BOOK III PART I
if he be, it is impossible he can produce any er-
ror, nor will any one, from these circumstances,
take him to be other than what he really is.
It is well known, that those who are squint-
sighted, do very readily cause mistakes in oth-
ers, and that we Imagine they salute or are talk-
ing to one person, while they address them-
selves to anther. Are they therefore, upon that
account, immoral?
Besides, we may easily observe, that in all
those arguments there is an evident reasoning
in a circle. A person who takes possession of
another’s goods, and uses them as his own, in
a manner declares them to be his own; and this
falshood is the source of the immorality of in-
justice. But is property, or right, or obligation,
intelligible, without an antecedent morality?
A man that is ungrateful to his benefactor, in