rs of things were
questioned, as to what they thought about this matter, they would reply
what I have said. _Necessity_, says Father SENECA, _the great excuse for
human weakness, breaks every law_; that is to say, _human law_, or law
made after the manner of man."

39. "But cautions ought to be had, for fear this license should be abused:
of which the principal is, to try, in every way, whether the necessity can
be avoided by any other means; for instance, by making application to the
magistrate, or even by trying whether the use of the thing can, by
entreaties, be obtained from the proprietor. PLATO permits water to be
fetched from the well of a neighbour upon this condition alone, that the
person asking for such permission shall dig in his own well in search of
water as far as the chalk: and SOLON, that he shall dig in his own well
as far as forty cubits. Upon which PLUTARCH adds, _that he judged that
necessity was to be relieved, not laziness to be encouraged_."

40. Such is the doctrine of this celebrated civilian. Let us now hear
PUFFENDORF; and you will please to bear in mind, that both these writers
are of the greatest authority upon all subjects connected with the laws of
nature and of nations. We read in their works the result of an age of
study: they have been two of the great guides of mankind ever since they
wrote: and, we are not to throw them aside, in order to listen exclusively
to Parson HAY, to HULTON OF HULTON, or to NICHOLAS GRIMSHAW. They tell us
what they, and what other wise men, deemed to be right; and, as we shall
by and by see, the laws of England, so justly boasted of by our ancestors,
hold precisely the same language with these celebrated men. After the
following passage from PUFFENDORF, I shall show you what our own lawyers
say upon the subject; but I request you to read the following passage with
the greatest attention.

41. "Let us inquire, in the next place, whether the necessity of
preserving our life can give us any right over other men's goods, so as to
make it allowable for us to seize on them for our relief, either secretly,
or by open force, against the owner's consent. For the more clear and
solid determination of which point, we think it necessary to hint in short
on the causes upon which distinct _properties_ were first introduced in
the world; designing to examine them more at large in their proper place.
Now the main reasons on which _properties_ are founded, we take to be
the