"The theory that there is an eternal and unchanging law of nature, proceeding from the Absolute, from which all laws governing natural phenomena and forces derive", Early 19th cent.; earliest use found in Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), poet, critic, and philosopher. From German Naturphilosophie from Natur + Philosophie.[Naturphilosophie etymology, Naturphilosophie origin, 英语词源]