thered as much of the wild
fruit, killed, caught, or tamed, as many of the beasts, as he could; he
that so imployed his pains about any of the spontaneous products of
nature, as any way to alter them from the state which nature put them
in, by placing any of his labour on them, did thereby acquire a
propriety in them: but if they perished, in his possession, without
their due use; if the fruits rotted, or the venison putrified, before he
could spend it, he offended against the common law of nature, and was
liable to be punished; he invaded his neighbour's share, for he had no
right, farther than his use called for any of them, and they might serve
to afford him conveniencies of life.

Sect. 38. The same measures governed the possession of land too:
whatsoever he tilled and reaped, laid up and made use of, before it
spoiled, that was his peculiar right; whatsoever he enclosed, and could
feed, and make use of, the cattle and product was also his. But if
either the grass of his enclosure rotted on the ground, or the fruit of
his planting perished without gathering, and laying up, this part of the
earth, notwithstanding his enclosure, was still to be looked on as
waste, and might be the possession of any other. Thus, at the beginning,
Cain might take as much ground as he could till, and make it his own
land, and yet leave enough to Abel's sheep to feed on; a few acres would
serve for both their possessions. But as families increased, and
industry inlarged their stocks, their possessions inlarged with the need
of them; but yet it was commonly without any fixed property in the
ground they made use of, till they incorporated, settled themselves
together, and built cities; and then, by consent, they came in time, to
set out the bounds of their distinct territories, and agree on limits
between them and their neighbours; and by laws within themselves,
settled the properties of those of the same society: for we see, that in
that part of the world which was first inhabited, and therefore like to
be best peopled, even as low down as Abraham's time, they wandered with
their flocks, and their herds, which was their substance, freely up and
down; and this Abraham did, in a country where he was a stranger. Whence
it is plain, that at least a great part of the land lay in common; that
the inhabitants valued it not, nor claimed property in any more than
they made use of. But when there was not room enough in the same place,
for their herd