Sec. 46. The greatest part of things really useful to the
life of man, and such as the necessity of subsisting made the
first commoners of the world look after, as it cloth the
Americans now, are generally things of short duration; such
as, if they are not consumed by use, will decay and perish of
themselves: gold, silver and diamonds, are things that fancy or
agreement hath put the value on, more than real use, and the
necessary support of life. Now of those good things which nature
hath provided in common, every one had a right (as hath been
said) to as much as he could use, and property in all that he
could effect with his labour; all that his industry could
extend to, to alter from the state nature had put it in, was his.
He that gathered a hundred bushels of acorns or apples, had
thereby a property in them, they were his goods as soon as
gathered. He was only to look, that he used them before they
spoiled, else he took more than his share, and robbed others.
And indeed it was a foolish thing, as well as dishonest, to hoard
up more than he could make use of. If he gave away a part to any
body else, so that it perished not uselesly in his possession,
these he also made use of. And if he also bartered away plums,
that would have rotted in a week, for nuts that would last good
for his eating a whole year, he did no injury; he wasted not the
common stock; destroyed no part of the portion of goods that
belonged to others, so long as nothing perished uselesly in his
hands.
Pages:
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51