BOOK III PART II
plainly artificial. But being once undeceived in
this particular, and having found that natural,
as well as civil justice, derives its origin from
human conventions, we shall quickly perceive,
how fruitless it is to resolve the one into the
other, and seek, in the laws of nature, a stronger
foundation for our political duties than inter-
est, and human conventions; while these laws
themselves are built on the very same founda-
tion. On which ever side we turn this subject,
we shall find, that these two kinds of duty are
exactly on the same footing, and have the same
source both of their first invention and moral
obligation. They are contrived to remedy like
inconveniences, and acquire their moral sanc-
tion in the same manner, from their remedying
those inconveniences. These are two points,
which we shall endeavour to prove as dis-
tinctly as possible.