On the other hand, until it be thus certain,
there is danger of doing injustice by enacting it; it should,
therefore, be left open to be discussed by anybody who may be
disposed to question it, and to be judged of by the proper
tribunal, the judiciary. [6]
It is not necessary that legislators should enact natural law in
order that it may be known to the people, because that would be
presuming that the legislators already understand it better than
the people, a fact of which I am not aware that they have ever
heretofore given any very satisfactory evidence. The same sources
of knowledge on the subject are open to the people that are open
to the legislators, and the people must be presumed to know it as
well as they.
The objections made to natural law, on the ground of obscurity,
are wholly unfounded. It is true, it must be learned, like any
other science; but it is equally true that it is very easily
learned. Although as illimitable in its applications as the
infinite relations of men to each other, it is, nevertheless, made
up of simple elementary principles, of the truth and justice of
which every ordinary mind has an almost intuitive perception.
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