ABSTRACT
The moral law, being the law of the social state, is obliged wholly to ignore the ante-social state. Any doubt that may be felt as to the fact that this is a logical deduction from our first principle, that every man has freedom to do all that he wills provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man, may be readily cleared up by comparing the respective degrees of freedom assumed in such a case by the occupier and the members of society with whom he bargains. Thus, if an equal portion of the earth’s produce is awarded to every man, irrespective of the amount or quality of the labour he has contributed towards the obtainment of that produce, a breach of equity is committed. An argument fetal to the communist theory, is suggested by the fact, that a desire for property is one of the elements of the people nature.
