And if those Laws should be writ in English, yet if the
same Kingly Principles remain in them, the English language would
not advantage us anything, but rather increase our sorrow by our
knowledge of our bondage."
"WHAT IS LAW IN GENERAL?"
Winstanley then proceeds to consider the question, What is Law? and to
emphasise the essential difference between customary, conventional or
written Law and that unwritten Law, proceeding from the Inward Light of
Reason, that inspires men, in action as in words, to do as they would be
done unto. He first gives the following clear, rational and sufficient
definition of Law:
"Law is a Rule, whereby men and other creatures are governed in
their actions for the preservation of Common Peace."
Then follows a most philosophic consideration of the whole question,
which seems to us to reveal that Winstanley was groping, and by no means
so blindly as many who succeeded him, after some Natural Law, some
unalterable and immutable principle, which should serve as a basis, as
well as the test and touchstone, of all man-made customs, laws and
institutions. He continues:
THE TWO-FOLD NATURE OF LAW.
"This Law is two-fold: First, it is the power of Life (called the
Law of Nature within the Creatures) which doth move both man and
beast in their actions, or that causes grass, trees, corn and all
plants to grow in their several seasons.
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