In elementary school, the teacher would demonstrate the magnetic field of a magnet by putting iron filings on a paper right over the magnet. Sure enough, the filings would get ordered according to the pattern of the magnetic field of the magnet. I often use that homely example to illustrate what the Western tradition has meant by natural law.
http://www.roanoke.com/opinion/commentary/1882346-12/follow-the-natural-rule-of-magnetism.html