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Illustrations of the Tao

C. S. Lewis in The Abolition of Man (1943), Appendix.

The following illustrations of the Natural Law are collected from such sources as come readily to the hand of one who is not a professional historian. The list makes no pretence of completeness. It will be noticed that writers such as Locke and Hooker, who wrote within the Christian tradition, are quoted side by side with the New Testament. This would, of course, be absurd if I were trying to collect independent testimonies to the Tao. But (1) I am not trying to prove its validity by the argument from common consent. Its validity cannot be deduced. For those who do not perceive its rationality, even universal consent could not prove it. (2) The idea of collecting independent testimonies presupposes that ‘civilizations’ have arisen in the world independently of one another; or even that humanity has had several independent emergences on this planet. The biology and anthropology involved in such an assumption are extremely doubtful. It is by no means certain that there has ever (in the sense required) been more than one civilization in all history. It is at least arguable that every civilization we find has been derived from another civilisation and, in the last resort, from a single centre — ‘carried’ like an infectious disease or like the Apostolical succession.

I. The Law of General Beneficence

(a) NEGATIVE

  • ‘I have not slain men.’ (Ancient Egyptian. From the Confession of the Righteous Soul, ‘Book of the Dead’,
    v. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics [= ERE], vol. v, p. 478)
  • ‘Do not murder.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:13) ‘Terrify not men or God will terrify thee.’ (Ancient
  • Egyptian. Precepts of Ptahhetep. H. R. Hall, Ancient History of the Near East, p. i3}n)
  • ‘In Nastrond (= Hell) I saw… murderers.’ (Old Norse. Volospá 38, 39)
  • ‘I have not brought misery upon my fellows. I have not made the beginning of every day laborious in the sight of him who worked for me.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 478)
  • ‘I have not been grasping.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Ibid.) ‘Who meditates oppression, his dwelling is overturned.’
    (Babylonian. Hymn to Samas. ERE v. 445)
  • ‘He who is cruel and calumnious has the character of a cat.’ (Hindu. Laws of Manu. Janet, Histoire de la Science Politique, vol. i, p. 6)
  • ‘Slander not.’ (Babylonian. Hymn to Samas. ERE v. 445)
  • ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:16)
  • ‘Utter not a word by which anyone could be wounded.’ (Hindu. Janet, p. 7)
  • ‘Has he … driven an honest man from his family? broken up a well cemented clan?’ (Babylonian. List of Sins from incantation tablets. ERE v. 446)
  • ‘I have not caused hunger. I have not caused weeping.’ (Ancient Egyptian. ERE v. 478)
  • ‘Never do to others what you would not like them to do to
    you.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects of Confucius, trans.
    A. Waley, xv. 23; cf. xii. 2)
  • ‘Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart.’ (Ancient Jewish. Leviticus 19:17)
  • ‘He whose heart is in the smallest degree set upon goodness
    will dislike no one.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, iv. 4)

(b) POSITIVE

  • ‘Nature urges that a man should wish human society
    to exist and should wish to enter it.’ (Roman. Cicero, De
    Officiis,
    i. iv)
  • ‘By the fundamental Law of Nature Man [is] to be
    preserved as much as possible.’ (Locke, Treatises of Civil
    Govt.
    ii. 3)
  • ‘When the people have multiplied, what next should
    be done for them? The Master said, Enrich them. Jan Ch’iu said, When
    one has enriched them, what next should be done for them? The Master
    said, Instruct them.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, xiii. 9)
  • ‘Speak kindness … show good will.’
    (Babylonian. Hymn to Samas. ERE v. 445)
  • ‘Men were brought into existence for the sake of
    men that they might do one another good.’ (Roman. Cicero. De
    Off.
    i. vii)
  • ‘Man is man’s delight.’ (Old Norse. Hávamál
    47)
  • ‘He who is asked for alms should always give.’ (Hindu.
    Janet, i. 7)
  • ‘What good man regards any misfortune as no concern of
    his?’ (Roman. Juvenal xv. 140)
  • ‘I am a man: nothing human is alien to me.’ (Roman. Terence,
    Heaut. Tim.)
  • ‘Love thy neighbour as thyself.’ (Ancient Jewish. Leviticus
    19:18)
  • ‘Love the stranger as thyself.’ (Ancient Jewish. Ibid. 33, 34)
  • ‘Do to men what you wish men to do to you.’
    (Christian. Matthew 7:12)

2. The Law of Special Beneficence

  • ‘It is upon the trunk that a gentleman works. When
    that is firmly set up, the Way grows. And surely proper behaviour to
    parents and elder brothers is the trunk of goodness.’ (Ancient
    Chinese. Analects, i. 2)
  • ‘Brothers shall fight and be each others’ bane.’
    (Old Norse. Account of the Evil Age before the World’s end,
    Volospá 45)
  • ‘Has he insulted his elder sister?’ (Babylonian. List of
    Sins. ERE v. 446)
  • ‘You will see them take care of their kindred [and] the children of
    their friends … never reproaching them in the least.’ (Redskin. Le
    Jeune, quoted ERE v. 437)
  • ‘Love thy wife studiously. Gladden her heart all thy life long.’
    (Ancient Egyptian. ERE v. 481)
  • ‘Nothing can ever change the claims of kinship for a right
    thinking man.’ (Anglo-Saxon. Beowulf, 2600)
  • ‘Did not Socrates love his own children, though he did so as a free
    man and as one not forgetting that the gods have the first claim on
    our friendship?’ (Greek, Epictetus, iii. 24)
  • ‘Natural affection is a thing right and according to Nature.’
    (Greek. Ibid. i. xi)
  • ‘I ought not to be unfeeling like a statue but
    should fulfil both my natural and artificial relations, as a
    worshipper, a son, a brother, a father, and a citizen.’
    (Greek. Ibid. 111. ii)
  • ‘This first I rede thee: be blameless to thy kindred. Take no
    vengeance even though they do thee wrong.’ (Old
    Norse. Sigdrifumál, 22)
  • ‘Is it only the sons of Atreus who love their
    wives? For every good man, who is right-minded, loves and cherishes
    his own.’ (Greek. Homer, Iliad, ix. 340)
  • ‘The union and fellowship of men will be best
    preserved if each receives from us the more kindness in proportion as
    he is more closely connected with us.’ (Roman. Cicero. De
    Off. i
    . xvi)
  • ‘Part of us is claimed by our country, part by our
    parents, part by our friends.’ (Roman. Ibid. i. vii)
  • ‘If a ruler … compassed the salvation of the
    whole state, surely you would call him Good? The Master said, It would
    no longer be a matter of “Good”. He would without doubt be a Divine
    Sage.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, vi. 28)
  • ‘Has it escaped you that, in the eyes of gods and
    good men, your native land deserves from you more honour, worship, and
    reverence than your mother and father and all your ancestors? That you
    should give a softer answer to its anger than to a father’s anger?
    That if you cannot persuade it to alter its mind you must obey it in
    all quietness, whether it binds you or beats you or sends you to a war
    where you may get wounds or
    death?’ (Greek. Plato, Crito, 51, a, b)
  • ‘If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own
    house, he hath denied the faith.’ (Christian. I Timothy 5:8)
  • ‘Put them in mind to obey magistrates.’… ‘I exhort that prayers
    be made for kings and all that are in authority.’ (Christian. Titus
    3:1 and I Timothy 2:1, 2)

3. Duties to Parents, Elders, Ancestors

  • ‘Your father is an image of the Lord of Creation, your mother an
    image of the Earth. For him who fails to honour them, every work of
    piety is in vain. This is the first duty.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 9)
  • ‘Has he despised Father and Mother?’ (Babylonian. List
    of Sins. ERE v. 446)
  • ‘I was a staff by my Father’s side … I went in and out at
    his command.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the
    Righteous Soul. ERE v. 481)
  • ‘Honour thy Father and thy Mother.’ (Ancient Jewish.
    Exodus 20:12)
  • ‘To care for parents.’ (Greek. List of duties in Epictetus,
    in. vii)
  • ‘Children, old men, the poor, and the sick, should
    be considered as the lords of the atmosphere.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 8)
  • ‘Rise up before the hoary head and honour the old man.’ (Ancient
    Jewish. Leviticus 19:32)
  • ‘I tended the old man, I gave him my staff.’ (Ancient
    Egyptian. ERE v. 481)
  • ‘You will see them take care … of old men.’ (Redskin. Le
    Jeune, quoted ERE v. 437)
  • ‘I have not taken away the oblations of the blessed dead.’
    (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 478)
  • ‘When proper respect towards the dead is shown at the
    end and continued after they are far away, the moral
    force (tê) of a people has reached its highest point.’
    (Ancient Chinese. Analects, i. 9)

4. Duties to Children and Posterity

  • ‘Children, the old, the poor, etc. should be considered as lords of
    the atmosphere.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 8)
  • ‘To marry and to beget children.’ (Greek. List of
    duties. Epictetus, in. vii)
  • ‘Can you conceive an Epicurean commonwealth?
    . . . What will happen? Whence is the population to be kept up? Who
    will educate them? Who will be Director of Adolescents? Who will be
    Director of Physical Training? What will be taught?’ (Greek. Ibid.)
  • ‘Nature produces a special love of offspring’ and
    ‘To live according to Nature is the supreme good.’ (Roman. Cicero,
    De Off. i. iv, and De Legibus, i. xxi)
  • ‘The second of these achievements is no less
    glorious than the first; for while the first did good on one occasion,
    the second will continue to benefit the state for ever.’
    (Roman. Cicero. De Off. i. xxii)
  • ‘Great reverence is owed to a child.’
    (Roman. Juvenal, xiv. 47)
  • ‘The Master said, Respect the young.’ (Ancient
    Chinese. Analects, ix. 22)
  • ‘The killing of the women and more especially of
    the young boys and girls who are to go to make up the future strength
    of the people, is the saddest part… and we feel it very sorely.’
    (Redskin. Account of the Battle of Wounded Knee. ERE v. 432)

5. The Law of Justice

(a) SEXUAL JUSTICE

  • ‘Has he approached his neighbour’s wife?’ (Babylonian. List of
    Sins. ERE v. 446)
  • ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ (Ancient Jewish.
    Exodus 20:14)
  • ‘I saw in Nastrond (= Hell)… beguilers of others’ wives.’ (Old
    Norse. Volospá 38, 39)

(b) HONESTY

  • ‘Has he drawn false boundaries?’ (Babylonian. List of
    Sins. ERE v. 446)
  • ‘To wrong, to rob, to cause to be robbed.’ (Babylonian.
    Ibid.)
  • ‘I have not stolen.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the
    Righteous Soul. ERE v. 478)
  • ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:15)
  • ‘Choose loss rather than shameful gains.’ (Greek. Chilon
    Fr. 10. Diels)
  • ‘Justice is the settled and permanent intention of
    rendering to each man his rights.’ (Roman. Justinian,
    Institutions, I. i)
  • ‘If the native made a “find” of any kind (e.g., a
    honey tree) and marked it, it was thereafter safe for him, as far as
    his own tribesmen were concerned, no matter how long he left it.’
    (Australian Aborigines. ERE v. 441)
  • ‘The first point of justice is that none should do
    any mischief to another unless he has first been attacked by the
    other’s wrongdoing. The second is that a man should treat common
    property as common property, and private property as his own. There is
    no such thing as private property by nature, but things have become
    private either through prior occupation (as when men of old came into
    empty territory) or by conquest, or law, or agreement, or stipulation,
    or casting lots.’ (Roman. Cicero, De Off. I. vii)

(c) JUSTICE IN COURT, &C.

  • ‘Whoso takes no bribe … well pleasing is this to
    Samas.’ (Babylonian. ERE v. 445)
  • ‘I have not traduced the slave to him who is set
    over him.’ (Ancient Egyptian. Confession of the Righteous
    Soul. ERE v. 478)
  • ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
    neighbour.’ (Ancient Jewish. Exodus 20:16)
  • ‘Regard him whom thou knowest like him whom thou
    knowest not.’ (Ancient Egyptian. ERE v. 482)
  • ‘Do no unrighteousness in judgement. You must not
    consider the fact that one party is poor nor the fact that the other
    is a great man.’ (Ancient Jewish. Leviticus 19:15)

6. The Law of Good Faith and Veracity

  • ‘A sacrifice is obliterated by a lie and the merit of alms by an
    act of fraud.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 6)
  • ‘Whose mouth, full of lying, avails not before thee: thou burnest
    their utterance.’ (Babylonian. Hymn to Samas. ERE v. 445)
  • ‘With his mouth was he full of Yea, in his heart full of
    Nay? (Babylonian. ERE v. 446)
  • ‘I have not spoken falsehood.’ (Ancient Egyptian.
    Confession of the Righteous Soul. ERE v. 478)
  • ‘I sought no trickery, nor swore false oaths.’
    (Anglo-Saxon. Beowulf, 2738)
  • ‘The Master said, Be of unwavering good faith.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, viii. 13)
  • ‘In Nastrond (= Hell) I saw the perjurers.’ (Old Norse.
    Volospá 39)
  • ‘Hateful to me as are the gates of Hades is that man who says one
    thing, and hides another in his heart.’ (Greek. Homer. Iliad,
    ix. 312)
  • ‘The foundation of justice is good faith.’ (Roman. Cicero,
    De Off. i.vii)
  • ‘[The gentleman] must learn to be faithful to his superiors
    and to keep promises.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, i. 8)
  • ‘Anything is better than treachery.’ (Old Norse. Hávamál
    124)

7. The Law of Mercy

  • ‘The poor and the sick should be regarded as lords of the
    atmosphere.’ (Hindu. Janet, i. 8)
  • ‘Whoso makes intercession for the weak, well pleasing is
    this to Samas.’ (Babylonian. ERE v. 445)
  • ‘Has he failed to set a prisoner free?’ (Babylonian. List of
    Sins. ERE v. 446)
  • ‘I have given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothes to
    the naked, a ferry boat to the boatless.’
  • (Ancient
    Egyptian. ERE v. 446)
  • ‘One should never strike a woman; not even with a flower.’
    (Hindu. Janet, i. 8)
  • ‘There, Thor, you got disgrace, when you beat women.’ (Old
    Norse. Hárbarthsljóth 38)
  • ‘In the Dalebura tribe a woman, a cripple from birth, was carried
    about by the tribes-people in turn until her death at the age of
    sixty-six.’… ‘They never desert the sick.’ (Australian
    Aborigines. ERE v. 443)
  • ‘You will see them take care of… widows, orphans, and old men,
    never reproaching them.’ (Redskin. ERE v. 439)
  • ‘Nature confesses that she has given to the human race the
    tenderest hearts, by giving us the power to weep. This is the best
    part of us.’ (Roman. Juvenal, xv. 131)
  • ‘They said that he had been the mildest and gentlest of the kings
    of the world.’ (Anglo-Saxon. Praise of the hero in Beowulf,
    3180)
  • ‘When thou cuttest down thine harvest… and hast forgot a sheaf… thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow.’ (Ancient Jewish. Deuteronomy 24:19)

8. The Law of Magnanimity

(a)

  • ‘There are two kinds of injustice: the first is
    found in those who do an injury, the second in those who fail to
    protect another from injury when they can.’ (Roman. Cicero, De
    Off.
    I. vii)
  • ‘Men always knew that when force and injury was
    offered they might be defenders of themselves; they knew that
    howsoever men may seek their own commodity, yet if this were done with
    injury unto others it was not to be suffered, but by all men and by
    all good means to be withstood.’ (English. Hooker, Laws of
    Eccl. Polity,
    I. ix. 4)
  • ‘To take no notice of a violent attack is to strengthen the heart of the enemy. Vigour is valiant, but cowardice is vile.’ (Ancient Egyptian. The Pharaoh Senusert III, cit. H. R. Hall, Ancient History of the Near East, p. 161)
  • ‘They came to the fields of joy, the fresh turf of
    the Fortunate Woods and the dwellings of the Blessed . . . here was
    the company of those who had suffered wounds fighting for their
    fatherland.’ (Roman. Virgil, Aeneid, vi. 638-9, 660)
  • ‘Courage has got to be harder, heart the stouter,
    spirit the sterner, as our strength weakens. Here lies our lord, cut
    to pieces, out best man in the dust. If anyone thinks of leaving this
    battle, he can howl forever.’ (Anglo-Saxon. Maldon, 312)
  • ‘Praise and imitate that man to whom, while life is pleasing, death
    is not grievous.’ (Stoic. Seneca, Ep. liv)
  • ‘The Master said, Love learning and if attacked be ready to die for
    the Good Way.’ (Ancient Chinese. Analects, viii. 13)

(b)

  • ‘Death is to be chosen before slavery and base deeds.’
    (Roman. Cicero, De Off. i, xxiii)
  • ‘Death is better for every man than life with shame.’
    (Anglo-Saxon. Beowulf, 2890)
  • ‘Nature and Reason command that nothing uncomely, nothing
    effeminate, nothing lascivious be done or thought.’ (Roman. Cicero,
    De Off. i.iv)
  • ‘We must not listen to those who advise us “being men to think
    human thoughts, and being mortal to think mortal thoughts,” but must
    put on immortality as much as is possible and strain every nerve to
    live according to that best part of us, which, being small in bulk,
    yet much more in its power and honour surpasses all else.’ (Ancient
    Greek. Aristotle, Eth. Nic. 1177 B)
  • ‘The soul then ought to conduct the body, and the spirit of our
    minds the soul. This is therefore the first Law, whereby the highest
    power of the mind requireth obedience at the hands of all the rest.’
    (Hooker, op. cit. i. viii. 6)
  • ‘Let him not desire to die, let him not desire to
    live, let him wait for his time … let him patiently bear hard words,
    entirely abstaining from bodily pleasures.’ (Ancient Indian. Laws of
    Manu. ERE ii. 98)
  • ‘He who is unmoved, who has restrained his senses
    … is said to be devoted. As a flame in a windless place that
    flickers not, so is the devoted.’ (Ancient Indian. Bhagavad
    gita. ERE
    ii 90)

(c)

  • ‘Is not the love of Wisdom a practice of death?’ (Ancient
    Greek. Plato, Phadeo, 81 A)
  • ‘I know that I hung on the gallows for nine nights,
    wounded with the spear as a sacrifice to Odin, myself offered to
    Myself.’ (Old Norse. Hávamál, I. 10 in Corpus
    Poeticum Boreale;
    stanza 139 in Hildebrand’s Lieder der
    Älteren Edda.
    1922)
  • ‘Verily, verily I say to you unless a grain of
    wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies
    it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it.’ (Christian. John
    12:24,25)