One of my natural law students told me this week of a conversation with his six-year-old sister.

He had been learning that according to Thomas Aquinas, a command, in order to be a genuine law rather than an act of violence, must be reasonable, for the common good, made by competent public authority, and promulgated to all.

Sister:  "What are you working on?"

Brother:  "A paper about natural law."

Sister:  "I know about laws, you know."

Brother:  "Really?  What do you know?"

Sister:  "Laws are rules that make good things."

Brother:  "Good for you or for everybody?"

Sister:  "Everybody."

Brother:  "Yes!  And do laws have to be reasonable or just whatever somebody wants?"

Sister:  "Of course they have to be reasonable!"

Brother:  "And who makes them?"

Sister:  "The President!"

Brother:  "And who knows about them?"

Sister:  "Well, they have to be known about by everybody."

This adorable little scholar seems to be both an incipient Thomist, and, like most children, a monarchist.