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THE
SPIRIT
OF
LAWS.
BOOK I.
Of Laws in General.
CHAP. I.
Of the relation of Laws to different Beings.
Book I.
Chap. 1LAWS in their most general signification, are the necessary relations resulting from the nature of things. In this sense all beings have their laws, the Deity has[1] 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?
- ↑ Law, says Plutarch, is the queen of the Gods and men. See his treatise entitled, The necessity of a Prince being a man of learning.
VOL. I.
B
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