laws," as taught
by Mr. Combe, is true in one sense and false in another: "It is _true_,
first, that the Creator has bestowed constitutions on physical objects;
in other words, the constitutions which physical objects possess were
_given_ them, given during His pleasure; secondly, that the
constitutions of physical objects are _definite_,--that is, they are
distinct, individual, and incapable of transmutation _by natural
causes_; thirdly, that no power but the power of the Creator can vary
their constitutions. But it is _not true_, first, that any mode of
action of a physical object is otherwise inherent in it, than as it is
the will of God that that object should _now_ present that mode of
action. Nor is it true, secondly, that it is beyond the power of God to
vary, when He pleases, either temporarily or permanently, the
constitution of physical objects." He further shows that, on Mr. Combe's
principle of "natural laws" being all equally Divine institutions which
must be _obeyed_, "human obedience is a very complicated and perplexing
affair, so complicated and so perplexing as to involve positive
contradictions;" that "the very same act is required by one law, and
forbidden by another, both laws being equally Divine;" and that "we
sometimes cannot obey both the 'organic' and the 'moral' laws." He
concludes that "physical laws ought not to be confounded with laws of
human conduct;" that "these we always must obey, and those we may
often, without deserving blame, boldly disregard;" and that "by
commingling distinct classes of 'natural laws,' Mr. Combe introduces
into his system dangerous error and gross absurdity."

2. Another radical defect in this theory of "natural laws" consists in
its representing the consequences of our ignorance or neglect of them as
_punishments_ in the same sense in which moral delinquencies are said to
be followed by penal inflictions. There is something here which is
totally at variance with the instinctive feelings and moral convictions
of mankind. Mr. Combe affirms that each of the three great classes of
"natural laws" requires _obedience_ to itself, and that each, in its own
specific way, rewards obedience and punishes disobedience. And he gives,
as one example, the case of the most pious and benevolent missionaries
sailing to civilize and Christianize the heathen, but embarking in an
unsound ship, and being drowned _by disobeying a "natural law;"_ as
another, the case of "a child or an age