登陆注册
14198300000009

第9章 CHAP. V.(1)

Of PROPERTY.

Sec. 25. Whether we consider natural reason, which tells us, that men, being once born, have a right to their preservation, and consequently to meat and drink, and such other things as nature affords for their subsistence: or revelation, which gives us an account of those grants God made of the world to Adam, and to Noah, and his sons, it is very clear, that God, as king David says, Psal. cxv. 16. has given the earth to the children of men; given it to mankind in common. But this being supposed, it seems to some a very great difficulty, how any one should ever come to have a property in any thing: Iwill not content myself to answer, that if it be difficult to make out property, upon a supposition that God gave the world to Adam, and his posterity in common, it is impossible that any man, but one universal monarch, should have any property upon a supposition, that God gave the world to Adam, and his heirs in succession, exclusive of all the rest of his posterity. But Ishall endeavour to shew, how men might come to have a property in several parts of that which God gave to mankind in common, and that without any express compact of all the commoners.

Sec. 26. God, who hath given the world to men in common, hath also given them reason to make use of it to the best advantage of life, and convenience. The earth, and all that is therein, is given to men for the support and comfort of their being. And tho' all the fruits it naturally produces, and beasts it feeds, belong to mankind in common, as they are produced by the spontaneous hand of nature; and no body has originally a private dominion, exclusive of the rest of mankind, in any of them, as they are thus in their natural state: yet being given for the use of men, there must of necessity be a means to appropriate them some way or other, before they can be of any use, or at all beneficial to any particular man. The fruit, or venison, which nourishes the wild Indian, who knows no enclosure, and is still a tenant in common, must be his, and so his, i.e. a part of him, that another can no longer have any right to it, before it can do him any good for the support of his life.

Sec. 27. Though the earth, and all inferior creatures, be common to all men, yet every man has a property in his own person: this no body has any right to but himself. The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his. Whatsoever then he removes out of the state that nature hath provided, and left it in, he hath mixed his labour with, and joined to it something that is his own, and thereby makes it his property. It being by him removed from the common state nature hath placed it in, it hath by this labour something annexed to it, that excludes the common right of other men: for this labour being the unquestionable property of the labourer, no man but he can have a right to what that is once joined to, at least where there is enough, and as good, left in common for others.

Sec. 28. He that is nourished by the acorns he picked up under an oak, or the apples he gathered from the trees in the wood, has certainly appropriated them to himself. No body can deny but the nourishment is his. I ask then, when did they begin to be his? when he digested? or when he eat? or when he boiled?

or when he brought them home? or when he picked them up? and it is plain, if the first gathering made them not his, nothing else could. That labour put a distinction between them and common:

that added something to them more than nature, the common mother of all, had done; and so they became his private right. And will any one say, he had no right to those acorns or apples, he thus appropriated, because he had not the consent of all mankind to make them his? Was it a robbery thus to assume to himself what belonged to all in common? If such a consent as that was necessary, man had starved, notwithstanding the plenty God had given him. We see in commons, which remain so by compact, that it is the taking any part of what is common, and removing it out of the state nature leaves it in, which begins the property;without which the common is of no use. And the taking of this or that part, does not depend on the express consent of all the commoners. Thus the grass my horse has bit; the turfs my servant has cut; and the ore I have digged in any place, where I have a right to them in common with others, become my property, without the assignation or consent of any body. The labour that was mine, removing them out of that common state they were in, hath fixed my property in them.

Sec. 29. By making an explicit consent of every commoner, necessary to any one's appropriating to himself any part of what is given in common, children or servants could not cut the meat, which their father or master had provided for them in common, without assigning to every one his peculiar part. Though the water running in the fountain be every one's, yet who can doubt, but that in the pitcher is his only who drew it out? His labour hath taken it out of the hands of nature, where it was common, and belonged equally to all her children, and hath thereby appropriated it to himself.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 火澜

    火澜

    当一个现代杀手之王穿越到这个世界。是隐匿,还是崛起。一场血雨腥风的传奇被她改写。一条无上的强者之路被她踏破。修斗气,炼元丹,收兽宠,化神器,大闹皇宫,炸毁学院,打死院长,秒杀狗男女,震惊大陆。无止尽的契约能力,上古神兽,千年魔兽,纷纷前来抱大腿,惊傻世人。她说:在我眼里没有好坏之分,只有强弱之分,只要你能打败我,这世间所有都是你的,打不败我,就从这世间永远消失。她狂,她傲,她的目标只有一个,就是凌驾这世间一切之上。三国皇帝,魔界妖王,冥界之主,仙界至尊。到底谁才是陪着她走到最后的那个?他说:上天入地,我会陪着你,你活着,有我,你死,也一定有我。本文一对一,男强女强,强强联手,不喜勿入。
  • 霍尔外传

    霍尔外传

    百年悲歌,黄粱一梦尔虞我诈,群雄纷争万里江山,美人如玉中正奸邪,谁能分清!
  • 辣手小护士:拐个总裁生包子

    辣手小护士:拐个总裁生包子

    她惨遭渣男抛弃,借酒浇愁却引来一群流氓。What?有没有搞错,人生还能再悲催些么?她用洪荒之力打爆了流氓的头,然后被流氓追杀,结果居然顺手拐了个高冷男。“看大哥你肤白貌美英俊潇洒,一定是个富贵相,要不,你来帮我去去霉头?!”酒店的床上,某白兔做轻佻状。再相遇,他车祸情况紧急,她白衣天使有条不紊,可是,为什么这个患者有点眼熟?“霍思思,VIP病房的患者指名要你贴身护理。”果真是好的不来坏的来,霍思思雄赳赳气昂昂,舍身上山套豺狼。从此,天使杠上大灰狼,且看天使哪里藏。
  • 凡途争锋

    凡途争锋

    无限好书尽在阅文。
  • 妖仙异闻录

    妖仙异闻录

    我们生活在这个城市,为梦想,为自己拼搏,我们的灵魂似乎都是孤独的行者,然而有一天你会发现这个世界并非我们想象和我们看到的那么简单。我相信总有一天,你也会发现我所认识的这个世界,只是当他来临时,不要恐惧,用我们的生命去爱,去演绎一场属于我们自己的传说。
  • 各位美男请淡定

    各位美男请淡定

    当黑道女王在一次意外中遇上淡漠如斯的夜苍傲和众多美男的时候该怎样选择,是离去还是全收了?
  • 上古世纪之天极

    上古世纪之天极

    这是一个被称为“光与玫瑰”的时代,为了探索世界的起始——神之庭院,十二位英雄开始了史诗之旅。屠杀四大神赐,开启神之图书馆,解开大辉煌的序章。
  • 极道灵修

    极道灵修

    世间有化天地之灵为力者,便可超脱凡俗,生命本源极尽升华,悟天地之玄妙,法世间之万千术,世人尊称为“灵修者”。一个本源破碎的少年为了夺回失去的灵,踏上了追寻灵修极致的道路!天地洪荒,灵道称尊!
  • 新四军女兵

    新四军女兵

    本书以纪实文学的形式,真实地记述了抗日战争爆发时期一大批来自不同环境、投身战争的新四军女战士的工作、生活及牺牲精神等。
  • 三爷嫁到:绝世小王妃

    三爷嫁到:绝世小王妃

    二十一世纪的墨菂是一个普普通通的大学生,成绩没有多优秀,吊在中间也就拿个最次奖学金,有几分姿色,从大一到大三不乏追求者,但心比天高以至于到大三依旧是单身。她的生活轨迹似乎就要这么普普通通延伸下去,就好比一粒尘埃那么不起眼或是一个零件那样随时可以被取代。一次意外终结了她年轻的生命,在死去的那一刻,她来不及悲伤,只记得心中有那么点遗憾。转世的她到了一个架空时代,带着前世记忆的她,从此人生就好像拐了一个弯,而接下来的方向变得扑朔迷离、不可预测......