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

90 The l-liJiory of Properly.
propriating to the artist the benefit of his discoveries
and improvements; without which appropriation,
ingenuity will never be exerted with effect.
Upon these several accounts we may venture
with f a few exceptions, to pronounce, that e\'en the
poore~t and the worst provided, in countries where
property and the consequences of property prevail,
are in a better situation, "1ith respect to food, railDent,
houses, and ,vhat are called the necessaries of
life, than any are, in places where most things re ...
• •
maIn In common.
The balance, therefore, upon the vlhole, must
preponderate in favour of property with manifest
and great excess.
Inequality of property in the degree in which it exists
in most countries in Europe, abstractedly considered,
is an evil: but it is an evil, which flows from those
rules concerning the acquisition and disposal of property,
by which men are incited to industry, and by
which the object of their industry is rendered secure
and valuable. If there be any great inequality unconnected
with thi~ origin, it ought to be corrected.
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CHAPTER III.
THE HISTORY OF PROPERTY.
THE first objects of property were the fruits
which a man gathered, and the wild animals he
caught; next to these, the tents or houses which
he built, the tools he made use of to catch and prepare
his food; and afterwards weapons of war and
offence. Many of the savage tribes in North America.
have advanced no farther than this yet; for they
are said to reap their harvest, and return the produce
of their market with foreigners into the com·
mon hoard or treasury of the tribe. Flocks and
herds of tame animals soon became property; Abel,