Somerset v. Stewart (1772) that the nature of slavery is ''so odious. .. nothing can be suffered to support it but positive law.'' In this essay, I trace the principle laid down in Somerset through several cases that occurred during the first quarter of the nineteenth century, and I pay particular attention to two conservative judicial opinions in the 1820's: Chief Justice John Marshall's opinion in The Antelope (1825) and Lord Stowell's opinion in The Slave Grace (1827). In each of these cases, practical considerations trump the antislavery constitutional tradition emanating from the Somerset decision. Rather than reflecting the triumph of illiberal constitutional theories, I argue that these cases demonstrate the ongoing tension between normative constitutional principles and practical political considerations.

The papers included in this issue of Psychiatric Quarterly explore narcissism and self psychology from several points of view. The paper by Allen Dyer explores theoretically and clinically the interplay of narcissistic and Oedipal elements in development and in therapy. The paper by Susan Dyer offers a most lucid account of narcissism-not by recounting the discovery of narcissism in therapeutic examples or even direct observations of children-but by looking at the world from the developing infant's point of view. Carl Mindell, a child psychiatrist and self psychologist, offers some very practical approaches to dealing with failures of empathy and the associated affects of shame/embarrassment in psychotherapy. Bill Grosch, who is a Protestant minister and a psychiatrist, takes a very broad and practical approach to the integration of self psychology into the work of the psychiatrist/psychotherapist. Joel Rosen, a practicing psychoanalyst, expresses some reservations about focusing too narrowly on the issues of self and offers several illustrations of patients whose narcissistic wounds might have obscured Oedipal/drive issues.The issues which these authors wrestle with are issues which all therapists-neophyte and seasoned alike-must carefully consider. Although one might see such disagreements and divergences of opinion as confusing, inconsistent or even contradictory, I prefer to see them as the healthy testing of new hypotheses, capable of empirical verification in clinical work. One of the difficulties of achieving a unified theory is the diversity of experience presented by the patients who come for help (as well as the

In Natural Law and the Antislavery Constitutional Tradition, Justin Buckley Dyer provides a succinct account of the development of American antislavery constitutionalism in the years preceding the Civil War. Within the context of recent revisionist scholarship, Dyer argues that the theoretical foundations of American constitutionalism - which he identifies with principles of natural law - were antagonistic to slavery. Still, the continued existence of slavery in the nineteenth century created a tension between practice and principle. In a series of case studies, Dyer reconstructs the constitutional arguments of prominent antislavery thinkers such as John Quincy Adams, John McLean, Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, who collectively sought to overcome the legacy of slavery by emphasizing the natural law foundations of American constitutionalism. What emerges is a convoluted understanding of American constitutional development that challenges traditional narratives of linear progress while highlighting the centrality of natural law to America's greatest constitutional crisis.

show in this groundbreaking work, Lewis was deeply interested in the fundamental truths and falsehoods about human nature and how these conceptions manifest themselves in the contested and turbulent public square. Ranging from the depths of Lewis' philosophical treatments of epistemology and moral pedagogy to practical considerations of morals legislation and responsible citizenship, this book explores the contours of Lewis' multi-faceted Christian engagement with political philosophy generally and the natural-law tradition in particular. Drawing from the full range of Lewis' corpus and situating his thought in relationship to both ancient and modern seminal thinkers, C. S. Lewis on Politics and the Natural Law offers an unprecedented look at politics and political thought from the perspective of one of the twentieth century's most influential writers.

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