ently connects two objects
by means of an intermediate one, which is related to both.
And this principle is of such force as to give rise to the
right of accession, and causes us to acquire the property
not only of such objects as we are immediately possessed of;
but also of such as are closely connected with them.

Suppose a German, a Frenchman, and a Spaniard to come into a
room, where there are placed upon the table three bottles of
wine, Rhenish, Burgundy and Port; and suppose they shoued
fall a quarrelling about the division of them; a person, who
was chosen for umpire would naturally, to shew his
impartiality, give every one the product of his own country:
And this from a principle, which, in some measure, is the
source of those laws of nature, that ascribe property to
occupation, prescription and accession.

In all these Cases, and particularly that of accession,
there is first a natural union betwixt the Idea of the
person and that of the object, and afterwards a new and
moral union produced by that right or property, which we
ascribe to the person. But here there occurs a difficulty,
which merits our attention, and may afford us an opportunity
of putting to tryal that singular method of reasoning, which
has been employed on the present subject. I have already
observed that the imagination passes with greater facility
from little to great, than from great to littie, and that
the transition of ideas is always easier and smoother in the
former case than in the latter. Now as the right of
accession arises from the easy transition of ideas, by which
related objects are connected together, it shoued naturally
be imagined, that the right of accession must encrease in
strength, in proportion as the transition of ideas is
performed with greater facility. It may, therefore, be
thought, that when we have acquired the property of any
small object, we shall readily consider any great object
related to it as an accession, and as belonging to the
proprietor of the small one; since the transition is in that
case very easy from the small object to the great one, and
shoued connect them together in the closest manner. But In
fact the case is always found to be otherwise, The empire of
Great Britain seems to draw along with it the dom