BOOK III PART II
other of his hut, or to steal his bow, as being
already provided of the same advantages; and
as to any superior fortune, which may attend
one above another in hunting and fishing, it
is only casual and temporary, and will have
but small tendency to disturb society. And
so far am I from thinking with some philoso-
phers, that men are utterly incapable of soci-
ety without government, that I assert the first
rudiments of government to arise from quar-
rels, not among men of the same society, but
among those of different societies. A less de-
gree of riches will suffice to this latter effect,
than is requisite for the former. Men fear noth-
ing from public war and violence but the re-
sistance they meet with, which, because they
share it in common, seems less terrible; and be-
cause it comes from strangers, seems less per-
nicious in its consequences, than when they are