"Now, O king, establish the decree, and sign the writing, that it be not changed, according to the law of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not."— Daniel 6, 8.
What is Law? This is an old question, but one which the world has not yet answered, because it has never learned what it is. If we ask one man what law is, he will, if he answers at all, give us his definition of some rule, or law, which he has declared from his stand-point, and which may, to his mind, be well defined, and satisfactory. If we ask his neighbor across the way what he thinks of the law adhered to by this neighbor, he will probably tell you that he is altogether mistaken in his views; that, in fact there is no such law as that so firmly believed in by this neighbor; that he is mistaken, deluded. And if asked why, and wherein this neighbor is mistaken and deluded, he will at once proceed to lay down his law to you, which will most likely be found to be at variance with that of his neighbor. So we find the world —human mind —one great neighborhood, one half of which has its law, and the other half its law, and each being the exact antipodes of the other. Running all through human thought, we find this diversity of opinion, each man flattering himself that he is a law unto himself; and each strongly convinced that his law only is right, and that of his neighbor entirely and inexcusably wrong.
A recent, and somewhat eminent law writer thus treats of the subject in answer to the question which he propounds: "What is Law?" He says: "It has been variously defined. In its most general sense it signifies a rule of action,— all kinds of action,— whether animate or inanimate, rational or irrational. In its more confined sense, law denotes the rule, not of actions in general, but of human actions, or conduct."
