nt and established character. Then they were always taught
from infancy that kings had a right to reign, and nobles a right to
their estates, and that to toil all their lives, and allow their kings
and nobles to take, in rent and taxes, and in other such ways, every
thing that they, the people, earned, except what was barely sufficient
for their subsistence, was an obligation which the God of nature had
imposed upon them, and that it would be a sin in them not to submit to
it; whereas nothing can be more plain than that the God of nature
intends the _earth_ for _man_, and that consequently society ought to
be so organized that in each generation every man can enjoy something
at least like his fair share of the products of it, in proportion to
the degree of industry or skill which he brings to bear upon the work
of developing these products.

There was another consideration which made the common people more
inclined to submit to these hereditary kings and nobles than we should
have supposed they would have been, and that is, the government which
they exercised was really, in many respects, of great benefit to the
community. They preserved order as far as they could, and punished
crimes. If bands of robbers were formed, the nobles or the king sent
out a troop to put them down. If a thief broke into a house and stole
what he found there, the government sent officers to pursue and arrest
him, and then shut him up in jail. If a murder was committed, they
would seize the murderer and hang him. It was their interest to do
this, for if they allowed the people to be robbed and plundered, or to
live all the time in fear of violence, then it is plain that the
cultivation of the earth could not go on, and the rents and the taxes
could not be paid. So these governments established courts, and made
laws, and appointed officers to execute them, in order to protect the
lives and property of their subjects from all common thieves and
murderers, and the people were taught to believe that there was no
other way by which their protection could be secured except by the
power of the kings. We must be contented as we are, they said to
themselves, and be willing to go and fight the king's battles, and to
pay to him and to the nobles nearly every thing that we can earn, or
else society will be thrown into confusion, and the whole land will be
full of thieves and murderers.

In the present age of the world, means have been devised by which, in