APPENDIX.

NATURAL LAWS.-Text, p. 27.

In the text it is mentioned, that many philosophers have treated r the Laws of Nature. The following are examples :

Mr. Stewart says, 'To examine the economy of nature in the phenomena of the lower animals, and to compare their instincts with the physical circumstances of their external situation, forms one of the finest speculations of Natural History; and yet it is a speculation to which the attention of the natural historian has seldom been directed. Not only Buffon, but Ray and Derham, have passed it over slightly; nor, indeed, do I know of any one who has inde it the object of a particular consideration but Lord Kames, in a short Appendix to one of his Sketches.'-Elements of the Pists sophy of the Human Mind, vol. iii. p. 368.

Mr. Stewart also uses the following words: Numberless examples show that Nature has done no more for man than was necessary for his preservation, leaving him to make many acquisitions for himself, which she has imparted immediately to the brutes.

'My own idea is, as I have said on a different occasion, that both instinct and experience are here concerned, and that the share which belongs to each in producing the result, can be ascertained by an appeal to facts alone.'-Vol. iii. ch. 338.

Montesquieu introduces his Spirit of Laws by the following observations: Laws, in their most general signification, are the necessary relations derived from the nature of things. In this sense, al beings have their laws; the Deity has his laws; the material world its laws; the intelligences superior to man have their laws; the beasts their laws; man his laws.

'Those who assert that a blind fatality produced the various effects we behold in this world, are guilty of a very great absurdity; for can any thing be more absurd than to pretend that a blind fatality could be productive of intelligent beings?

'There is, then, a primitive reason; and laws are the relations which subsist between it and different beings, and the relations of these beings among themselves.

'God is related to the universe as Creator and preserver; the laws by which he has created all things are those by which he preserves them. He acts according to these rules, because he knows them he knows them because he has made them; and he made them because they are relative to his wisdom and power, &c.

'Man, as a physical being, is, like other bodies, gorerned by invariable laws.'-Spirit of Laws, b. i. c. i.

Justice Blackstone observes, that 'Law, in its most general and comprehensive sense, signifies a rule of action; and is applied indiscriminately to all kinds of action, whether animate or inanimate rational or irrational. Thus we say, the laws of motion, of gravitation, of optics, or mechanics, as well as the laws of nature and of nations. Thus, when the Supreme Being formed the universe, and created matter out of nothing, he impressed certain principles upon that matter, from which it can never depart, and without which it would cease to be. When he put that matter into motion, he established certain laws of motion, to which all movable bodies must conform.'-' If we farther advance from mere inactive matter to vegetable and animal life, WE SHALL FIND THEM STILL GOVERNED BY LAWS; more numerous, indeed, but equally fixed and invariable. The whole progress of plants, from the seed to the root, and from thence to the seed again;—the method of animal nutrition, digestion, secretion, and all other branches of vital economy;-are not left to chance, or the will of the creature itself, but are performed in a wondrous involuntary manner, and guided by unerring rules laid down by the great Creator. This, then, is the general signification of law, a rule of action dictated by some superior being; and in those creatures that have neither power to think, nor the will, such laws must be invariably obeyed, so long as the creature itself subsists; for its existence depends on that obedience.'—Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England, vol. i. sect. 2.

'The word law,' says Mr. Erskine, 'is frequently made use of, both by divines and philosophers, in a large acceptation, to express the settled method of God's providence, by which he preserves the order of the MATERIAL WORLD in such a manner, that nothing in it may deviate from that uniform course which he has appointed for And as brute matter is merely passive, without the least de gree of choice upon its part, these laws are INVIOLABLY OBSERV

it

ID in the material creation, every part of which continues to act, immutably, according to the rules that were from the beginning prescribed to it by Infinite Wisdom. Thus philosophers have given the appellation of law to that motion which incessantly pervades and agitates the universe, and is ever changing the form and substance of things, dissolving some, and raising others, as from their ashes, to fill up the void: Yet so, that amidst all the fluctuations by which particular things are affected, the universe is still preserved without diminution. Thus also they speak of the laws of fluids, of gravitation, &c. and the word is used, in this sense, in several passages of the sacred writings; in the book of Job, and in Proverbs viii. 29, where God is said to have given his law to the seas that they should not pass his commandment.'-Erskine's Institutes of the Law of Scotland, book i. tit. i. sect. 1.

Discussions about the Laws of Nature, rather than inquiries into them, were common in France, during the Revolution: and, having become associated, in imagination, with the crimes and horrors. of that period, they continue to be regarded, by some individuals, as inconsistent with religion and morality. A coincidence between the views maintained in the preceding Essay, and a passage in Volney, has been pointed out to me, as an objection to the whole doctrine. Volney's words are the following:-"It is a law of nature, that water flows from an upper to a lower situation; that it seeks its level; that it is heavier than air; that all bodies tend towards the earth; the flame rises towards the sky; that it destroys the organization of vegetables and animals; that air is essential to the life of certain animals: that, in certain cases, water suffocates and kills them; that certain juices of plants, and certain minerals, attack their organs, and destroy their life;-and the same of a variety of facts.

'Now, since these facts, and many similar ones, are constant, regular, and immutable, they become so many real and positive commands, to which man is bound to conform, under the express penalty of punishment attached to their infraction, or well-being connected with their observance. So that if a man were to pretend to see clearly in the dark, or is regardless of the progress of the seasons, or the action of the elements; if he pretends to exist under water, without drowning; to handle fire without burning himself; to deprive himself of air without suffocating; or to drink poison without destroying himself; he receives, for each infraction of the law of nature, a corporal punishment proportioned to his transgression. If, on the contrary, he observes these laws,

and founds his practice on the precise and regular reation which they bear to him, he preserves his existence, and renders it as happy as it is capable of being rendered; and since all these laws, considered in relation to the human species, have in view only one common end, that of their preservation and their happiness : whence it has been agreed to assemble together the different ideas, and express them by a single word, and call them collectively by the name of the Law of Nature.'-Volney's Law of Nature, 3a edit. p. 21, 24.

I feel no embarrassment by this coincidence; but remark, first, That various authors, quoted in the text and in this note, advocated the importance of the laws of nature, long before the French Revolution was heard of; secondly, That the existence of the laws of nature is as obvious to the understanding, as the existence of the external world, and of the human mind and body themselves to the senses; thirdly, That these laws, being inherent in creation, must have proceeded from the Deity fourthly, That if the Deity is powerful, just, and benevolent, they must harmonize with the constitution of man; and, lastly, That if the laws of nature have been instituted by the Deity, and been framed in wise benevolent, and just relationship to the human constitution, they must at all times form the highest and most important subjects of human investigation, and remain altogether unaffected by the errors, follies, and crimes of those who endeavor to expound them; just as religion continues holy, venerable, and uncontaminated, notwithstanding the hypocrisy, wickedness, and inconsistency of individuals professing themselves her interpreters. and friends.

That the views of the natural laws themselves, advocated in this Essay, are diametrically opposite to the practical conduct of the French revolutionary ruffians, requires no demonstration. My fundamental principle is, that man can enjoy happiness on earth only by placing his habitual conduct under the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, and that this is the law of his nature. No doctrine can be more opposed than this to fraud, robbery, blasphemy, and murder.

It may be urged, that all past speculations about the laws of nature have proved more imposing than useful; and that, while the laws themselves afford materials for elevated declamation on the part of philosophers, they form no secure guides even to the learned, and much less to the illiterate, in practical conduct. In answer, I would respectfully repeat what has frequently been urged

in the text, that, before we can discover the laws of nature, applicable to man, we must know, first, The constitution of man himself; secondly, The constitution of external nature; and, thirdly, We must compare the two. But, previous to the discovery of Phrenology, the mental constitution of man was a matter of vague conjecture, and endless debate; and the connection between his mental powers and his organized system, was involved in the deepest obscurity. The brain, the most important organ of the body, had no ascertained functions. Before the introduction of this science, therefore, men were rather impressed with the unspeakable importance of the knowledge of the laws of nature, than acquainted with the laws themselves; and even the knowledge of the external world actually possessed, could not, in many instances, be rendered available, on account of its relationship to the qualities of man being unascertained, and unascertainable, so long as these qualities themselves were unknown.

NOTE I.

ORGANIC LAWS.-Text, p. 118.

On the subject of the sufferings of women in childbed, the following authorities may be referred to:

'One thing,' says Mr. Alison,' is very remarkable, and occurs in most cases of concealment and childmurder, viz. the strength and capability for exertion evinced by women in the inferior ranks shortly after childbirth,-appearances so totally different from those exhibited in the higher orders, that, to persons acquainted only with cases among the latter, they would appear incredible. In the case just mentioned (that of Catharine Butler ür Anderson, at Aberdeen, in spring 1829), the mother two or three days after her delivery, walked from Inverury to Huntly, a distance of twenty-eight miles, in a single day, with her child on her back Similar occurrences daily are proved in cases of this description. It is not unusual to find women engaged in reapir g, retire to a little distance, effect their delivery by themselves, return to their fellow laborers, and go on with their work during the remainder of the day, without any other change of appearance but looking a little paler and thinner. Such a fact occurred in the case of Jean Smith, Ayr, spring 1824. Again, in the case of Ann Macdougall, Aberdeen, spring 1823, it appeared that the panel, who was Beeping in bed with two other servants, rose, was delivered, and