to them and their children will afford it; if his fon die without iffue, the father has a right in nature to poffefs his goods, and inherit his eftate, (whatever the municipal laws of fome countries may abfurdly direct otherwife;) and fo again his children and their iffue from him; or, for want of fuch, his father and his iffue. But where no fuch are to be found, i. e. no kindred, there we fee the poffeffions of a private man revert to the community, and fo in politic focieties come into the hands of the public magiftrate; but in the ftate of nature become again perfectly common, no body having a right to inherit them: nor can any one have a property in them, otherwife than in other things common by nature; of which I fhall fpeak in its due place.

§. 91. I have been the larger, in fhewing upon what ground children have a right to fucceed to the poffeffion of their fathers properties, not only because by it, it will appear, that if Adam had a property (a titular, infignificant, useless property; for it could be no better, for he was bound to nourish and maintain his children and pofterity out of it) in the whole earth and its product, yet all his children coming to have, by the law of nature, and right of inheritance, a joint title, and right of property in it after his death, it could convey no right of fovereignty to any one of his pofterity over the reft:

fince every one having a right of inheritance to his portion, they might enjoy their inheritance, or any part of it in common, or fhare it, or fome parts of it, by divifion, as it best liked them. But no one could pretend to the whole inheritance, or any fovereignty fuppofed to accompany it; fince a right of inheritance gave every one of the reft, as well as any one, a title to share in the goods of his father. Not only upon this account, I fay, have I been fo particular in examining the reafon of children's inheriting the property of their fathers, but also because it will give us farther light in the inheritance. of rule and power, which in countries where their particular municipal laws give the whole poffeffion of land entirely to the firftborn, and descent of power has gone fo to men by this custom, fome have been apt to be deceived into an opinion, that there was a natural or divine right of primogeniture, to both eftate and power; and that the inheritance of both rule over men, and property in things, fprang from the fame original, and were to defcend by the fame rules.

§. 92. Property, whose original is from the right a man has to use any of the inferior creatures, for the fubfiftence and comfort of his life, is for the benefit and fole advantage of the proprietor, fo that he may even destroy the thing, that he has property in by his ufe of it, where need requires: but government

5

being

being for the prefervation of every man's right and property, by preferving him from the violence or injury of others, is for the good of the governed: for the magistrate's Iword being for a terror to evil doers, and by that terror to inforce men to obferve the pofitive laws of the fociety, made conformable to the laws of nature, for the public good, i. e. the good of every particular member of that fociety, as far as by common rules it can be provided for; the sword is not given the magiftrate for his own good alone.

§. 93. Children therefore, as has been fhewed, by the dependance they have on their parents for fubfiftence, have a right of inheritance to their fathers property, as that which belongs to them for their proper good and behoof, and therefore are fitly termed goods, wherein the firft-born has not a fole or peculiar right by any law of God and nature, the younger children having an equal title with him, founded on that right they all have to maintenance, fupport, and comfort from their parents, and on nothing else. But government being for the benefit of the governed, and not the fole advantage of the governors, (but only for their's with the reft, as they make a part of that politic body, cach of whofe parts and members are taken care of, and directed in its peculiar functions for the good of the whole, by the laws of

fociety)

All

fociety) cannot be inherited by the fame title, that children have to the goods of their father. The right a fon has to be maintained and provided with the neceffaries and conveniences of life out of his father's stock, gives him a right to fucceed to his father's property for his own good; but this can give him no right to fucceed alfo to the rule, which his father had over other men. that a child has right to claim from his father is nourishment and education, and the things nature furnishes for the support of life: but he has no right to demand rule or dominion from him: he can fubfift and receive from him the portion of good things, and advantages of education naturally due to him, without empire and dominion. That (if his father hath any) was vested in him, for the good and behoof of others: and therefore the fon cannot claim or inherit it by a title, which is founded wholly on his own private good and advantage.

§. 94. We must know how the first ruler, from whom any one claims, came by his authority, upon what ground any one has empire, what his title is to it, before we can know who has a right to fucceed him in it, and inherit it from him: if the agreement and confent of men firft gave a scepter into any one's hand, or put a crown on his head, that alfo muft direct its defcent and conveyance; for the fame authority, that

made

made the first a lawful ruler, muft make the second too, and fo give right of fucceffion : in this case inheritance, or primogeniture, can in its felf have no right, no pretence to it, any farther than that confent, which eftablished the form of the government, hath so fettled the fucceffion. And thus we fee, the fucceffion of crowns, in feveral countries, places it on different heads, and he comes by right of fucceffion to be a prince in one place, who would be a subject in another.

Thus

§. 95. If God, by his pofitive grant and revealed declaration, first gave rule and dominion to any man, he that will claim by that title, muft have the fame pofitive grant of God for his fucceffion: for if that has not directed the course of its defcent and conveyance down to others, no body can fucceed to this title of the firft ruler. Children have no right of inheritance to this; and primogeniture can lay no claim to it, unless God, the author of this conftitution, hath fo ordained it. we fee, the pretenfions of Saul's family, who received his crown from the immediate appointment of God, ended with his reign; and David, by the fame title that Saul reigned, viz. God's appointment, fucceeded in his throne, to the exclufion of Jonathan, and all pretenfions of paternal inheritance and if Solomon had a right to fucceed his father, it must be by fome other title, than that of primogeniture. A cadet, or fifter's fon, muft