the term law, or the term laws, is applied to the following objects: – to laws proper or properly so called, and to laws improper or improperly so called: to objects which have all the essentials of an imperative law or rule, and to objects which are wanting in some of those essentials, but to which the term is unduly extended either by reason of analogy or in the way of metaphor.

Strictly speaking, all improper laws are analogous to laws proper: and the term law, as applied to any of them, is a metaphorical or figurative expression.

For every metaphor springs from an analogy: and every analogical extension given to a term is a metaphor or figure of speech. The term is extended from the objects which it properly signifies to objects of another nature; to objects not of the class wherein the former are contained, although they are allied to the former by that more distant resemblance which is usually styled analogy. But, taking the expressions with the meanings which custom or usage has established, [there is a difference between an employment of a term analogically and a metaphor.

Analogy is a species of resemblance. The word resemblance is here taken in that large sense, in which all subjects which have any property in common, are said to resemble.

[although it is not the object of this course of lectures to treat of the science of legislation, but to evolve and expound the principles and distinctions involved in the idea of law, it was not a deviation from my subject to introduce the principle of utility. For I shall often have occasion to refer to that principle in my course, as that which not only ought to guide, but has commonly in fact guided the legislator. The principle of utility, well or ill understood, has usually been the principle consulted in making laws; and I therefore should often be unable to explain distinctly and precisely the scope and purport of a law, without having brought the principle of utility directly before you. I have therefore done so, not pretending to expound the principle in its various applications, which would be a subject of sufficient extent for many courses of lectures; but attempting to give you a general notion of the principle, and to obviate the most specious of the objections which are commonly made to it.]

In my second lecture, I examined a current and specious objection to the theory of general utility.

When I did wake, to a beautiful sunny morning, I leapt out of bed with my over-night apprehension still clinging to me, which vanished delightfully however in a moment as I looked around my little sleeping chamber and saw the pale but pure-coloured figures painted on the plaster of the wall, with verses written underneath them which I knew somewhat over-well. I dressed speedily, in a suit of blue laid ready for me, so handsome that I quite blushed when I had got into it, feeling as I did so that excited pleasure of anticipation of a holiday, which, well remembered as it was, I had not felt since I was a boy, new come home for the summer holidays.

It seemed quite early in the morning, and I expected to have the hall to myself when I came into it out of the corridor wherein was my sleeping chamber; but I met Annie at once, who let fall her broom and gave me a kiss, quite meaningless I fear, except as betokening friendship, though she reddened as she did it, not from shyness, but from friendly pleasure, and then stood and picked up her broom again, and went on with her sweeping, nodding to me as if to bid me stand out of the way and look on; which, to say the truth, I thought amusing enough, as there were five other girls helping her, and their graceful figures engaged in the leisurely work were worth going a long way to see, and their merry talk and laughing as they swept in quite a scientific manner was worth going a long way to hear.

positive laws, the appropriate matter of jurisprudence, are related in the way of resemblance, or by a close or remote analogy, to the following objects. – 1. In the way of resemblance, they are related to the laws of God. 2. In the way of resemblance, they are related to those rules of positive morality which are laws properly so called. 3. By a close or strong analogy, they are related to those rules of positive morality which are merely opinions or sentiments held or felt by men in regard to human conduct. 4. By a remote or slender analogy, they are related to laws merely metaphorical, or laws merely figurative.

To distinguish positive laws from the objects now enumerated, is the purpose of the present attempt to determine the province of jurisprudence.

In pursuance of the purpose to which I have now adverted, I stated, in my first lecture, the essentials of a law or rule (taken with the largest signification which can be given to the term properly).

In my second, third, and fourth lectures, I stated the marks or characters by which the laws of God are distinguished from other laws. And, stating those marks or characters, I explained the nature of the index to his unrevealed laws, or I explained and examined the hypotheses which regard the nature of that index.

In my fifth lecture, I examined or discussed especially the following principal topics (and I touched upon other topics of secondary or subordinate importance).

Presently at a place where the river flowed round a headland of the meadows, we stopped a while for rest and victuals, and settled ourselves on a beautiful bank which almost reached the dignity of a hill-side: the wide meadows spread before us, and already the scythe was busy amidst the hay. One change I noticed amidst the quiet beauty of the fields – to wit, that they were planted with trees here and there, often fruit-trees, and that there was none of the niggardly begrudging of space to a handsome tree which I remembered too well; and though the willows were often polled (or shrowded, as they call it in that countryside), this was done with some regard to beauty: I mean that there was no polling of rows on rows so as to destroy the pleasantness of half a mile of country, but a thoughtful sequence in the cutting, that prevented a sudden bareness anywhere. To be short, the fields were everywhere treated as a garden made for the pleasure as well as the livelihood of all, as old Hammond told me was the case.

‘Now,’ said I, ‘I have come to the point of asking questions which I suppose will be dry for you to answer and difficult for you to explain; but I have foreseen for some time past that I must ask them, will I nill I. What kind of a government have you? Has republicanism finally triumphed? or have you come to a mere dictatorship, which some persons in the nineteenth century used to prophesy as the ultimate outcome of democracy? Indeed, this last question does not seem so very unreasonable, since you have turned your Parliament House into a dung-market. Or where do you house your present Parliament?’

The old man answered my smile with a hearty laugh, and said: ‘Well, well, dung is not the worst kind of corruption; fertility may come of that, whereas mere dearth came from the other kind, of which those walls once held the great supporters. Now, dear guest, let me tell you that our present parliament would be hard to house in one place, because the whole people is our parliament.’

‘I don't understand,’ said I.

‘No, I suppose not,’ said he. ‘I must now shock you by telling you that we have no longer anything which you, a native of another planet, would call a government.’

‘I am not so much shocked as you might think,’ said I, ‘as I know something about governments. But tell me, how do you manage, and how have you come to this state of things?’

Before we parted from these girls we saw two sturdy young men and a woman putting off from the Berkshire shore, and then Dick bethought him of a little banter of the girls, and asked them how it was that there was nobody of the male kind to go with them across the water, and where their boats were gone to. Said one, the youngest of the party: ‘O, they have got the big punt to load stone from up the water.’

‘Who do you mean by “they”, dear child?’ said Dick.

Said an older girl, laughing: ‘You had better go and see them. Look there,’ and she pointed north-west, ‘don't you see building going on there?’

‘Yes,’ said Dick, ‘and I am rather surprised at this time of the year; why are they not haymaking with you?’

The girls all laughed at this, and before their laugh was over, the Berkshire boat had run on to the grass and the girls stepped in lightly, still sniggering, while the newcomers gave us the sele of the day. But before they were under way again, the tall girl said: ‘Excuse us for laughing, dear neighbours, but we have had some friendly bickering with the builders up yonder, and as we have no time to tell you the story, you had better go and ask them: they will be glad to see you – if you don't hinder their work.’

Dick brought me at once into the little field which, as I had seen from the garden, was covered with gaily-coloured tents arranged in orderly lanes, about which were sitting and lying on the grass some fifty or sixty men, women, and children, all of them in the height of good temper and enjoyment – with their holiday mood on, so to say.

‘You are thinking that we don't make a great show as to numbers,’ said Dick; ‘but you must remember that we shall have more to-morrow; because in this haymaking work there is room for a great many people who are not over-skilled in country matters: and there are many who lead sedentary lives, whom it would be unkind to deprive of their pleasure in the hay-field – scientific men and close students generally: so that the skilled workmen, outside those who are wanted as mowers, and foremen of the haymaking, stand aside, and take a little downright rest, which you know is good for them, whether they like it or not: or else they go to other countrysides, as I am doing here. You see, the scientific men and historians, and students generally, will not be wanted till we are fairly in the midst of the tedding, which of course will not be till the day after to-morrow.’

In recent years there has been a substantial growth of interest in the history and literature of Jacobean England. Amongst the most important texts produced in that period were the writings of King James VI and I himself. Harvard University Press published The Political Works of James I, edited by Charles Howard McIlwain, in 1918. That volume has become quite a scarce book. Moreover, an examination of the text which McIlwain printed reveals a number of peculiarities. In James' longest work, the Basilicon Doron, marginal comments or summaries which were included in early editions were omitted by McIlwain. He based his edition of James' writings on a single source – the king's Workes of 1616 – and he introduced a good many misreadings into that version. For instance, on a surprisingly large number of occasions he strangely read the long ‘s’ of seventeenth-century script as an ‘f’. In consequence, such non-existent words as ‘trustieft’, ‘Papifts’, ‘feueritie’, ‘iustneffe’, ‘aduife’, and ‘feruants’ are scattered through his edition.

The present volume is intended to present more accurate texts of James' writings than McIlwain made available. Where appropriate, the Workes of 1616 has been used as copy-text, but in every case it has been compared with other early versions of the king's writings. McIlwain made no attempt to track down James' sources. I have traced the sources of most direct quotations, but have not tried to verify or decipher all the references in James' writings.

James VI and I was one of the most influential British political writers of the early modern period. His Basilicon Doron was a best-seller in England and circulated widely on the Continent (the details are discussed in Wormald 1991, 51–2). It was translated into Latin, French, Dutch, German, Swedish and other languages (a list of early translations in Craigie 1944–50, 2: 153–78, 188–90, includes thirty-eight items). The book was frequently quoted by political writers. So, too, were James' other works, and especially his speech to parliament of 21 March 1610. John Locke quoted this speech at length and approvingly. He referred respectfully to James as ‘that Learned King who well understood the Notions of things’ (Two Treatises of Government, second treatise, section 200). Thomas Hobbes likewise praised ‘our most wise’ King James (Leviathan chapter 19, final paragraph). Despite the major differences in their political thought, both Hobbes and Locke were able to praise James, for the king combined absolutist principles with an emphasis upon the monarch's duty to rule according to law and in the public good. The king's political philosophy was a nuanced, moderated absolutism. To understand his principles it is useful to look at the circumstances in which he developed them.

In 1566 Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to James. A year later she abdicated in her son's favour. This abdication had been forced upon her by powerful nobles allied with Protestant preachers.

HAuing of late, vpon mature deliberation, with the aduice and vniforme consent of Our whole Priuie Councell, determined to dissolue the Assembly and Conuention of Parliament, lately called together by Our Regall power and Authoritie, Wee were pleased by Our Proclamation, giuen at Our Palace of Westminster the sixt day of this instant Ianuary, to declare, not onely Our pleasure and resolution therein, but also to expresse some especiall passages and proceedings, moouing vs to that resolution: Wherein, albeit hauing so many yeeres swayed the swords and scepters of three renowned kingdomes, Wee cannot but discerne (as much as any Prince liuing) what apperteineth to the height of a powerfull Monarch: yet, that all men might discerne, that Wee, like Gods true Vicegerent, delight not so much in the greatnesse of Our place, as in the goodnesse & benignitie of our gouernment, We were content in that one Act to descend many degrees beneath Our Selfe: First, by communicating to all Our people the reasons of a resolution of State, which Princes vse to reserue, inter arcana Imperij, to themselues and their Priuie Councell: Secondly, by mollifying and mixing the peremptorie and binding qualitie of a Proclamation, with the indulgence of a milde and fatherly instruction: And lastly, leading them, and opening to them that forbidden Arke of Our absolute and indisputable Prerogatiue, concerning the calling, continuing, and dissoluing of Parliaments: which, though it were more then superabundant to make Our Subiects know the realitie of Our sincere intentions; yet Wee not satisfied therewith, but finding the bounds of a Proclamation too straight to conteine and expresse the boundlesse affection that Wee beare to Our good and louing people, are pleased hereby to inlarge Our Selfe, (as Wee promised in Our said Proclamation) by a more full and plaine expression of those Letters and Messages that passed from Vs to the Commons in Parliament, which by reason of the length of them, could not bee related at large, but briefly pointed at in Our said Proclamation.

GIVE Thy Ivdgements To The King, O GOD, And Thy Righteovsnes To The Kings Sonne.

These be the first words of one of the Psalmes of the Kingly Prophet Dauid, whereof the literall sense runnes vpon him, and his sonne Salomon, and the mysticall sense vpon God and Christ his eternall Sonne: but they are both so wouen together, as some parts are, and can onely bee properly applied vnto God and Christ, and other parts vnto Dauid and Salomon, as this Verse, Giue thy Iudgements to the King, O God, and thy Righteousnesse to the Kings Sonne, cannot be properly spoken of any, but of Dauid and his sonne; because it is said, Giue thy Iudgements, &c. Now God cannot giue to himselfe. In another part of the same Psalme, where it is said, that Righteousnes shall flourish, and abundance of Peace, as long as the Moone endureth, it signifieth eternitie, and cannot be properly applied but to God and Christ: But both senses, aswell literall as mysticall, serue to Kings for imitation, and especially to Christian Kings: for Kings sit in the Throne of God, and they themselues are called Gods.

And therefore all good Kings in their gouernment, must imitate God and his Christ, in being iust and righteous; Dauid and Salomon, in being godly and wise: To be wise, is vnderstood, able to discerne, able to iudge others: To be godly is, that the fountaine be pure whence the streames proceed: for what auailes it though all his workes be godly, if they proceed not from godlinesse: To bee righteous, is to a mans selfe: To bee iust, is towards others.