Second Treatise of Government
John Locke · 2016 · 124 pages
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CHAPTER. I.AN ESSAY CONCERNING THE TRUE ORIGINAL, EXTENT AND END OF CIVILGOVERNMENTSect. 1. It having been shewn in the foregoing discourse, (1). That Adam had not, either by natural right of fatherhood, or bypositive donation from God, any such authority over his children, ordominion over the world, as is pretended: (2). That if he had, his heirs, yet, had no right to it: (3). That if his heirs had, there being no law of nature nor positivelaw of God that determines which is the right heir in all cases that mayarise, the right of succession, and consequently of bearing rule, couldnot have been certainly determined: (4). That if even that had been determined, yet the knowledge of whichis the eldest line of Adam's posterity, being so long since utterlylost, that in the races of mankind and families of the world, thereremains not to one above another, the least pretence to be the eldesthouse, and to have the right of inheritance: All these premises having, as I think, been clearly made out, it isimpossible that the rulers now on earth should make any benefit, orderive any the least shadow of authority from that, which is held to bethe fountain of all power, Adam's private dominion and paternaljurisdiction; so that he that will not give just occasion to think thatall government in the world is the product only of force and violence, and that men live together by no other rules but that of beasts, wherethe strongest carries it, and so lay a foundation for perpetual disorderand mi
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