which is a link in a chain of causes up to the First Cause, which
is God. But men have created artificial impediments or bonds called
laws. The liberty of the subject lies only in such things as the
sovereign has pretermitted, for he hath power to regulate all, even life
and death, at his own will. The liberty praised in Rome and Athens was
the liberty of the commonwealth as against other commonwealths.

The subject has liberty to disobey the sovereign's command if it
contravene the law that the right of self-preservation cannot be
abrogated, unless it be to endanger himself for the preservation of the
commonwealth, as with soldiers. The subjects' obligation of obedience
lasts so long as the sovereign's power of defending them, that being the
purpose of his being made sovereign. By systems I mean numbers of men
joined in one interest. These are political, constituted by law; and
private, permitted or forbidden by law. All, except a commonwealth, are
subordinate to the commonwealth, and have not the character of
sovereignty. The rights of governing bodies are only those expressly
conceded by law, either generally or to them specifically. Systems in
the commonwealth correspond to muscles in the natural body.

The nourishment of the commonwealth is its commodities or products, the
distribution of which must be lit the will of the sovereign, whether of
land or of commodities, exchanged internally or trafficked abroad. The
procreation, or children, of a commonwealth are its "plantations," or
"colonies," which may either be commonwealths themselves, as children
emancipated, or remain parts of the commonwealth.

By civil laws I mean those laws that men are bound to obey as members of
any commonwealth. The sovereign is the sole legislator, and is not
subject to the laws which he can repeal at pleasure. The civil laws are
the laws of nature expressed as commands of the commonwealth, or the
will of the sovereign so expressed; whatever is not the law of nature
must be expressly made known and published. Both the law of nature and
written law require interpretation, which is by sentence of the judge
constituted by sovereign authority.

An intention of breaking the law is a sin; issuing in a breach of the
law it is crime. Violation of the laws of nature is always and
everywhere sin; it is crime only when a violation of the laws of a
commonwealth. Unavoidable ignorance of a law is a complete excuse for
breaking it, but ignorance d