he possessions of others, we
cannot better consult both these interests, than by such a convention;
because it is by that means we maintain society, which is so necessary
to their well-being and subsistence, as well as to our own.

This convention is not of the nature of a promise: For even promises
themselves, as we shall see afterwards, arise from human conventions. It
is only a general sense of common interest; which sense all the members
of the society express to one another, and which induces them to
regulate their conduct by certain rules. I observe, that it will be for
my interest to leave another in the possession of his goods, provided he
will act in the same manner with regard to me. He is sensible of a like
interest in the regulation of his conduct. When this common sense of
interest is mutually expressed, and is known to both, it produces a
suitable resolution and behaviour. And this may properly enough
be called a convention or agreement betwixt us, though without the
interposition of a promise; since the actions of each of us have a
reference to those of the other, and are performed upon the supposition,
that something is to be performed on the other part. Two men, who pull
the oars of a boat, do it by an agreement or convention, though they
have never given promises to each other. Nor is the rule concerning the
stability of possession the less derived from human conventions, that it
arises gradually, and acquires force by a slow progression, and by our
repeated experience of the inconveniences of transgressing it. On the
contrary, this experience assures us still more, that the sense of
interest has become common to all our fellows, and gives us a confidence
of the future regularity of their conduct: And it is only on the
expectation of this, that our moderation and abstinence are founded.
In like manner are languages gradually established by human conventions
without any promise. In like manner do gold and silver become the common
measures of exchange, and are esteemed sufficient payment for what is of
a hundred times their value.

After this convention, concerning abstinence from the possessions of
others, is entered into, and every one has acquired a stability in his
possessions, there immediately arise the ideas of justice and injustice;
as also those of property, right, and obligation. The latter are
altogether unintelligible without first understanding the former.
Our property is nothing but those