John van Wyhe, Ph.D., Cambridge University digitized and converted to html George Campbell's The Reign of Law (London, 1867). George P. Landow proofed, reformatted, and added links to the text in December 2008.
Let knowledge grow from more to more,
But more of reverence in us dwell;
That mind and soul, according well,
May snake one music as before,
But vaster....
IN MEMORIAM.
SOME portions of this work have already appeared at various times in the Edinburgh Review, in Good Words, and in Addresses to the Royal Society of Edinburgh during the years in which I had the honour of being President of that Body. The deep interest of the matter dealt with in those Papers has induced me to expand them, to add new chapters on other aspects of the same subject, and to publish the whole in a connected form.
Among many other deficiencies which may be observed in this Volume, there is one which demands explanation, lest a serious [v/vi] misunderstanding should arise. I had intended to conclude with a chapter on"Law in Christian Theology." It was natural to reserve for that chapter all direct reference to some of the most fundamental facts of Human nature.' Yet without such reference the Reign of Law, especially in the"Realm of Mind," cannot even be approached in some of its very highest and most important aspects. For the present, however, I have shrunk from entering upon questions so profound, of such critical import, and so inseparably connected with religious controversy. In the absence of any attempt to deal with this great branch of the inquiry, as well as in many other ways, I am painfully conscious of the narrow range of this work. I can only offer it as a very small contribution to the discussion of a boundless subject.
INVERARAY, October 1866.
Last modified 5 Decemberber 2008