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bars and bolts would have been necessary to prevent violent intrusion, and they would have sat down at each other's table with the familiarity of brethren.

The world, however, at present, is too much under the rule of selfish passions to admit of such an intercommunity. There would be so many drones in the hive, that the labouring bees would never be able to furnish the supplies; which alone (omitting other considerations) shows the expediency, if not the necessity, of that policy, by which every one enjoys his peculium under the joint protection of the community.

For a man to possess something that he can say is mine, to sit down in his own house as in a castle, and quietly eat the fruit of his own labour, or enjoy his paternal inheritance without fear of injury or annoyance; is a blessing which can be duly estimated by those only who have experienced the insecurity of a tyrannic or savage state. Even merely to contemplate a constitution of society, which communicates this blessing to our journey they are exposed to the incursions of innumerable wrongs and mischances, against which it would be in vain to look for protection to laws and government, or to any human power or prudence. All that these can do is to plant a guard, oftentimes weak and ineffectual, at a few of the avenues through which they are assailable, while a thousand others are left naked and without defence.

III. The third end of government above stated, is property, concerning which let it be first observed, that, if the great law which commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves had universally prevailed, a community of goods might not have been inconsistent with public order, since every man would then have readily furnished his contingent of labour, and required no more from the common stock than a moderate supply of his wants.

In such a state of mutual benevolence a nation would have resembled children of the same family, and their dwellings so bars and bolts would have been necessary to prevent violent intrusion, and they would have sat down at each other's table with the familiarity of brethren.

The world, however, at present, is too much under the rule of selfish passions to admit of such an intercommunity. There would be so many drones in the hive, that the labouring bees would never be able to furnish the supplies; which alone (omitting other considerations) shows the expediency, if not the necessity, of that policy, by which every one enjoys his peculium under the joint protection of the community.

For a man to possess something that he can say is mine, to sit down in his own house as in a castle, and quietly eat the fruit of his own labour, or enjoy his paternal inheritance without fear of injury or annoyance; is a blessing which can be duly estimated by those only who have experienced the insecurity of a tyrannic or savage state. Even merely to contemplate a constitution of society, which communicates this blessing to our journey they are exposed to the incursions of innumerable wrongs and mischances, against which it would be in vain to look for protection to laws and government, or to any human power or prudence. All that these can do is to plant a guard, oftentimes weak and ineffectual, at a few of the avenues through which they are assailable, while a thousand others are left naked and without defence.

III. The third end of government above stated, is property, concerning which let it be first observed, that, if the great law which commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves had universally prevailed, a community of goods might not have been inconsistent with public order, since every man would then have readily furnished his contingent of labour, and required no more from the common stock than a moderate supply of his wants.

In such a state of mutual benevolence a nation would have resembled children of the same family, and their dwellings so bars and bolts would have been necessary to prevent violent intrusion, and they would have sat down at each other's table with the familiarity of brethren.

The world, however, at present, is too much under the rule of selfish passions to admit of such an intercommunity. There would be so many drones in the hive, that the labouring bees would never be able to furnish the supplies; which alone (omitting other considerations) shows the expediency, if not the necessity, of that policy, by which every one enjojrs his peadium under the joint protection of the community.

For a man to possess something that he can say is mine, to sit down in his own house as in a castle, and quietly eat the fruit of his own labour, or enjoy his paternal inheritance without fear of injury or annoyance; is a blessing which can be duly estimated by those only who have experienced the insecurity of a tyrannic or savage state. Even merely to contemplate a constitution of society, which communicates this blessing to

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