...I must ask you to follow me in examining the three great domains of Human Action. First comes the domain of Positive Law, where our actions are prescribed by laws binding upon us which must be obeyed. Next comes the domain of Free Choice,which includes all those actions as to which we claim and enjoy complete freedom. But betweenthese two there is a third large and important domain in which there rules neither Positive Law nor Absolute Freedom. In that domain there is no law which inexorably determines our course of action, and yet we feel that we are not free to choose as we would. The degree of this sense of a lack of complete freedom in this domain varies in every case. It grades from a consciousness of a Duty nearly as strong as Positive Law, to a feeling that the matter is all but a question of personal choice. Some might wish to parcel out this domain into separate countries, calling one, for instance, the domain of Duty, another the domain of Public Spirit, another the domain of Good Form; but I prefer to look at it as all one domain, for it has one and the same characteristic throughout — it is the domain of Obedience to the Unenforceable. The obedience is the obedience of a man to that which he cannot be forced to obey. He is the enforcer of the law upon himself. THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY JULY, 1924 LAW AND MANNERS BY THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD MOULTON
That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.
ReplyDelete-Thom Jef'
“The bravest sight in the world is to see a great man struggling against adversity.” - Seneca
ReplyDelete"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor. " - Seneca
“I often regret that I have spoken; never that I have been silent.” - Publilius Syrus
"I am not ashamed to confess that I am ignorant of what I do not know." -Cicero
"Orators are most vehement when their cause is weak." - Cicero
...I must ask you to follow me in examining the three great domains of Human Action. First comes the domain of Positive Law, where our actions are prescribed by laws binding upon us which must be obeyed. Next comes the domain of Free Choice,which includes all those actions as to which we claim and enjoy complete freedom. But betweenthese two there is a third large and important domain in which there rules neither Positive Law nor Absolute Freedom. In that domain there is no law which inexorably determines our course of action, and yet we feel that we are not free to choose as we would. The degree of this sense of a lack
ReplyDeleteof complete freedom in this domain varies in every case. It grades from a consciousness of a Duty nearly as strong as Positive Law, to a feeling that the matter is all but a question of personal choice. Some might wish to parcel out this domain into separate countries, calling one, for instance, the domain of Duty, another the domain of Public Spirit, another the domain of Good Form; but I prefer to look at it as all one domain, for it has one and the same characteristic throughout — it is the domain of Obedience to the Unenforceable. The obedience is the obedience of a man to that
which he cannot be forced to obey. He is the enforcer of the law upon himself.
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY JULY, 1924 LAW AND MANNERS
BY THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD MOULTON