And for the first centuries of our nation, Blackstone's Commentaries, and the Bible, were the major sources for our laws.
Sir William Blackstone wrote, in Volume II of his commentaries:
OF THE NATURE OF LAWS IN GENERAL.LAW, in it's moft general and comprehenfive fenfe, fignifies a rule of action; and is applied indifcriminately to all kinds of action, whether animate, or inanimate, rational or irrational. Thus we fay, the laws of motion, of gravitation, of optics, or mechanics, as well as the laws of nature and of nations. And it is that rule of action, which is prefcribed by fome fuperior, and which the inferior is bound to obey.
THUS when the fupreme being formed the univerfe, and created matter out of nothing, he impreffed certain principles upon that matter, from which it can never depart, and without which it would ceafe to be. When he put that matter into motion, he eftablifhed certain laws of motion, to which all moveable bodies muft conform. And, to defcend from the greateft operations to the fmalleft, when a workman forms a clock, or other piece of mechanifm, he eftablifhes at his own pleafure certain arbitrary laws for it's direction; as that the hand fhall defcribe a given fpace in a given time; to which law as long a the work conforms, fo long it continues in perfection, and anfwer the end of it's formation.
If we farther advance, from mere inactive matter to vegetable and animal life, we fhall find them ftill governed by laws; more numerous indeed, but equally fixed and invariable. The whole progrefs of plants, from the feed to the root, and from thence to the feed again; --- the method of animal nutrition, digeftion,
fecretion,
.P 39Of the NATURE of LAWS in general.
INTROD.
§. 2.
fecretion, and all other branches of vital oeconomy; --- are not left to chance, or the will of the creature itfelf, but are performed in a wondrous involuntary manner, and guided by unerring rules laid down by the great creator.
THIS then is the general fignification of law, a rule of action dictated by fome fuperior being; and in thofe creatures that have neither the power to think, nor to will, fuch laws muft be invariably obeyed, fo long as the creature itfelf fubfifts, for it's exiftence depends on that obedience. But laws, in their more confined fenfe, and in which it is our prefent bufinefs to confider them, denote the rules, not of action in general, but of human action or conduct: that is, the precepts by which man, the nobleft of all fublunary beings, a creature endowed with both reafon and freewill, is commanded to make ufe of thofe faculties in the general regulation of his behaviour.