CHAP. I. OF THE STATE OF NATURE. Reafons for confidering the fubject. "THE HE contemplation of the British conftitution in its origin, in its structure and in its effects, is the important and the arduous * The trite adage of nil fub fole novum is more emphatically applicable to the subject under our present confideration, than to any other. This fubject has in all ages been the primary object of the politician, the historian, and the philofopher; and in many ages, fuch have been the exalted ideas entertained of its dignity, that it has conftituted a very confiderable part of theology. As in religion, the written word of God, which, from its divine infpiration, muft effentially bear a determined and unequivocal meaning, is in disputes and differences often reforted to, and modified by the appellants to its authority, fo as to colour, countenance, and fupport the most extravagant and contradictory opinions; fo few or no political errors, treasons, rebellions, or ufurpations have at any time been attempted to be juftified, but by appealing and reforting to the authority of the Rights of Man. Since the subject has been so often and fo fully confidered by others, I fhall think I give more fatisfaction to the public by collecting and arranging their opinions upon it, than by endeavouring to dress and serve up the old fubftance in the difguife of fome new fashion. I fhall therefore arduous task, which I have undertaken. << The duty incumbent upon all, who have leifure and abilities, to endeavour to understand, in order to maintain it in perfection, are those high motives, by which Englishmen are called upon to examine the principles, to study the contrivance, and to contemplate the operations of that vaft political machine, which is fo much the envy of others, and which should be the fupreme admiration of ourselves, particularly at a time, when a party of discontented fpirits, under the affumed character of philofophers, are labouring to abufe what they do not understand, to point out imperfections, which have no existence, therefore offer no other apology for preferring what others, and even I myself, have on other occafions published upon the subject. My primary object in making this publication is to form and fix the minds of my countrymen upon the most important of all civil and political fubjects, and to do away the effects of uncertainty, confufion, and error, under which some of them now labour. I moft cordially adopt the fentiments of Dr. Price, when he says, in the difcourfe already alluded to, (p. 13) « Happier far muft he be, if at the fame time he has reafon to believe, he has been fuccessful, and actually contributed by his inftructions, to diffeminate among his fellow creatures just notions of themselves, of their rights, of religion, and the nature and end of civil government." Dr. Tatham's Letters to Mr. Burke, p. 7. to find defects instead of excellencies, to tra→ duce its general worth, and to make our countrymen dissatisfied with what they ought to love." But as the nature, properties, and effectsof the most ingenious piece of mechanism can only be explained upon those mathematical principles, upon which it was constructed, and which had their exiftence, independent of this particular application of them: fo*« before intelligent beings exifted, they were poffible; they had therefore poffible relations, and confequently poffible laws. Before laws were made, there were relations of poffible juftice. To fay, that there is nothing just or unjuft, but what is commanded or forbidden by pofitive laws, is the fame as faying, that before the describing of a circle, all the radii were not equal.' This state of nature, in which all philofotheoretical and phers confider man, and the rights and properties inherent in this nature, is a mere theoretical and metaphyfical ftate, pre-existing only in the mind, before the physical existence of any human entity whatever. As this state of nature then never had any real existence, fo alfo the various qualities, properties, rights, powers, and adjuncts annexed unto it, are The state of nature merely metaphyfical. * Montefq. Spirit of Laws, b. i. p. 2. mere ** mere creatures of the imagination, attributable only to man in this ideal state of speculation: they bear the fame fort of analogy to the phyfical state of man in fociety, as principles and properties of mathematical points and lines bear to the practical rules of mechanics. As well might we attempt to handle and manufacture a mathematical point, as to move only upon the principles of this state of nature, being placed by the beneficence of our Creator in the physical state of society. Some of our greatest philofophers, as is often the cafe, to avoid pleonasm, and in the full glare of their own conviction, have omitted to fay, in exprefs words, that this state of nature, in which they confidered man in the abstract, never had an actual, physical, or real existence in this world; and this omiffion has, perhaps, occafioned the error of many modern illuminators, who, from ignorance, have confounded the two states together, or, from defigned malice, have tranfplanted the attributes and properties of the one into the other. To ftate the opinions of thefe philofophers upon the Rights of Man, in this ftate of nature, is to demonftrate, that they confidered it as pre-existing and antecedent to the phyfical state of man's real existence. C "To From the phy fical formation • «To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must confider what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a ftate of perfect freedom to order their actions, and difpofe of their poffeffions and perfons, as they think fit, within the bounds of the law of nature, without asking leave or depending upon the will of any other man; a ftate alfo of equality, wherein all the power, and jurifdiction is reciprocal, no one having more than another; there being nothing more evident, than that creatures of the same species and rank, promifcuoufly born to all the fame advantages of nature, and the use of the fame faculties, fhould be equal one amongst another, without fubordination or subjec tion." "Prior to all thofe laws are thofe of nature, fo called, because they derive their force. entirely from our frame and being. In order to have a perfect knowledge of these laws, we muft confider man before the establishment of fociety: the laws received in fuch a state would be thofe of nature." It requires no argument to prove, when of Adam and the physical civilized state of fociety com Eve the state of pure nature was menced; for, from the commencement of phyfically im poflible. Locke upon Civil Government, p. 168. +Montefquieu's Spirit of Laws. |