this proposition being more curious and important, will better
deserve our examination and inquiry. Let us suppose that nature has
bestowed on the human race such profuse abundance of all external
conveniences, that, without any uncertainty in the event, without any
care or industry on our part, every individual finds himself fully
provided with whatever his most voracious appetite can want, or
luxurious imagination wish or desire. His natural beauty, we shall
suppose, surpasses all acquired ornaments; the perpetual clemency of the
seasons renders useless all clothes or covering: the raw herbage affords
him the most delicious fare; the clear fountain, the richest beverage.
No laborious occupation required: no tillage: no navigation. Music,
poetry, and contemplation, form his sole business: conversation, mirth,
and friendship his sole amusement. It seems evident, that, in such
a happy state, every other social virtue would flourish, and receive
tenfold increase; but the cautious, jealous virtue of justice, would
never once have been dreamed of. For what purpose make a partition of
goods, where every one has already more than enough? Why give rise
to property, where there cannot possibly be any injury? Why call this
object _mine_, when, upon seizing of it by another, I need but stretch
out my hand to possess myself of what is equally valuable? Justice, in
that case, being totally useless, would be an idle ceremonial, and could
never possibly have place in the catalogue of virtues. We see, even in
the present necessitous condition of mankind, that, wherever any benefit
is bestowed by nature in an unlimited abundance, we leave it always in
common among the whole human race, and make no subdivisions of right and
property. Water and air, though the most necessary of all objects, are
not challenged as the property of individuals; nor can any man commit
injustice by the most lavish use and enjoyment of these blessings. In
fertile extensive countries, with few inhabitants, land is regarded
on the same footing. And no topic is so much insisted on by those
who defend the liberty of the seas, as the unexhausted use of them in
navigation. Were the advantages procured by navigation as inexhaustible,
these reasoners had never had any adversaries to refute; nor had any
claims ever been advanced of a separate, exclusive dominion over
the ocean.... Suppose a society to fall into such want of all common
necessaries, that the utmost frugalit