ABSTRACT
Private property, as a legal right, has not always existed in the past, and will not always in the future. Later on comes this individualising of self, and this accentuation of private property; and a huge, elaborate, and in the present day cumbrous and collapsing, system of laws arises for the purpose of defining these individual rights, and the limits of property. Growing up from small beginnings, it has gradually had the effect of separating each individual man from the community of his fellows; it has raised a kind of artificial wall or barrier between. The material property which he is pursuing is an illusion. It serves its purpose for a time. He is very tenacious of it at first; it exercises him dreadfully, and he flies into violent tempers over it. To return to the historical clue: the practical advantages which money gives in the present day, such as travel, art, books, leisure, must not be ignored or undervalued.
