Fletcher and Jonfon, never equalled them to him in their efteem. And in the last king's court, when Ben's reputation was at the higheft, Sir John Suck ling, and with him the greater part of the courtiers, fet our Shakespeare far above him. I am now arrived, if we look upon Beaumont and Fletcher, of whom I am next to speak, had, with the advantage of Shakespeare's wit, which was their precedent, great natural gifts, improved by ftudy; Beaumont efpecially being fo accurate a judge of players, that Ben Jonfon, while he lived, fubmitted all his writings to his cenfure, and, 'tis thought, ufed his judgment in correcting, if not contriving, all his plots. What value he had for him, appears by the verfes he writ to him, and therefore I need fpeak no farther of it. The first play which brought Fletcher and him in efteem was their Philafter; for before that, they had written two or three very unfuccefsful ly and the like is reported of Ben chanic people. : Jonfon, before he writ Every Man in his Humour. Their plots were generally more regular than Shakespeare's, efpecially thofe which were made before Beaumont's death; and they understood and imitated the converfation of gentlemen much better, whofe wild debaucheries, and quickness of repartees, no poet can ever paint as they have done. That humour which Ben Jonfon derived from particular perfons, they made it not their business to defcribe they reprefented all the paffions very lively, but above all, love, I am apt to believe the English language in them arrived to its higheft perfection: what words have been taken in fince, are rather fuperfluous than neceflary. Their plays are now the most pleafant and frequent entertainments of the ftage; two of theirs being acted through the year for one of Shakefpeare's or Jonf n's: the reafon is, because there is a certain gaiety in their comedies, and pathos in their more ferious plays, which fuits generally with all men's humour. Shakespeare's language is likewife a little obfolete, and Ben Jonson's wit comes fhort of theirs. As for Jonfon, to whofe character the the pattern of elaborate writing; I admire him, but I love Shakespeare. To conclude of him as he has given us the most correct plays, fo, in the precepts which he has laid down in his difcoveries, we have as many and as profitable rules for perfecting the ftage as any wherewith the French can furDryden's Effays. nifh us. $82. The Origin and Right of exclufive Property explained. There is nothing which fo generally ftrikes the imagination and engages the affections of mankind, as the right of property; or that fole and defpotic dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in a total exclufion of the right of any other individual in the univerfe. And yet there are very few that will give themfelves the trouble to confider the original and foundation of this right. Pleafed as we are with the poffeffion, we feem afraid to look back to the means by which it was acquired, as if fearful of fome defect in our title; or at beft we reft fatisfied with the decifion of the laws in our favour, without examining the reafon or authority upon which thofe laws have been built. We think it enough that our title is derived by the grant of the former proprietor, by defcent from our ancestors, or by the laft will and teftament of the dying owner; not caring to reflect that (accurately and strictly speaking) there is no foundation in nature or in natural law, why a fet of words upon parchment fhould convey the dominion of land; why the fon fhould have a right to exclude his fellow-creatures from a determinate fpot of ground, because his father had done fo before him; or why the occupier of a particular field or of a jewel, when lying on his death-bed, and no longer able to maintain poffeffon, fhould be entitled to tell the reft of the world, which of them fhould enjoy it after him. Thefe enquiries, it must be owned, would be ufelefs and even troublefome in common life. It is well if the mafs of mankind will obey the laws when made, without fcrutinizing too nicely into the reafons of making them. But, when law is to be confidered not only tional fcience, it cannot be improper as matter of practice, but alfo as a rarudiments and grounds of thefe pofior useless to examine more deeply the tive conftitutions of fociety. "do are informed by holy writ, the allIn the beginning of the world, we bountiful Creator gave to man, minion over all the earth; and over the air, and over every living thing that fish of the fea, and over the fowl of the only true and folid foundation of man's moveth upon the earth." This is the dominion over external things, whatever airy metaphyfical notions may have this fubject. The earth therefore, and been ftarted by fanciful writers upon all things therein, are the general property of all mankind, exclufive of other beings, from the immediate gift of the Creator. And, while the earth continued bare of inhabitants, it is reafon. able to fuppofe that all was in common among them, and that every one took fuch things as his immediate neceffities from the public flock to his own use required. Thefe general notions of property * Gen. i. 28. precision, precifion, the right of poffeffion continued for the fame time only that the act of poffeffion lafted. Thus the ground was in common, and no part of it was the permanent property of any man in particular: yet whoever was in the occupation of any determinate fpot of it, for reft, for fhade, or the like, acquired for the time a fort of ownership, from which it would have been unjust, and contrary to the law of nature, to have driven him by force; but the inftant that he quitted the ufe or occupation of it, another might feize it without injustice. Thus alfo a vine or other, tree might be faid to be in common, as all men were equally entitled to its produce; and yet any private individual might gain the fole property of the fruit, which he had gathered for his own repaft. A doctrine well illuftrated by Cicero, who compares the world to a great theatre, which is common to the public, and yet the place which any man has taken is for the time his Own But when mankind increased in number, craft, and ambition, it became neceffary to entertain conceptions of more permanent dominion: and to appropriate to individuals not the immediate ufe only, but the very fub. ftance of the thing to be ufed. Otherwife innumerable tumults must have arifen, and the good order of the world been continually broken and disturbed, while a variety of perfons were itriving who fhould get the first occupation of the fame thing, or difputing which of them had actually gained it. As human life alfo grew more and more refined, abundance of conveniences were devifed to render it more eafy, commodious, and agreeable; as, habita tions for shelter and fafety, and raiment for warmth and decency. But no man would be at the trouble to provide either, fo long as he had only an ufufructuary property in them, which was to cease the inftant that he quitted pof. feffion;-if, as foon as he walked out of his tent, or pulled off his garment, the next ftranger who came by would Quemadmodum theatrum, cum commune, fit recte, tamen dici poteft, ejus effe eum locum quem quifque occuparit. De Fin, 1, 3, c,20. have a right to inhabit the one, and to wear the other. In the cafe of habitations, in particular, it was natural to obferve, that even the brute creation, to whom every thing elfe was in common, maintained a kind of permanent property in their dwellings, especially for the protection of their young; that the birds of the air had nefts, and the beafts of the field had caverns, the invafion of which they esteemed a very flagrant injuftice, and would facrifice their lives to preferve them. Hence a property was foon established in every man's house and homeftall; which feem to have been originally mere temporary huts or moveable cabins, fuited to the defign of Providence for more fpeedily peopling the earth, and fuited to the wandering life of their owners, before any extenfive property in the foil or ground was eftablished. And there can be no doubt, but that moveables of every kind became fooner appropriated than the permanent fubftantial foil; partly because they were more fufceptible of a long occupance, which might be continued for months together without any fenfible interruption, and at length by ufage ripen into an established right; but principally becaufe few of them could be fit for ufe, till improved and meliorated by the bodily labour of the occupant: which bodily labour, betowed upon any subject which before lay in common to all men, is univerfally allowed to give the fairest and most reafonable title to an exclufive property therein. The article of food was a more immediate call, and therefore a more early confideration. Such as were not contented with the fpontaneous product of the earth, fought for a more folid refreshment in the flesh of beafts which they obtained by hunting. But the frequent difappointments, incident to that method of provifion, induced them to gather together fuch animals as were of a more tame and fequacious nature; and to establish a permanent property in their flocks and herds, in order to fuftain themfelves in a lefs precarious manner, partly by the milk of the dams, and partly by the flesh of the young, The fupport of these their cattle made the the article of water alfo a very important point. And therefore the book of Genefis (the most venerable monument of antiquity, confidered merely with a view to history) will furnish us with frequent infances of violent contentions concerning wells; the exclufive property of which appears to have been eftablished in the firit digger or occupant, even in fuch places where the ground and herbage remained yet in common. Thus we find Abraham, who was but a fojourner, afferting his right to a well in the country of Abimelech, and exacting an oath for his fecurity, because he had digged that well." And Ifaac, about ninety years afterwards, reclaimed this his father's property; and, after much contention with the Philistines, was fuffered to enjoy it in peace t. 66 All this while the foil and pafture of the earth remained still in common as before, and open to every occupant: except perhaps in the neighbourhood of towns, where the neceffity of a fole and exclufive property in lands (for the fake of agriculture) was earlier felt, and therefore more readily complied with. Otherwife, when the multitude of men and cattle had confumed every convenience on one fpot of ground, it was deemed a natural right to feize upon and occupy fuch other lands as would more eafily fupply their neceffities. This practice is still retained among the wild and uncultivated nations that have never been formed into civil ftates, like the Tartars and others in the Ealt; where the climate itself, and the boundlefs extent of their territory, confpire to retain them ill in the fame favage ftate of vagrant liber ty, which was univerfal in the earliest ages, and which Tacitus informs us continued among the Germans till the decline of the Roman empire 1. We have alfo a friking example of the fame kind in the hiftory of Abraham and his nephew Lot. When their joint fubftance became fo great, that pasture and other conveniencies grew * Gen. xxi. 30. + Gen. xxvi. 15, 18, &c. Colunt difcreti et diverfi; ut fons, ut cam pus, ut nemus placuit. De mor. Germ, 16, Gen. xiii. fearce, the natural confequence was, that a ftrife arofe between their fervants; fo that it was no longer practicable to dwell together. This contention Abraham thus endeavoured to compofe: "Let there be no ftrife, I pray thee, between thee and me. Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyfelf, I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand, then will I go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then will I go to the left." This plainly implies an acknowledged right in either to occupy whatever ground he pleafed, that was not preoccupied by other tribes. "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, even as the garden of the Lord. Then Lot chofe him all the plain of Jordan, and journeyed east, and Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan.” Upon the fame principle was founded the right of migration, or fending colonies to find out new habitations, when the mother country was overcharged with inhabitants; which was practifed as well by the Phoenicians and Greeks, as the Germans, Scythians, and other northern people. And fo long as it was confined to the ftocking and cultivation of defart uninhabited countries, it kept ftriatly within the limits of the law of nature. But how far the feizing on countries already peopled, and driving out or maffacring the innocent and defenceless natives, mere'ly because they differed from their invaders in language, in religion, in cuftoms, in government, or in colour; how far fuch a conduct was confonant to nature, to reafon, or to christianity, deferved well to be confidered by those who have rendered their names immortal by thus civilizing mankind. As the world by degrees grew more populous, it daily became more difficult to find out new fpots to inhabit, without encroaching upon former occupants; and, by conftantly occupying the fame individual fpot, the fruits of the earth were confumed, and its fpontaneous produce deftroyed, without any provifion for a future fupply or fucceffion. It therefore became neceffary to purfue purfue fome regular method of providing a conftant fubfiftence; and this neceffity produced, or at leaft promoted and encouraged, the art of agriculture. And the art of agriculture, by a regular connexion and confequence, introduced and established the idea of a more permanent property in the foil, than had hitherto been received and adopted. It was clear that the earth would not produce her fruits in fufficient quantities, without the affiftance of tillage but who would be at, the pains of tilling it, if another might watch an opportunity to feize upon and enjoy the product of his induftry, art, and labour? Had not therefore a feparate property in lands, as moveables, been vefted in fome individuals, the world must have continued a foreft, and men have been mere animals of prey; which, according to fome philofophers, is the genuine ftate of nature. Whereas now (fo graciously has Providence interwoven our duty and our happiness together) the refult of this very neceffity has been the ennobling of the human fpecies, by giving it opportunities of improving its rational faculties, as well as of exerting its natural. Neceffity begat property; and, in order to infure that property, recourfe was had to civil fociety, which brought along with it a long train of infeparable concomitants; ftates, government, laws, punishments, and the public exercife of religious duties. Thus connected together, it was found that a part only of fociety was fufficient to provide, by their manual labour, for the neceffary fubfiftence of all; and leifure was given to others to cultivate the human mind, to invent ufeful arts, and to lay the foundations of science. The only question remaining is, How this property became actually vested; or what it is that gave a man an exclufive right to retain in a permanent manner that specific land, which before belonged generally to every body, but particularly to nobody? And, as we before obferved that occupancy gave the right to the temporary ufe of the foil, fo it is agreed upon all hands, that occupancy gave alfo the original right to the permanent property in the fubftance of the earth itfelf; which excludes every one elfe but the owner from the ufe of it. There is indeed. fome difference among the writers on natural law, concerning the reason why occupancy fhould convey this right, and inveft one with this abfolute property: Grotius and Puffendorf infifting, that this right of occupancy is founded upon a tacit and implied affent of all mankind, that the first occupant fhould become the owner; and Barbeyrac, Titius, Mr. Locke, and others, holding, that there is no fuch implied affent, neither is it neceffary that there fhould be; for that the very act of occupancy, alone, being a degree of bodily labour, is, from a principle of natural juftice, without any confent or compact, fufficient of itfelf to gain a title. A difpute that favours too much of nice and fcholaftic refinement ! However, both fides agree in this, that occupancy is the thing by which the title was in fact originally gained; every man feizing to his own continued ufe fuch fpots of ground as he found most agreeable to his own convenience, provided he found them unoccupied by any one else. Blackstone's Commentaries. § 83. Retirement of no Ufe to fome. To lead the life I propofe with fatif. faction and profit, renouncing the pleafures and bufinefs of the world, and breaking the habits of both, is not fuf. ficient: the fupine creature whofe understanding is fuperficially employed, through life, about a few general notions, and is never bent to a clofe and steady purfuit of truth, may renounce the pleafures and business of the world, for even in the bufinefs of the world we fee fuch creatures often employed, and may break the habits; nay he may retire and drone away life in folitude like a monk, or like him over the door of whofe houfe, as if his houfe had been his tomb, fomebody writ, "Here lies fach an one:" but no fuch man will be able to make the truc ufe of retirement. The employment of his mind, that would have been agreeable and eafy if he had |