BOOK III PART II
tion of mine and thine was banished from that
happy race of mortals, and carryed with them
the very notions of property and obligation,
justice and injustice.
This, no doubt, is to be regarded as an idle
fiction; but yet deserves our attention, because
nothing can more evidently shew the origin
of those virtues, which are the subjects of our
present enquiry. I have already observed, that
justice takes its rise from human conventions;
and that these are intended as a remedy to
some inconveniences, which proceed from the
concurrence of certain qualities of the human
mind with the situation of external objects. The
qualities of the mind are selfishness and lim-
ited generosity: And the situation of exter-
nal objects is their easy change, joined to their
scarcity in comparison of the wants and de-