Thursday 16 April 2009

More stuff from the Annals

"God, when He created matter and endued it with a principle of mobility, established certain rules for the perpetual direction of that motion — so, when He created man and endued him with free-will to conduct himself in all parts of life, He laid down certain immutable laws of human nature whereby that free-will is in some degree regulated and restrained, and gave him also the faculty of reason to discover the purport of those laws."


Seen in 'Common Law: Roots & Fruits', an essay by Francis Nigel Lee.

2 comments:

cisbio said...

your point being?

dude,
are you familiar with Winstanley?
You may have asked me that question, for all I know

yesterday, I pur-chased a copy of his law of freedom and other writings. item: 50p

I'm digging in. civil war geezer! I looked for Trooper Thompson in the index but, alas, there was no index.

Trooper Thompson said...

My point? Not much. Just something I happened upon.

I'm interested in the Law, especially as it is so flawed, and this guy wrote one of the most important commentaries on the Common Law. It links into a previous post, quoting Milton defending the right of the people to depose and execute a tyrant, based on natural law. I'm also reading Jefferson's autobiography, which involves a lot of pondering how to lay down first principles in law, that kind of thing.

As for Gerard Winstanley, I am indeed familiar. His friend William Everard may have had some dealings with Thompson's crowd, more than Winstanley.

The Diggers' activities were during the period after the king's execution, when there was a feeling that all the laws had been overthrown. I think they would have been better off trying a little further from London.

We'll have to go for a drink soon, man.