Note 755 — Chapter II · : THE APOGEE AND DECLINE OF THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL. JOHN STUART MILL

Dupont de Nemours, writing very much in the spirit of the Classical school, had already given an excellent definition of natural law. “By natural law we are to understand those essential conditions that regulate all things in accordance with the design laid down by the Author of Nature. They are the ‘essential conditions’ to which men must submit if they would obtain all the benefits which the natural order offers them.” (Introduction to Quesnay’s works, p. 21.)