794. Could society be governed solely by natural laws, without having to resort to human laws?
“It could if humans understood them well enough. If they were to actually practice them, such laws would be sufficient. Society, however, has its requirements and needs special laws.”
795. What causes the instability of human laws?
“In times of barbarity, the strongest are the ones who make the laws and they frame them to their own advantage. It becomes necessary to modify them as humans comprehend justice more clearly. Human laws become more stable as they move toward true justice; that is to say, to the degree that they are made for all and as they are aligned with natural law.”
Civilization has created for people new necessities that are related to the social position such people occupy. It has been necessary to regulate the rights and duties of such positions through human laws. Under the influence of their passions, however, humans have often created imaginary rights and duties that are condemned by natural law. Nations remove these rights and duties from their codes as they progress. Natural law is immutable and is always the same for everyone. Human law is variable and progressive, and only under such variable conditions at humankind’s infancy could it have consecrated the right of the strongest.
796. Aren’t harsh criminal laws a necessity in the present state of society?
“A depraved society has a need for harsher laws. Unfortunately, such laws are meant to punish a wrong after it has already been committed, rather than to cut out the roots of what has caused the wrong. Only education can reform humankind, who will then have no more need of such harsh laws.”
797. How can humankind be led to reform its laws?
“This will occur naturally through the force of circumstances and by the influence of moral persons who will guide them along the path of progress. Many things have already been reformed, and many more will be. Wait awhile!”
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