It presently appears, however, that, where most men are in the state of nature, there may
nevertheless be some men who do not live according to the law of nature, and that the law of
nature provides, up to a point, what may be done to resist such criminals. In a state of nature, we
are told, every man can defend himself and what is his. "Who so sheddeth man's blood, by man
shall his blood be shed" is part of the law of nature. I may even kill a thief while he is engaged in
stealing my property, and this right survives the institution of government, although, where there
is government, if the thief gets away I must renounce private vengeance and resort to the law.
The great objection to the state of nature is that, while it persists, every man is the judge in his
own cause, since he must rely upon himself for the defence of his rights. For this evil, government
is the remedy, but this is not a natural remedy. The state of nature, according to Locke, was
evaded by a compact to create a government. Not any compact ends the state of nature, but only
that of making one body politic. The various governments of independent States are now in a state
of nature towards each other.
The state of nature, we are told in a passage presumably directed against Hobbes, is not the same
as a state of war, but more nearly its opposite. After explaining the right to kill a thief, on the
ground that the thief may be deemed to be making war upon me, Locke says:
"And here we have the plain 'difference between the state of nature and the state of war,' which,
however some men have confounded, are as far distant, as a state of peace, good-will, mutual
assistance and preservation, and a state of enmity, malice, violence and mutual destruction are
from one another."
Perhaps the law of nature must be regarded as having a wider scope than the state of nature, since
the former deals with thieves and murderers, while in the latter there are no such malefactors.
This, at least, suggests a way out of an apparent inconsistency in Locke, consisting in his
sometimes representing the state of nature as one where every one is virtuous, and at other times
discussing what may rightly be done in a state of nature to resist the aggressions of wicked men.
Some parts of Locke's natural law are surprising. For example, he says that captives in a just war
are slaves by the law of nature. He says also that by nature every man has a right to punish attacks
on himself or his property, even by death. He makes no qualification, so