This measure did confine every man's
possession to a very moderate proportion, and such as he might
appropriate to himself, without injury to any body, in the first
ages of the world, when men were more in danger to be lost, by
wandering from their company, in the then vast wilderness of the
earth, than to be straitened for want of room to plant in. And
the same measure may be allowed still without prejudice to any
body, as full as the world seems: for supposing a man, or family,
in the state they were at first peopling of the world by the
children of Adam, or Noah; let him plant in some inland,
vacant places of America, we shall find that the possessions
he could make himself, upon the measures we have given, would
not be very large, nor, even to this day, prejudice the rest of
mankind, or give them reason to complain, or think themselves
injured by this man's incroachment, though the race of men have
now spread themselves to all the corners of the world, and do
infinitely exceed the small number was at the beginning. Nay,
the extent of ground is of so little value, without labour,
that I have heard it affirmed, that in Spain itself a man may
be permitted to plough, sow and reap, without being disturbed,
upon land he has no other title to, but only his making use of
it. But, on the contrary, the inhabitants think themselves
beholden to him, who, by his industry on neglected, and
consequently waste land, has increased the stock of corn, which
they wanted.
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