much depends on those connexions of the
imagination, and that the relation to a former proprietor
begetting a relation to the object, is the cause why the
property is transferred to a man after the death of his
kinsman. It is true; industry is more encouraged by the
transference of possession to children or near relations:
but this consideration will only have place in a cultivated
society; whereas the right of succession is regarded even
among the greatest Barbarians.

Acquisition of property by accession can be explained no way
but by having recourse to the relations and connexions of
the imaginations.

The property of rivers, by the laws of most nations, and by
the natural turn of our thoughts, is attributed to the
proprietors of their banks, excepting such vast rivers as
the Rhine or the Danube, which seem too large to follow as
an accession to the property of the neighbouring fields. Yet
even these rivers are considered as the property of that
nation, through whose dominions they run; the idea of a
nation being of a suitable bulk to correspond with them, and
bear them such a relation in the fancy.

The accessions, which are made to land, bordering upon
rivers, follow the land, say the civilians, provided it be
made by what they call alluvion, that is, insensibly and
imperceptibly; which are circumstances, that assist the
imagination in the conjunction.

Where there is any considerable portion torn at once from
one bank and added to another, it becomes not his property,
whose land it falls on, till it unite with the land, and
till the trees and plants have spread their roots into both.
Before that, the thought does not sufficiently join them.

In short, we must ever distinguish between the necessity of
a separation and constancy in men's possession, and the
rules, which assign particular objects to particular
persons. The first necessity is obvious, strong, and
invincible: the latter may depend on a public utility more
light and frivolous, on the sentiment of private humanity
and aversion to private hardship, on positive laws, on
precedents, analogies, and very fine connexions and turns of
the imagination.]

We may just observe, before we conclude this subject, that after the
laws of justice are fixed by views of