words and language are fixed
by human convention and agreement. Whatever is advantageous to two or
more persons, if all perform their part; but what loses all advantage
if only one perform, can arise from no other principle There would
otherwise be no motive for any one of them to enter into that scheme of
conduct.

[Footnote: This theory concerning the origin of property, and
consequently of justice, is, in the main, the same with that hinted at
and adopted by Grotius, 'Hinc discimus, quae fuerit causa, ob quam a
primaeva communione rerum primo mobilium, deinde et immobilinm discessum
est: nimirum quod cum non contenti homines vesci sponte natis, antra
habitare, corpore aut nudo agere, aut corticibus arborum ferarumve
pellibus vestito, vitae genus exquisitius delegissent, industria opus
fuit, quam singuli rebus singulls adhiberent. Quo minus autem fructus
in commune conferrentur, primum obstitit locorum, in quae homines
discesserunt, distantia, deinde justitiae et amoris defectus, per quem
fiebat, ut nee in labore, nee in consumtione fructuum, quae debebat,
aequalitas servaretur. Simul discimus, quomodo res in proprietatem
iverint; non animi actu solo, neque enim scire alii poterant, quid alil
suum esse vellent, ut eo abstinerent, et idem velle plures poterant;
sed pacto quodam aut expresso, ut per divisionem, aut tacito, ut per
occupationem.' De jure belli et pacis. Lib. ii. cap. 2. sec. 2. art. 4
and 5.]

The word NATURAL is commonly taken in so many senses and is of so
loose a signification, that it seems vain to dispute whether justice
be natural or not. If self-love, if benevolence be natural to man; if
reason and forethought be also natural; then may the same epithet
be applied to justice, order, fidelity, property, society. Men's
inclination, their necessities, lead them to combine; their
understanding and experience tell them that this combination is
impossible where each governs himself by no rule, and pays no regard
to the possessions of others: and from these passions and reflections
conjoined, as soon as we observe like passions and reflections in
others, the sentiment of justice, throughout all ages, has infallibly
and certainly had place to some degree or other in every individual of
the human species. In so sagacious an animal, what necessarily arises
from the exertion of his intellectual faculties may justly be esteemed
natural.

[Footnote: Natural may be opposed, either to what is UN