Study in Karma

Author(s): Annie Besant
Publisher: Theosophist Office Adyar

Page 18

LAWS : NATURAL AND MAN-MADE 9
repeal them. Natural laws are unchånging; they cannot be altered nor repealed, but lie in the nature of things. Artificial laws .are local, while natural are universal. The law in any country against robbery may be enforced by any penalty chosen by the . legislator ; sometimes the hand is cut off, sometimes the thief is sent to gaol; sometimes he is hanged. Moreover, the infliction of the penalty is dependent on the discovery of the crime. A penalty which is variable and artificial, and which may be escaped, is obviously not causally related to the crime it punishes. A natural law has no penalty, but one condition follows invariably on another; if a man steals, his nature becomes more thievish, the tendency to dishonesty is increased, and the difficulty of being honest becomes greater; this consequence works in every case, in all countries, and the knowledge or ignorance of others as