BOOK III PART II
or contact of the one messenger is not properly
possession, no more than the piercing the gates
with a spear; but only forms a relation; and
there is a relation, in the other case, equally ob-
vious, tho’ not, perhaps, of equal force. Which
of these relations, then, conveys a right and
property, or whether any of them be sufficient
for that effect, I leave to the decision of such as
are wiser than myself.)
But such disputes may not only arise con-
cerning the real existence of property and pos-
session, but also concerning their extent; and
these disputes are often susceptible of no de-
cision, or can be decided by no other faculty
than the imagination. A person who lands
on the shore of a small island, that is desart
and uncultivated, is deemed its possessor from
the very first moment, and acquires the prop-