L4W
53
L4W
denmed to death. Lavoisier, who was devotedly at-
tached to him, was obliged to stand and see M.
Paulie's head fall under the guillotine, 8 Mav, 1794.
Lavoisier was then 51 years old. His biographers say
little as to his last hours. Grimaux relates that all the
oondemned men were silent and carried themselves
with dignity and courage in the face of death. What
Lavoisier's sentiments were can be assumed from a
passage in Grimaux (p. 53) who had been the first
biographer to obtain access to Lavoisier's papers.
"lUised in a pious family which had given many
priests to the Cnurch, he had held to his beliefs. To
Edward Kins, an English author who had sent him a
oontroversiafwork, he wrote, ' You have done a noble
thing in upholding revelation and the authenticity of
the Holy Scriptures, and it is remarkable that you are
using for the defence precisely the same weapons
whidi were once used for the attack."' His goods
and chattels and all his scientific instruments were
listed and appropriated on the day followinj^ his exe-
eution, though Mme Lavoisier succeeded m having
tome restored to her. She was childless and long sur-
vived him.
TtoBFB in Contemporary Review^ Antoine LaurerU Lavoisier Cpio.^ 1800); Gbimadx, Lawiaier 174^1791 (Paris, 1888); Tsoam, Pneatley, CavendUh, Lavoieier ana La Revoltdion Ckimitue in Brit. Aaeoe. Address (Leeds, 1890); Bebthblot, La B€9olviion Ckimique (Paris. 1880); Kopp, Entdedeung der Qmme an der neueren Zeit (1874); Hofbb, Histoire de la Chimie, U, 400; TON Mbtvb, Qeschichte der Chemie (Leipsis. 1888); Lavcukib, Mimoirts de Chimie (1805); (Eavres de Lavoisier, wibftilMiH by the Ministiy of Public Instruction (Paris, 1864-8); DuMASf Lepims sur la Phuosophie Chimioue,
C. F. McKenna.
^ — ^I. CJoNCEPT OF Law. — A. By law in the
widest sense is understood that exact guide, rule, or
authoritative standard by which a being is moved to
•etaon or hdd back from it. In this sense we speak of
law even in reference to creatures that are incapable of
thinking or willing and to inanimate matter. The
Book Of Proverbs (ch. viii) says of Eternal Wisdom
that it- was i^resent when (jod prepared the heavens
and when with a certain law and compass He en-
elosed the depths, when He encompassed the sea with
its boimds and set a law to the waters that they should
not pass their hmits. Job (xxviii, 25 soq.) lauds the
wisdom of (}od Who made a we^ht for the winds and
weighed the vraiter by measure, Who gave a law for the
lain and a way for the souncUng storms.
Duly experience teaches that all things are driven l^ their own nature to assume a determinate, con- stant attitude. Investigators of the natural sciences hold it to be an established truth that all nature is ruled by universal and constant laws and that the ob- ject of the natural sciences is to search out these laws and to make plain their reciprocal relations in all di- rections. All bodies are subject, for example, to the law of inertia, i. e. they persist in the condition of rest or motion in which they may be until an external cause changes this condition. Kepler discovered the kws according to which the planets move in elliptical orbits around the sun, Newton the law of gravitation by which all bodies attract in direct proportion to their mass and inversely as to the sc^uare of the di^ tanoe between them. The laws which govern light, heat, and electrioitv are known to-day. (!liemistr^, biology, and physiolo^ have also their laws. The sci- entific tonnuuB in which scholars express these laws are only laws in so far as they state what processes actually take place in the objects under consideration, for law implies a practical rule according to which things act. These scientific formulae exert of them- arives no influence on things; they 8hnd|y state the eondition in which these ^ings are. The laws of nature are nothing but the forces and tendencies to a deiominate, constant method of activity implanted fay the Creator in the nature of thin^, or the unvary- mg, homogeneous activity itself which is the effect of tiiafc tendency. The word law is used in this latter
sense when It Is asserted that a natural law has been
changed or suspended by a miracle, f^or the miracle
does not change the nature of things or their constant
tendencv; the Divine power simply prevents the
things from producing their natural effect, or uses
them as means to attaming an effect surpassing their
natural powers. The natural tendency to a deter-
minate manner of activity on the part of creatures
Uiat have neither the power to think nor to will can be
called law for a twofold reason: first, because it forms
the decisive reason and the controlling guide for the
activities of such creatures, and consequently as re-
gards irrational creatures fulfils the task which de-
volves upon law in the strict' sense as regards rational
beings; and further, because it is the expression and
the effect of a rational lawgiving will. Law is a prin-
ciple of regulation and must. Tike every regulation,
be traced l^k to a thinking and wiUing being. This
thinking and willing being is the Oeator and Regula-
tor of all things, God Himself. It may be said that
the natural forces and tendencies placed in the nature
of creatures, are themselves the law, the permanent
expression of the will of the Eternal Overseer Who in-
fluences creatures and guides them to their appointed
ends, not by merely external influences but by their
innate inclinations and impulses.
B. In a stricter and more exact sense law is spoken of only in reference to free beings endowed with rea- son. But even in this sense the expression law is used sometimes with a wider, sometimes with a more re- stricted meaning. By law are at times understood all authoritative standards of the action of free, rational beings. In this sense the rules of the arts, poetry, grammar, and even the demands of fashion or etiquette are called laws. This is, however, an inexact and ex- aggerated mode of expression. In the proper and strict sense laws are the moral norms of action, oinding in conscience, set up for a public, self-governing com- munity. This is probably the original meaning of the word law J whence it was gradually transferred to the other kinds of laws (natural laws, laws of art). Law can in this sense be defined with St. Thomas Acjuinas (Summa Theol., I-II, Q. xc, a. 4) as: A regulation in accordance with reason promulgated by the head of a community for the sake of the common welfare.
Law is first a regulation, i. e. a practical principle, which aims at ordering the actions of the members oi the conmiunity. To obtain in any community a uni- fied and systematized co-operation of all there must be an authority that has the right to issue binding rules as to the manner in which the members of the community are to act. The law is such a binding rule and draws its constraining or obligatory force from the will of the superior. Both because the su- perior wills and so far as he wills, is law binding. Not every regulation of the superior, however, is binding, but only those in accordance with reason. Law is the criterion of reasonable action and must, therefore, itself be reasonable. A law not in accordance with reason is a contradiction. That the Divine laws must of necessity be reasonable and just is self-evident, for the will of God is essentially holy and just and can only command what is in harmony with the Divine wisdom, justice, and holiness. Human laws, how- ever, must be subordinate to the Divine law, or at least, must not contradict it, for human authority is only a participation in the supreme Divine power of
government, and it is impossible that God could give uman beings the right to issue laws that are unrea- sonable and in contravention of His will. Further, law must be advantageous to the coinmon welfare. This is a universally acknowledged principle. That the Divine laws are advantageous to the common wel- fare needs no proof. The ^lorv of the Creator is, truly, the final goal of the Divine laws, but God desirei to attain this glory by the happiness of mankind. Human laws must also be useful to th^ c/c^s^eii^^nr^
