Page:A discourse upon the origin and foundation of the inequality among mankind (IA discourseuponori00rous).pdf/248

ture of Man by the mere light of Reaſon, and independently of thoſe ſacred Maxims which give to the Sovereign Authority the Sanction of Divine Right. It follows from this Picture, that as there is ſcarce any Inequality among Men in a State of Nature, all that which we now behold owes its force and its growth to the Development of our Faculties and the Improvement of our Underſtanding, and at laſt becomes permanent and lawful by the Eſtabliſhment of Property and of Laws. It likewiſe follows that moral Inequality, authorized by any Right that is merely poſitive, claſhes with natural Right, as often as it does not combine in the ſame Proportion with Phyſical Inequality; a Diſtinction which ſufficiently determines, what we are to think in that reſpect of that Kind of Inequality which obtains in all civilized Nations, ſince it is