that is his own, and thereby makes it his property. It being by him removed from the common ftate nature hath placed it in, it hath by this labour fomething annexed to it, that excludes the common right of other men: for this labour being the unquestionable property of the labourer, no man but he can have a right to what, that is once joined to, at least where there is enough, and as good, left in common for others.

§. 28. He that is nourished by the acorns he picked up under an oak, or the apples he gathered from the trees in the wood, has certainly appropriated them to himself. No body can deny but the nourishment is his. I ask then, when did they begin to be his? when he digested? or when he eat? or when he boiled? or when he brought them home? or when he picked them up? and it is plain, if the first gathering made them not his, nothing else could. That labour put a diftinction between them and common: that added fomething to them more than nature, the common mother of all, had done; and fo they became his private right. And will any one fay, he had no right to those acorns or apples, he thus appropriated, because he had not the confent of all mankind to make them his? Was it a robbery thus to affume to himself what belonged to all in common? If fuch a confent as that was neceffary, man had starved, notwithstanding the plenty God

had

had given him. We fee in commons, which remain fo by compact, that it is the taking any part of what is common, and removing it out of the ftate nature leaves it in, which begins the property; without which the common is of no use. And the taking of this or that part, does not depend on the exprefs confent of all the commoners. Thus the grafs my horse has bit; the turfs my fervant has cut; and the ore I have digged in any place, where I have a right to them in common with others, become my property, without the affignation or confent of any body. The labour that was mine, removing them out of that common ftate they were in, hath fixed my property in them.

§. 29. By making an explicit confent of every commoner, neceffary to any one's appropriating to himself any part of what is given in common, children or fervants could not cut the meat, which their father or mafter had provided for them in common, without affigning to every one his peculiar part. Though the water running in the fountain be every one's, yet who can doubt, but that in the pitcher is his only who drew it out? His labour hath taken it out of the hands of nature, where it was common, and belonged equally to all her children, and hath thereby appropriated it to himself.

§. 30.

§. 30. Thus this law of reafon makes the deer that Indian's who hath killed it; it is allowed to be his goods, who hath bestowed his labour upon it, though before it was the common right of every one. And amongst those who are counted the civilized part of mankind, who have made and multiplied pofitive laws to determine property, this original law of nature, for the beginning of property, in what was before common, still takes place; and by virtue thereof, what fish any one catches in the ocean, that great and still remaining common of mankind; or what ambergrife any one takes up here, is by the labour that removes it out of that common ftate nature left it in, made his property, who takes that pains about it. And even amongst us, the hare that any one is hunting, is thought his who pursues her during the chase: for being a beaft that is ftill looked upon as common, and no man's private poffeffion; whoever has employed fo much labour about any of that kind, as to find and pursue her, has thereby removed her from the state of nature, wherein fhe was common, and hath begun a property.

§. 31. It will perhaps be objected to this, that if gathering the acorns, or other fruits of the earth, &c. makes a right to them, then any one may ingrofs as much as he will. To which I anfwer, Not fo. of nature, that does by this

The fame law. means give us property,

property, does also bound that property too. God has given us all things richly, i Tim. vi. 12. is the voice of reafon confirmed by infpiration. But how far has he given it us? To enjoy. As much as any one can make use of to any advantage of life before it spoils, fo much he may by his labour fix a property in whatever is beyond this, is more than his fhare, and belongs to others. Nothing was made by God for man to spoil or deftroy. And thus, confidering the plenty of natural provifions there was a long time in the world, and the few spenders; and to how fmall a part of that provifion the industry of one man could extend itself, and ingrofs it to the prejudice of others; efpecially keeping within the bounds, fet by reason, of what might ferve for his ufe; there could be then little room for quarrels or contentions about property fo established.

S. 32. But the chief matter of property being now not the fruits of the earth, and the beafts that fubfift on it, but the earth itself; as that which takes in and carries with it all the reft; I think it is plain, that property in that too is acquired as the former. As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultiyates, and can use the product of, so much is his property. He by his labour does, as it were, inclofe it from the common. Nor will it invalidate his right, to fay every body else has an equal title to it; and therefore he

cannot

cannot appropriate, he cannot inclofe, without the confent of all his fellow-commoners, all mankind. God, when he gave the world in common to all mankind, commanded man also to labour, and the penury of his condition required it of him. God and his reafon commanded him to fubdue the earth, i. e. improve it for the benefit of life, and therein lay out fomething upon it that was his own, his labour. He that in obedience to this command of God, fubdued, tilled and fowed any part of it, thereby annexed to it fomething that was his property, which another had no title to, nor could without injury take from him.

§. 33. Nor was this appropriation of any parcel of land, by improving it, any prejudice to any other man, fince there was ftill enough, and as good left; and more than the yet unprovided could use. So that, in effect, there was never the lefs left for others becaufe of his inclosure for himfelf: for he that leaves as much as another can make ufe of, does as good as take nothing at all. No body could think himself injured by the drinking of another man, though he took a good draught, who had a whole river of the fame water left him to quench his thirst and the cafe of land and water, where there is enough of both, is perfectly

the fame.

§. 34.