Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/191

fear, leſt Reprizals ſhould be made on him for any Injury he might do to others. This Origin is ſo much the more natural, as it is impoſſible to conceive how Property can flow from any other Source but Induſtry; for what can a Man add but his Labour to things which he has not made, in order to acquire a Property in them? 'Tis the Labour of the Hands alone, which giving the Huſbandman a Title to the Produce of the Land he has tilled gives him a Title to the Land itſelf, at leaſt till he has gathered in the Fruits of it, and ſo on from Year to Year; and this Enjoyment forming a continued Poſſeſſion is eaſily transformed into a Property. The Ancients, ſays Grotius, by giving to Ceres the Epithet of Legiſlatrix, and to a Feſtival celebrated in her Honour the Name of Theſmophoria, inſinuated that the Diſtribution of Lands produced a new kind of Right; that is, the Right of Property different