ntribution to the study of these sciences. However, this absence
of any organised body of knowledge was for them but one more stimulus
towards the elaboration of a thorough synthesis of the moral aspect of
wealth. A few of the earlier masters made reference, detached and
personal, to the subject of dispute, but it was rather in the form of a
disorderly comment than the definite statement of a theory.

Then came the translation of Aristotle's _Politics_, with the keen
criticism they contain of the views Plato had advocated. Here at once
the intellect of Europe found an exact exposition of principles, and
began immediately to debate their excellence and their defect. St.
Thomas Aquinas set to work on a literal commentary, and at his express
desire an accurate translation was made direct from the Greek by his
fellow-Dominican, William of Moerbeke. Later on, when all this had had
time to settle and find its place, St. Thomas worked out his own theory
of private property in two short articles in his famous _Summa
Theologica_. In his treatise on Justice, which occupies a large
proportion of the _Secund Secundae_ of the _Summa_, he found himself
forced to discuss the moral evil of theft; and to do this adequately he
had first to explain what he meant by private possessions. Without
these, of course, there could be no theft at all.

He began, therefore, by a preliminary article on the actual state of
created things--that is, the material, so to say, out of which private
property is evolved. Here he notes that the nature of things, their
constituent essence, is in the hands of God, not man. The worker can
change the form, and, in consequence, the value of a thing, but the
substance which lies beneath all the outward show is too subtle for him
to affect it in any way. To the Supreme Being alone can belong the power
of creation, annihilation, and absolute mutation. But besides this
tremendous force which God holds incommunicably, there is another which
He has given to man, namely, the use of created things. For when man was
made, he was endowed with the lordship of the earth. This lordship is
obviously one without which he could not live. The air, and the forces
of nature, the beasts of the field, the birds and fishes, the vegetation
in fruit and root, and the stretches of corn are necessary for man's
continued existence on the earth. Over them, therefore, he has this
limited dominion.

Moreover, St. Thomas goes on, man has not