ABSTRACT
A right of property became established for the benefit of particular men. This right has, then, a sacred origin: human property is but sacred property put into the hands of men by means of a number of ritual ceremonies. Private property came into existence because the individual turned to his own benefit and use the respect inspired by the society, that is, the higher dignity with which it is clothed and which it had communicated to the things composing its material substitute. Personal or moveable property, on the other hand, was in itself, as a rule of a profane nature. However, so long as industry remained solely agricultural, personal property played only a secondary and auxiliary part; moveables were hardly more than adjuncts or annexes of landed property. Personal property, as a distinct entity in law, was formed only as a result of landed property and on its pattern: it is a weak reflection, an attenuated form of it.
