Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/163



HE firt Man, who, after encloing a Piece of Ground, took it into his Head to ay, This is mine, and found People imple enough to believe him, was the true Founder of civil Society. How many Crimes, how many Wars, how many Murders, how many Misfortunes and Horrors, would that Man have aved the Human Species, who pulling up the Stakes or filling up the Ditches hould have cried to his Fellows: Be ure not to liten to this Impotor; you are lot, if you forget that the Fruits of the Earth belong equally to us all, and the Earth itelf to nobody! But it is highly probable that things were now come to uch a pas, that they could not continue much longer in the ame Way; for as this Idea of Property depends on everal prior Ideas which could only pring up gradually