arifes the moral and political harmony of the universe. To view this with an impartial eye, we must make ample allowances for the exigencies, and even the foibles of human nature. We are so constituted by an all-wife Creator, that, although we act generally upon certain fundamental principles, that are effentially invariable, yet the prevalence of early prejudices, the force of example and habit, the impulse of paffion, and the allurement of pleasure, create a great diverfity in the cuf toms, manners, and actions of men. In fome focieties, the philanthropy of peace is never broken into; others are in an uninterrupted ftate of warfare; fome focieties float in a fea of pleasurable delights, whilft others glory in the rudest practices, of which their nature is capable; one fociety countenances only the embellishment of the mind, whilst another encourages only the improvement of the body; fome focieties form themselves principally upon religious inftitutions, whilft others fhew not even the most remote knowledge of a deity *. It is then to be expected,

that

* I have been informed by feveral German miffioners, who had spent many years in the inland parts of California, that, contrary to their own opinions and expectations, and contrary to the generally received notion, that every man has fome idea of a deity, they could not dif

that our practical ideas of the civilized ftate of fociety will be generally drawn from the practical knowledge, we have of different An Englishman focieties. Under this influence, an Englishman will conceive no liberty, where there is

conceives no liberty where

there is no law,

religion.

no property, no no law, no property, no religion. The prefervation of these conftitutes the fum total of those rights and liberties, for which he will even facrifice his life. Upon what ground then, fhall an Englishman, even in theory, admit principles into civil government, which would justify the peafant in feizing the lands of his lord, the fervant in demanding the property of his master, the labourer that of his employer, the robber in purloining his neighbour's purfe, the adulterer in defiling the wife of another, the outlawed in reviling, contemning, and violating the laws of the community.

Mifchiefs arifing from the mifunderstand

ing and mifap plication of general propofi

tions.

The greatest mischiefs arife from the mifunderstanding and misapplication of terms. Millions of lives have been facrificed in difputes and controverfies upon the tenor and tendency of words. General abftract propofitions are fupereminently liable to this fatal evil, as I fhall hereafter have occafion to

cover the most remote or faint trace of any public or private cult or worship amongst the natives of this extenfive

country.

fhew,

1

fhew, in many calamitous inftances of our

own country.

The ufe of words and terms

of

can only be, to convey to others the real
of what we think our-
purport
meaning and
felves. Thus if I happen, by an unusual and
awkward combination of words and phrases,
to express my meaning and fentiments upon
a fubject to a third perfon, provided I am
really understood, and my sentiments are ad-
mitted, I do not fee upon what other ground,
than that of grammar or fyntax, a dispute can
be instituted. And in the fubject under our
prefent confideration, if any other terms had
been used to exprefs the natural Rights
Man, or the state of nature, the whole animo-
fity of the adverfe difputants would have
fubfided, under the conviction that neither
differed in opinion: fubftantially from the
other. I have read over most of the late
publications upon the fubject; and I do not
find one of any note or confequence, that
does not in fact and fubftance admit this
state of nature, to which they annex or attri-
bute these indefeafible Rights of Man, to be a
mere imaginary state of fpeculation. Much
ill blood would have been avoided, much
labour and pain have been spared, and many
lives have been preferved, if any other, than

the

The prefent from the words,

conteft arifes

natural and mu

ture, being mifmisapplied.

understood or

The bulk of mankind think of no other

rights, than fuch

joy, which are focial rights.

the epithet natural had been applied to these rights, and this state.

The bulk of mankind are little able, and

lefs habituated, to analize the import and

as they can en- tendency of words and phrases; and few amongst them will feparate the idea, which they conceive the word natural conveys, from the state of their phyfical existence. They will plainly argue, that fuch as God hath made them, fuch they are; nor do they think of, nor demand any other rights, than fuch, as God hath given them for the purpofe, for which in his goodness he created them. The practical doctrine from fuch argument will be, what I before quoted from Mr. Locke. "God having 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." Thus, perhaps, more properly, though lefs technically speaking, we come to confider man in his real natural ftate, which is that of fociety. For Buchanan fays truly: *

Buchanan of the due Privilege of the Scots Government, p. 198.

« First of all, then, we agree, that men by nature are made to live in fociety together, and for a communion of life." "Hitherto we have spoken only (and that but in part) of the natural Rights of Man. We have now to confider the civil Rights of Man, and to fhew how the one originates out of the other. Man did not enter into fociety to become worse, than he was before, nor to have lefs rights, than he had before, but to have thofe rights better fecured. His natural rights are the foundation of all his civil rights." These will be the fubject of the enfuing chapter.

* Payne's Rights of Man, p. 48.

CHAP.