BOOK III PART II
decisions, never regards the fitness or unfitness
of objects to particular persons, but conducts
herself by more extensive views. Whether a
man be generous, or a miser, he is equally well
received by her, and obtains with the same fa-
cility a decision in his favours, even for what is
entirely useless to him.
It follows therefore, that the general rule,
that possession must be stable, is not applied
by particular judgments, but by other general
rules, which must extend to the whole society,
and be inflexible either by spite or favour. To
illustrate this, I propose the following instance.
I first consider men in their savage and solitary
condition; and suppose, that being sensible of
the misery of that state, and foreseeing the ad-
vantages that would result from society, they
seek each other’s company, and make an offer