PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

86 The General Rights tff l'¥lankind.
si.tuatio~!O ~_~_~t,.is _tAe ri~ht _!>~
~tteme nece$Si,
t.Y=Df wliiCh IS meant, a nglit to use or destroy
~3nother'5 property, "ben it is nece.~.c;ary for our own
iPre.iervation to d'l SO; -as a right to take without or
! against the owner's leave, the first food, dothes, or
_ shelter we meet with, when we are in danger of
. perishing through want of them; a right to throw
goods overboard, to save the ship; or to pull down
a house, in order to stop L'te progress of a fire; and a
few other instances of the same kind. (,If whicll
right ihe foundation see~ to be this, that, when
"I property was first instituted, the institution was not:
!\ intended to operclte to the destruction of any: there ..
fore when such consequences would follow, all regard
to it is superseded. Or rather, perhaps, these are the
few cases, where the particular consequence exceeds
the general consequence; where the remote mischief
resuiring from the violation of the general rule, is
overbalanced by the immediate advantage.
Restitution ho\~ever is due, when in our .P.Q~r ;
because-me Taws -of pr~rlY- areto De adnered to, so
far as consists with safety; and because restitution,
which is o~e of those laws, supposes the danger to be
over< But what is to Le restored? not the full value
Crf property destroyed, but what it was worth at
he time of destroying it; which, considering the
anger it was in of perishing, might be ,'ery little.