Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1914

Penciling in the margin of page 25, Wilbur G. Katz, “Natural Law and Human Nature” (a Faculty Paper published by the National Council of the Episcopal Church, New York, undated) in the section entitled, “Comment,” by Henry L. Shepherd.

 

Original is in item 1913.

 

Shepherd: “Here is a simple case where some law or rule of human conduct other than the criminal code, was invoked; and the offender was punished, not by fine or imprisonment but by discharge.” (Emphasis by Heath)

Discharge is not punishment. It is exercise of freedom to contract or not to.

“It is pertinent to ask: What is the nature of that law or rule which may not have found its way into the criminal code and yet can lead to drastic punishment when a violation is shown? Or, to put the query another way, is there some source of law or rules other than the legislatures and the judges and, if so, what is it?”

Freedom of contract.

“The answers vary that thoughtful and scholarly men of the Western world have given us. Some say that God has revealed to men how they should act; others maintain that men themselves in the exercise of reason have gradually evolved customary norms of behavior..” (Emphasis by S.H.)

 

Whatever advances all human life is the NORM — normal.

Society, founded on freedom of contract, is an organic life form having the unique function of so recreating its environment as to raise indefinitely the quality and thus the length of human life.