arduous task, which I have undertaken. *« The duty incumbent upon all, who have leifure and abilities, to endeavour to underftand, 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 fhould 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 abuse 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 publifhed upon the fubject. My primary object in making this publication is to form and fix the minds of my countrymen upon the moft important of all civil and political fubjects, and to do away the effects of uncer tainty, confufion, and error, under which fome of them now labour. I moft cordially adopt the fentiments of Dr. Price, when he fays, 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 fuccefsful, and actually contributed by his inftructions, to diffeminate among his fellow creatures just notions of themfelves, of their rights, of religion, and the nature and end of civil government."

Dr. Tatham's Letters to Mr. Burke, p. 7.

The state of
nature merely

to find defects instead of excellencies, to tra→
duce its general worth, and to make our
countrymen diffatisfied with what they ought
to love."
But as the nature, properties,
and effectsof the most ingenious piece of
mechanism can only be explained upon
thofe mathematical principles, upon which
it was constructed, and which had their exift-
ence, independent of this particular appli-
cation of them: fo« before intelligent be-
ings 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 juft or unjust, but what
is commanded or forbidden by pofitive laws,
is the fame as faying, that before the defcribing
of a circle, all the radii were not equal."

This ftate of nature, in which all philofotheoretical and phers confider man, and the rights and prometaphyfical.perties inherent in this nature, is a mere theo

retical and metaphyfical ftate, pre-existing only in the mind, before the phyfical 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

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 physical 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 phyfical ftate of fociety. Some of our greatest philosophers, as is often the cafe, to avoid pleonafm, 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 ftates together, or, from defigned malice, have tranfplanted the attributes and properties of the one into the other.

To state the opinions of thefe philofophers upon the Rights of Man, in this ftate of nature, is to demonftrate, that they confidered it as pre-exifting and antecedent to the physical state of man's real existence. C "To

From the phyfical formation

of Adam and

Eve the ftate of

pure nature was phyfically impoffible.

"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 state alfo of equality, wherein all the power and jurisdiction 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, should be equal one amongst another, without fubordination or fubjection."

"Prior to all those laws are those 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 must consider man before, the establishment of fociety: the laws received in such a state would be thofe of nature."

It requires no argument to prove, when the phyfical civilized state of fociety commenced; for, from the commencement of

• Locke upon Civil Government, p. 168.
Montefquieu's Spirit of Laws.

this

"God having

this must be dated the impoffible existence
of the ftate of pure nature. Mr. Locke estab-
lishes this commencement from the forma-
tion and co-existence of our first parents,
Adam and Eve; and he draws the neceffity
of it from the intrinfic nature and exigencies
of man, as he has been actually formed and
constituted by his Creator.
made man fuch a creature, that, in his own
judgment, it was not good for him to be
alone, put him under ftrong obligations of
neceffity, convenience, and inclination, to
drive him into fociety, as well as fitted him
with understanding and language to continue
and enjoy it. The first fociety was between
man and wife; which gave beginning to that
between parents and children; to which, in
time, that between mafter and fervant came to
be added." This fact then is uncontrovertible,
that the only individual, who can be said, in
any fenfe, to have existed in the state of nature,
was Adam, before the formation of his wife.
But how these rights could be exercised by
him in that forlorn ftate of folitude, I know as
little, as I do of the period of its duration.
When, therefore, we fpeak generally of the
Rights of Man, we ought to be understood to

• Locke of Civil Government, c. vii. p. 188.

C 2

speak

Man phyfically framed by God for fociety.