use of that which he had taken out of the common stock; but, he adds,
that right only lasted as long as the man lived. Death put him out of
possession, and he could not give to another that which he ceased to
possess himself.

Vattel (book i., chap, vii.) tells us that "the whole earth is destined
to feed its inhabitants; but this it would be incapable of doing if it
were uncultivated. Every nation is then obliged by the law of nature to
cultivate the land that has fallen to its share, and it has no right
to enlarge its boundaries or have recourse to the assistance of other
nations, but in proportion as the land in its possession is incapable of
furnishing it with necessaries." He adds (chap. xx.), "When a nation
in a body takes possession of a country, everything that is not divided
among its members remains common to the whole nation, and is called
public property."

An ancient Irish tract, which forms part of the Senchus Mor, and is
supposed to be a portion of the Brehon code, and traceable to the time
of St. Patrick, speaks of land in a poetically symbolic, but actually
realistic manner, and says, "Land is perpetual man." All the ingredients
of our physical frame come from the soil. The food we require and enjoy,
the clothing which enwraps us, the fire which warms us, all save
the vital spark that constitutes life, is of the land, hence it is
"perpetual man." Selden ("Titles of Honor," p. 27), when treating of
the title "King of Kings," refers to the eastern custom of homage, which
consisted not in offering the person, but the elements which composed
the person, EARTH and WATER--"the perpetual man" of the Brehons--to the
conqueror. He says:

"So that both titles, those of King of Kings and Great King, were common
to those emperors of the two first empires; as also (if we believe the
story of Judith) that ceremonies of receiving an acknowledgment of regal
supremacy (which, by the way, I note here, because it was as homage
received by kings in that time from such princes or people as should
acknowledge themselves under their subjection) by acceptance upon their
demand of EARTH and WATER. This demand is often spoken of as used by the
Persian, and a special example of it is in Darius' letters to Induthyr,
King of the Scythians, when he first invites him to the field; but if
he would not, then bringing to your sovereign as gifts earth and water,
come to a parley. And one of Xerxes' ambassadors that came to demand
eart