewish religion, because I regard it ns essentially the same as the Christian ; Judaism beiii-,' Christianity iu the letter, and Christianity beiujj mystical Judaism ; that is to say, the Jewish religiou in spirit and in truth.

INTRODUCTION.

family as an integral clement of society. Ilonce also tlio absence of all constitutional provisions ami fundamental laws which, in the remotest degree, contravene the Christian religion or any of its undoubted requirements.*

Few things, indeed, are more remarkable than the unanimity which Christianity has produced, wherever it has prevailed, in regard to the fundamentals of religion. Differences of opinion, it is true, have always subsisted among men, and probably always will subsist. They arise in part from the constitution of the human mind, which is such that every truth that is lodged in it generates new inquiries, suid leads to speculation and conjecture in regard to regions of knowledge yet unexplored and undiscovered. Christians differ among themselves,, no less than the ancient Heathen differed. But how unlike, the subject-matter of their differences ! The Pagan philosophers differed from one another as to the foundations of all religion, the Being of God, the

* The State of Delaware bus expressly acknowledged the Holy Trinity and the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures. The 22d Art. of its Constitution required every person who shall he chosen a member of either house, or appointed to any office or place of trutst, before taking his seat, or entering on the execution of his office, in addition to the usual oath of office, to make and subscribe the following declaration, to wit :

" I, A. B., do profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ, bis only Son, aud the Holy Gho.st, one God blessed for evermore ; and I do acknowledge the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be given by Divine inspiration,"

INTRODUCTION.

origin of tho Universe, the government of the world by Divine Providence, and the roality of tho distinction between good and evil, virtuo and vico. Opinions which were iiicn tho badges of conflicting sects, and divided tho minds of the people, are now for tho mo.st part broached only by tho few who delight in paradoxes, or .who, having dug up some old error, hope to gain a name by proclaiming it to the world as a new truth. In efFect Christianity has shifted our differences from the foundation to tho superstructure ; or to speak more accurately it has brought us to an agreement respecting the system of Nature, and left us to make for ourselves new differences in regard to that system of Redemption which it has pleased God to superinduce upon Nature. In respect to this latter system which revealed religion represents as moving forward -to its consummation concurrently with the system of Nature, the differences of Christians arc unhappily great and irreconcilable; but in regard to natural religion, *. c, in regard to religion considered as abstracted from the scheme of Redemption, and as limited to the acts and agents of this world, there can be no doubt, I suppose, that the various denominations of Christians, comprising at tho time of the adoption of our Federal Constitution the great body of the American people, were substantially agreed.*

* Bishop Gibson, in his second Pastoral Letter to the Diocese of London, a. d. 1760, satisfactorily showw that the people of Great Britain at that time, notwithstanding their multiplicity of sects, were

INTRODUCTION.

The time that 1ms elapsed since the adoption of the Federal Constitution, has witnessed some extraordinary and conflicting developments of opinion. The mind of the Northern and Eastern States— surpassed by that of no other age or country in acutencss, activity, and depth, excited by keener stimulants and vaster prospects, and yet thrown upon its own energies with no hereditary institutions to steady it, with no learned order to guide it, except in dependence on popular support (which means subserviency in the end to the popular will), has germinated, as it were, with wild luxuriance, and put forth, among many good fruits, not

united in n rule of faith and practice, embracing the most necessary points of religion. The same statement was probably applicable to their Arnerienn descendants at the time of their separation from the mother country. The summary Is : "That the world nnd till thin:s in it irere created by Gon. and are under the <iiiecti<>u and government of His all-powerful hand and all-seeing eye ; that there i* an essential difference between good and evil, virtue and vice ; that there will bo n state of future rewards and punishment s, according to our behavior in this life ; that Christ was a teacher sent from Ooi>, and that His apostles were divinely inspired ; that all Christians are b mud to declare and profess themselves to be His disciples ; that not only the exercise of the several virtues, but also a belief in Christ is necessary in order to their obtaining the pardon of sin. the favor of God, and eternal life ; that the worship of God is to be performed chiefly by ihe heart in prayers, praises, and thanksgivings ; and ns to all other points, that they are bound to live by the rules which Christ and His apostles have left them iu the Holy Scripture?. Here then." he adds, '' is a fixed and certain rule of faith and f>: notice, concerning all the most necessary points of religion, estaUir-lied by a divine sanction, embraced as such by all denominations of Ch-.istians, and in itself abundantly sufficient to preserve the knowledge and practice of religion in the world."

INTRODUCTION.

a few crude theories of morals and religion. In *bo prosecution of Moral Reform, Temperance, Anti-Slavery, Woman's Rights, and other fancied schemes of philanthropy, it lias contrived to divest some gross sins of

their deformity, and to convert, by means of penal enactwonts, some innocent notions into crimes. In a word, it ha« proposed for our consideration, and made some progress in forcing on our acceptance, a new church, a new creed, and a new decalogue. In the Southern States, where, the distinction):' of society aro permanent and sharply defined, where the fountains of learning and science are open t<i the few, and the many are confined to bodily toil an:} labor, the tone of thought bus been naturally more conservative. Slavery, whatever bo its real or imaginary evils, like all fixed institutions, unchanged in the midst of changes, has given stability to society ; it has been, and still is a standing protest ugainst the mental extravagancies of the New England Biifcto ; and it will probably continue to beat back the waves of Northern fanaticism, unless the deeper and hoarser torrent of Northern cupidity, following the precedents of history, roll down on the South to complete the devastation which Northern fanaticism has begun.

Slavery is at present the great point of antagonism, not so much, I think, between the North and the South, as between order, conservatism, and Christianity on the one hand, and misrule, anarchy, and infidelity on the other. Had the institution been assailed merely on

INTllOWUOTION.

economical and political grounds, thero would be nothing to justify tli 1*4 remark. Men may discuss the comparative advantages of free nnd servile labor, arid their respective influences on morals and public virtue, ju.st as they discuss questions of tariff and revenue, and push th^jji^discussions, as men wo wont, with heat and pas- »ioii, without endangering the structuro of society, or the stability of government. If tho opposition to slavery had been rested on these grounds only, it could have done no harm, and might have been productive of good. Had nothing more been done than to stigmatizo slavery as "a relic of barbarism," there had been no cause of alarm ; for as nations, like men, sometimes die of repletion, and an excess of liberty betokens decay, so time alone can determine whether the South be really retrograding in civilization, or whether its Northern opponents, in vaunting their superiority, be not rather enacting the vanity of the ancient Greeks, or the impudence of the modern celestials. But slavery is not assailed merely on these grounds. It is assailed also on grounds of morality and religion. It is held up, for the first time in tho world's history, to the scorn and execration of mankind : not merely for its abuses, but as being in itself a violation of the law of Nature ; the law which is the fountain of justice, and in opposition to which no government ought to subsist. It is true, that this opinion is held with various degrees of consistency, and with cunning adaptations to the demands of public

INTRODUCTION.

expediency, and the whispers of private interest. Some would have the "higher law" (as it is called), or what they fancy to be its dictates, carried out at all hazards, to the extent even of insurrection and treason. Others aim to conform to it by soma scheme of gradual emancipation, and by certain yet undefined changes of g^|prnment. Others, again, distinguish between slavoholding simply considered, and holding slaves with the purpose of emancipating them when Providence shall have opened the way; denouncing the former practice as a sin, and regarding the latter, if I understand them right, as a sin divested of its guiit by the good intention of the sinner. Some are violent, others crafty, and others both violent and crafty; but they are all united in a detestation of slavery as oppressive, unjust, and altogether repugnant to the kw of Nature ; and, consequently, in either condemning, or justifying only on the ground of a stringent necessity or temporary expediency, all hu'aan compacts and enactments which are designed to uphold it.

And it is very observable that while the opponents of slavery assail it as a violation of natural right, they are not met by iheir antagonists on their own ground. The defenders of slavery entrench themselves behind the law of the land arid the Scriptures ; but they do nor, so far as their arguments have fallen under my notice, defend slavery on the ground of natural right. For the argument founded <m the inferiority of the African race docs not come up ic the point. It rests the relation now sub-

INTRODUCTION.

sisting between the races at the South on tho ground of an assumed expediency, without affirming its immutable justice; and dominion founded on expediency without, or against justice, is no better than oppression and tyranny. If the existing relation is first proved and confessed to be just and right, then indeed the fitness of the white race for dominion, and of the black for servitude, is a sound argument for continuing tho relation, or for not interfering with it where it exists. But the nierv fitness can not create the relation ; can not give the white a just tide to dominion, nor make servitude the duty of the hlack. For the doctrine attributed to the Stagy rite that the Athenians might lawfully invade and enslave any people who, in their opinion, were fit to be made slaves, is, and I hope always will be, abhorrent to the religion of the American people; and if slavery has no better foundation than this to rest on, it deserves to fall : and it is but natural that the energies of a Christian people should be directed, if the way is open, to effect its extirpation.

Moreover, to rest the defense of slavery exclusively on the liw of the land and on Scripture, begets the impression that they are not on this subject in harmony with the law of Nature ; and the consequence is that the people are led, not only to speak contemptuously of the Constitution for the protection which it extends to slavery, but to disparage the Holy Scriptures also, and to resort to forced interpretations to get rid of their tes-

INTRODUCTION.

timony in ita favor. The people, indeed, on the whole, aro as yet loyal to the Union, and attached to tho Christian religion ; but they believe, for tho most part, that slavory is contrary to natural right (that is, that it is a moral wrong or sin, though they may disclaim the word); and starting with this premise, one of two things will probably follow; cither they will pursue successfully one scheme after another, looking to ultimate abolition ; or, failing of success, they will become more and more disaffected and averse to all union, political and religious, of which slavery is an clement. For the public, in tho long run, is a sevcro logician; and will either abandon its premises, or carry them out to a rigid conclusion.

It seems, therefore, in a manner necessary to bring the question of slavery to the test of tho law of Nature ; if for no other purpose, at least to remove, if possible, even tho semblance of disagreement or collision among laws that are meant to conspire, with a divine harmony, for tho good of human society. For no greater calamity can befall a patriotic and Christian people, than a persuasion, even though it be a mistaken persuasion, that either the law of their country or the revealed law contradicts, in any point, the law of Nature, the eternal and immutable rule of the human conscience, which no man can be expected to relinquish, and which the ministries of God in church and state are really designed to develop and confirm. For the law of the land in its legitimate design, and the law of Christianity from an intrinsio necessity, pre-suppose the law of Nature, are declarative of it, and reenforce it with new motives to obedience. They form together, in a normal state of Christian society, a triple cord, binding as together as men, as citizens, and as Christians in the united discharge of all relative duties. To untwist this cord, and to remove one of its strands, is to lay a tension on the others which they were not intended to bear. Is it necessary to do this in reference to slavery? Is not the institution agreeable to the law of Nature, as well as to the law of the land and to the Scriptures ? This is the question which I propose to examine.

CHAPTER II. LAW, JUSTICE, RIGHTS, LIBERTY, SLaVEUY : MEANING

OF THE WORDS.

As words are the medium of human thought, so it is impossible for men to think clearly on any subject without first distinguishing their meaning, and using them as far as possible in a uniform sense. Great confusion has been caused in the minds of many, on the subject we are about to consider, by a neglect of this precaution ; and I shall, therefore, hope for the reader's attention while I endeavor to remove this obstacle by a definition of some of the chief words involved in the discussion. And first for the word law.

By law (from the Saxon Ifcgan, to lie down, or more directly from its passive participle lagu,* what is laid

* Pronounced lauyu. Not only in the Saxon, but in the old English, the g had a liquid sound like our y or w. In an old copy which I have of Erasmus on the Creed, a. d. 1533, given is spelled yeven, and equal, egal ; and the same power of the letter is still seen in the words, anywise, otherwise, etc., which were written even so lately us the last century, any guise, other guise : the msc in these compounds, not being, as is commonly supposed, a corrupt form of ways, but the game as guise (which means mode or method), and preservative of the original pronunciation.

LAW, JUSTICE, ETC.

or fixed) wo understand a fixod rule diroctivo and operative ol* good. In its highest form it is a rule which the Divine wisdom tays on itself for its outward manifestation; and in this sense the laws of God arc those rules which God has fixed in His own mind for the government of His creatures. In a somewhat lower sense, it is a rule which God lias laid on His creatures, directive and operative of the end for which they were created. The end for which all things are created is good ; lie who created all things infallibly knows the end and the best means of obtaining it ; and therefore His laws are necessarily directive and operative of good. Human laws, indeed, so far as they are merely human, and not a transcript of the divine, have necessarily the alloy of human imperfection ; yet still they aim at a good end. and what wc mean by a bad law is one that fails to accomplish the good for which it was intended. So that divine laws absolutely and iu fact, and human laws, in their design and in a certain approximate sense, are not merely rules of action, but rules of action directive and operative of good.