A. Introduction
Natural law theorists might turn to The History of Troilus and Cressida to start building their case. They might begin with Ulysses’
lofty outline of the “natural” order:
The heavens themselves, the planets, and this center
Observe degree, priority, and place,
Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,
Office, and custom, in all line of order,
And therefore is the glorious planet Sol
In noble eminence enthroned and sphered
Amidst the other; whose med'cinable eye
Corrects the influences of evil planets
And posts, like the commandment of a king . . . .[1]
Such
theorists might then use Ulysses’ further stirring words to blend such “natural
physical order” with a “natural order” in law and morality as well:
Take but degree away, untune that string,
And hark what discord follows. Each thing meets
In mere oppugnancy. The bounded
waters
Should lift their bosoms higher than the shores
And make a sop of all this solid globe;
Strength should be lord of imbecility,
And the rude son should strike his father dead;
Force should be right; or rather right and wrong,
Between whose endless jar justice resides,
Should lose their names, and so should justice too.[2]
As far as it goes, it is hard to imagine a more eloquent case for natural
law than this.
